INTRODUCTION Flooding accounts for about 40 per cent of all natural disasters that occur worldwide. In 2002-2003 many counties in England experienced severe floods. Floods are particularly important in public health terms as they may have multiple environmental consequences. METHODS Details of floods reported to Chemical Hazards and Poisons Division, London [CHaPD(L)] were analysed and a lite...

Stakeholders in the system of food safety, in particular federal agencies, need evidence-based, transparent, and rigorous approaches to estimate and compare the risk of foodborne illness from microbial and chemical hazards and the public health impact of interventions. FDA-iRISK (referred to here as iRISK), a Web-based quantitative risk assessment system, was developed to meet this need. The mo...

The inter-relationship between safety, health and the 'environment' is a complex and at times a relatively neglected topic. In this issue, 'safety' is often viewed by contributors as 'health and safety' and includes occupationally-related ill health as well as injury or harm to employees and the wider public. 'Environment' is also interpreted in the widest sense covering both physical and work ...

Background: Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is a mycotoxin found in milk that has a carcinogenic effect and poses significant public health risks. Since the human population's consumption of milk and milk products are quite high, thereby increasing the risk of exposure to AFM1 is of great threat. To assess public health hazards associated with the occurrence of AFM1 in Ultra High Temperature (UHT) milk, a ...

BACKGROUND The all-hazards willingness to respond (WTR) of local public health personnel is critical to emergency preparedness. This study applied a threat-and efficacy-centered framework to characterize these workers' scenario and jurisdictional response willingness patterns toward a range of naturally-occurring and terrorism-related emergency scenarios. METHODS Eight geographically diverse ...

BACKGROUND Surrounded by landfills, and toxic and hazardous facilities, Altgeld Gardens is located in a "toxic doughnut". With high rates of environmentally-related conditions, residents have called for a community-based environmental health assessment to improve overall health in their community. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes and beliefs of environmental health ris...

dental surgeons working in public sector have an important role to play in school dental health pro-gram to reinstitute the oral and dental health of growing population of india. even though the oral health policy was drafted in india in 1995, it was not implemented till this date (1). it is im-portant to enhance the knowledge about good oral health in teachers and parents by caring out worksho...