Environmental Health Ethics

Environmental Health Ethics illuminates the conflicts between protecting the environment and promoting human health. In this study, David B. Resnik develops a method for making ethical decisions on environmental health issues. He applies this method to various issues, including pesticide use, antibiotic resistance, nutrition policy, vegetarianism, urban development, occupational safety, disaster preparedness and global climate change. Resnik provides readers with the scientific and technical background necessary to understand these issues. He explains that environmental health controversies cannot simply be reduced to humanity versus environment and explores the ways in which human values and concerns - health, economic development, rights and justice - interact with environmental protection.

1. Introduction; 2. An overview of environmental health; 3. Ethical theory; 4. Toward an environmental health ethics; 5. Pest control; 6. Genetic engineering, food, and nutrition; 7. Pollution and waste; 8. The built environment; 9. Climate change, energy, and population; 10. Justice and environmental health; 11. Environmental research involving human participants; 12. Conclusion.

David B. Resnik, JD, PhD, is Bioethicist at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. Dr Resnik additionally holds the positions of Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at North Carolina State University and Associate Editor of Accountability in Research. He has written eight books and numerous articles on ethical, philosophical and legal issues in science, medicine and technology. He is also Chair of the NIEHS Institutional Review Board, which oversees and reviews research projects that include human participants.