Title: Environmental Health and How it Can Effect Your Health
Headings: How Environmental Health Impacts Our Quality of Life and Health
How Environmental Health Impacts Our Quality of Life and Health
What Is Environmental Health?
Areas of Environmental Health
Air Quality
Water and Sanitation
Toxic Substances and Hazardous Wastes
Homes and Communities
Infrastructure and Surveillance
Global Environmental Health
How You Can Help Protect and Improve Environmental Health

Content: While we tend to think about health in terms of personal choices—like whether we exercise or get vaccinated —a lot of external things can influence how healthy we are, including whether we get sick or injured. Environmental stressors and advantages help shape the kinds of choices you make, or in some cases, make the choices for you. Clover No.7 Photography / Getty Images
What Is Environmental Health? Many people often think of environmental health in terms of clean air and water, but natural environmental forces—including things like global warming—are only one piece of a greater puzzle. Environmental health is the public health field that monitors and addresses those physical, chemical, and biological factors that we might not have direct control over, but can impact our health anyway. For example, if you live in a neighborhood with unsafe sidewalks or polluted air, it’s difficult to get outside and exercise. Similarly, what your home was built with, what insects live nearby, and what food you have access to all can affect your health and the health of your family. Simply put, environmental health is the area of public health that deals with all the different ways the world around us can impact our physical and mental well-being. Areas of Environmental Health
Environmental health is one of the largest fields within public health because of the myriad ways external forces can impact how we eat, live, and grow. These forces can be about addressing our natural environment (as in the case for clean water or sanitation), but they can also be the consequence of human beings' actions—including societal norms.