Public Health Perspectives on Water Systems and Ecology

P. Speldewinde Centre of Excellence in Natural Resource Management, The University of Western Australia, Albany, Australia e-mail: [email protected] Abstract Human health is directly linked to ecosystem functioning, including the dynamics within wetlands. Wetlands can act to initiate or mitigate biological and chemical contamination. In order to assess the potential health risk, investigations focus on potential exposure pathways and evidence that exposure events are actually linked to adverse health effects. This chapter provides a brief introduction to the principals of health risk assessment in relation to wetlands.