Collection Development Manual
Environmental Health
The study of the influence of physical, biological, chemical, and psychosocial factors on human health.
Environmental health is concerned with the influence of natural factors (e.g., climate), as well as those of human origin (e.g., noise, the built environment). The field is broad and draws upon research in many disciplines, such as molecular biology, toxicology, clinical medicine, population genetics, epidemiology and public health. An emerging area of importance is the application of genomics techniques to study gene-environment interactions.
Collecting emphasis is on life sciences research that elucidates the relationship between environment and health; the clinical diagnosis and treatment of environmentally related diseases; environmental health policy; bioethics of environmental health research and practice; and the history of environmental health.
NLM generally does not collect works in other areas of environmental science and technology unless they have biomedical application or public health content.
NLM produces and organizes numerous electronic resources related to environmental health. See the NLM Specialized Information Services Web site on Toxicology and Environmental Health.
The Library of Congress and the National Agricultural Library have substantial holdings in environmental science and technology.
