Environmental and Human Health : Risk Management in Developing Countries

Many countries experience lack of harmony among economic development, environmental management and human health. As a consequence, public health, the integrity of ecosystems, and the efforts to reach environmental sustainability, have been adversely affected. The complexity, frequency and magnitude of those impacts is increasingly parallel to the technological revolution, rising population, and increasing per capita consumption. The burden of the concerns about how humans inflict natural and man-made enclaves tends to rely in highly industrial societies. However, many of the world environmental alterations are been achieved by non-industrial societies.
This book examines and discusses multidisciplinary aspects of the impacts that humans had on the physical environment, the biota, and human health, focusing on the scenario of developing and under developing countries. Among the areas covered are environmental degradation, pollution, occupational health, risk management, epidemiology and toxicology.

This book will help scientists, resource managers, administrators, educators, policy makers and college students interpret that risk management and the advancement of research in sustainable development is of utmost importance for all parties involved in seeking solutions for the protection of natural and anthropogenic systems, and human health.

Eddie N. Laboy-Nieves works as Associate Professor in the School of Science and Technology, Universidad del Turabo (http://ut.pr), Puerto Rico. He has nearly 25 years experience teaching undergraduate and graduate level courses related to environmental sciences. He is alumni of Frostburg State University and the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research, where he earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degree in Wildlife Management and Ecology, respectively. Dr. Laboy-Nieves has authored, co-authored, edited and peer-reviewed over 35 scientific publications. He is the President of the International Center for Environmental and Sustainable Development Studies: CIEMADeS (http://ciemades.org), Puerto Rico Chapter, the organization that promoted the publishing of this volume. MATTHEUS (THEO) F. A. GOOSEN is Associate Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies at Alfaisal University (www.alfaisal.edu), a new private non-profit institution in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Previously he held the position of Campus Dean (CAO) at the New York Institute of Technology in Amman, Jordan. Dr. Goosen has also held academic dean positions at the Universidad del Turabo in Puerto Rico, USA, and at the Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat, Oman. He obtained his doctoral degree in Chemical/Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto, Canada, in 1981.? After graduation he spent three years as a post doc at Connaught Laboratories in Toronto and then ten years at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He has been on the Board of Directors of two companies. Dr. Goosen has published extensively with over 150 papers, book chapters, books, and patents to his credit. EVENS EMMANUEL is the Dean of the Faculty of Sciences and Engineering, Director of the Laboratory of Water and Environment Quality, and Head of the Graduate School of Ecotoxicology, Environment and Management of Water of the Université Quisqueya, a private nonprofit institution of 2,000 students in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He holds a Master of Sciences in Sanitary Engineering from Universidad San Carlos de Guatemala and a doctoral degree in Environmental Engineering from the National Institute of Applied Sciences of Lyon, France. He is the President/Coordinator of the Haiti CIEMADeS Chapter, Scientific Director of the Haitian National Committee of UNESCO International Hydrological Program, National Coordinator of UNESCO ISARM Program, and member of the task force Education and Capacity Building of UNESCO Ecohydrology Program.