Environmental Health and Science Desk Reference

Every branch of science, every profession, and every engineering process has its own language for communication. Environmental health and environmental science are no different. To work within these major environmental fields, you must acquire a fundamental but wide-ranging vocabulary and knowledge of the components that make them up. An understanding of the tools, techniques, and key terms and concepts in the interrelated fields of environmental health and science is necessary for effective practice.

In Environmental Health and Science Desk Reference, authors Frank R. Spellman and Revonna M. Bieber define and explain the terms and concepts used by environmental professionals, environmental science professionals, safety practitioners and engineers, and non-science professionals.

Environmental science and health and occupational health and safety are not single topics, but rather a complex, colorful, and diversified array of interrelated subjects including all of the basic sciences, computer science, government, engineering, measurement, physics, health and disease, energy, security, disease, injury identification prevention and control, and much more. The practicing environmental specialist or student of environmental science, technology, health and safety engineering should know these topics. Without some knowledge of these topics it is difficult (if not impossible) to practice in any of the environmental fields.

The authors of this comprehensive reference work have more than 35 years of practical experience in environmental health and science. They have selected and explained more than 6,000 terms in this authoritative reference. The entries range from single-sentence definitions for the simplest terms, to explanations of over 1,000 words for the most complex or important concepts. The authors demonstrate many of the entries with examples or case studies, and the reference includes more than 100 drawings and diagrams, which illustrate the most important principles of these fields.

Spellman and Bieber provide an accessible guide to the language and background knowledge necessary for work in environmental fields, writing in straightforward English and avoiding technical jargon wherever possible. This is an essential reference for anyone working in environmental health, environmental science, and related fields.

Frank R. Spellman is assistant professor of Environmental Health at Old Dominion University and the author of more than 50 books, including Biology for Nonbiologists, Ecology for Nonecologists, and In Defense of Science: Why Scientific Literacy Matters.

Revonna M. Bieber works for the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth in the field of industrial hygiene. She is coauthor, with Frank Spellman, of Chemical Infrastructure Protection and Homeland Security.