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6 Earth Perturbations and Public Health Impacts
Pages 99-112

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From page 99...
... Natural disasters can increase the incidence of communicable disease among displaced communities and cause profoundly negative sociological effects. The health consequences of disasters may be separated into two components -- immediate (or direct)
From page 100...
... . Recently, increased attention has been devoted to health issues associated with natural disasters -- these include direct mortality from trauma, indirect mortality and morbidity from infectious diseases, and mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (Benin, 1985; Noji, 1997, 2005; Mileti, 1999)
From page 101...
... A recent case control study in Taipei, Taiwan, suggests that socioeconomic status, preexisting health status, physical disability, and location were major predictors of mortality in the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake (Chou et al., 2004)
From page 102...
... Infectious Disease Impacts Longer term public health threats from natural disasters include infectious diseases, often vectorborne. For example, following flood inundations in tropical areas (either from storms or tsunamis)
From page 103...
... extractive industries such as mining, quarrying, and oil drilling. These land surface changes cause a cascade of factors that heighten health threats, including
From page 104...
... These are important but complex issues that are only understood for a few diseases. For example, recent research has shown that forest fragmentation, urban sprawl, and biodiversity loss are linked to increased Lyme disease risk in the northeastern United States (Ostfeld and Keesing, 2000; Schmidt and Ostfeld, 2001)
From page 105...
... . This has resulted in a continuous increase of Lyme disease cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
From page 106...
... The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices issued guidelines for vaccination against Lyme disease based entirely on a national Lyme disease risk map generated from ecological data on the distribution and prevalence of infection in vector ticks throughout the United States (Fish and Howard, 1999)
From page 107...
... . This processing produces mine tailings, often consisting of very fine dust that can contain residual amounts of mineral ore and other harmful trace elements.
From page 108...
... Depending on the disposal methods, combustion residues can contaminate drinking water sup
From page 109...
... 109 EARTH PERTURBATIONS AND PUBLIC HEALTH IMPACTS plies or groundwater at levels dangerous to human health, and residue transport and handling can also produce airborne particulate matter that poses an inhalation risk beyond the mine area (NRC, 2006b)
From page 110...
... Generally, the taste threshold for humans is sufficiently low that little saline water is consumed by accident, and salinization of drinking water is immediately apparent. However, some produced fluids contain naturally occurring radioactive material, and special disposal procedures are required for this fluid (Rajaretnam and Spitz, 2000)
From page 111...
... Any assessment of population vulnerability is dependent on the merging of earth science information describing the spatial distribution of hazards with public health information describing population characteristics and medical response capabilities. Effective scenarios to form the basis of improved response strategies must be scientifically valid and believable for broad acceptance by those charged with disaster response planning.


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