nment. Thus, public health initiatives designed to combat AIDS are not included within the concept of environmental health.
Cancer is also a major public health problem in developed societies. Among the myriad of extensive public health programs found in developed societies are those designed to prevent carcinogens from reaching human and animal life (which forms a part of the human food chain) through toxic wastes. Carcinogens frequently reach human beings through elements of the natural environment. Public health initiatives designed to control the spread of carcinogens to human beings, therefore, are encompassed by the concept of environmental health.
This research, thus, is concerned with the health of human beings and other life forms in so far as the health of these other life forms affect human health. This concern with human health is limited, however, to dangers that may be transmitted through the natural environment. These two criteria define environmental health, as the term is used in this current research.
In contemporary society, prospects for the health of individuals are
. . . determined by public policy, by those decisions which shape contem22porary environments in communities, workplaces, homes, and schools. Public policy sets parameters for the mode and character of industrial and agricultural production, corporate management, and individual behavior (Milio, 1981, p. 3).
Public health, thus, is more than a polio epidemic or an AIDS crisis, and public health policies concern more than the programs required to deal with such epidemics and crises. "Health is not a 'state' to be captured and dealt with; nor is it some achievement to be attained with finality. It is rather the response of people to their environments" (Milio, 1981, p. 3). Public health, therefore, is concerned with both the health status of individuals in a society, and all of the environmental and ecological factors that affec...