Journal of Environmental and Public Health

Industrially Contaminated Sites and Health


Publishing date
16 Aug 2013
Status
Published
Submission deadline
29 Mar 2013

Lead Editor

1European Centre for Environment and Health, World Health Organization Bonn, Germany

2Italian National Health Institute, Rome, Italy

3Andalusian School of Public Health, Granada, Spain


Industrially Contaminated Sites and Health

Description

There are many instances of local sites that are highly contaminated by a variety of hazardous agents. Contamination in these sites can be due to the presence of industrial sources – with routine or accidental emissions, to the presence and accumulation of toxic waste, or to natural sources. In sites with past or current industrial contamination, often multiple agents are simultaneously found, posing a mix of certain or suspected risks. In many cases, such environmental pressures are borne by residential populations also subjects to higher than average risk factors of different nature, typically through socioeconomic and lifestyle related selection mechanisms. The combination of multiple exposures through air, water, soil, food, occupational and paraoccupational pathways, and high vulnerability may thus produce environmental and health “hotspots”.

Despite the ubiquity of such sites, the considerable extent of their potential health impact, and the availability of sound methodology for studying their health implications, a picture of the health impacts remains patchy, and limited to localised studies, of uneven quality and difficult to compare.

The literature on the subject is somewhat sparse, and the policy implications of the available studies are not evaluated consistently across different countries or realities. This seems to be in contrast with the need to inform complex and costly clean up and remediation activities worldwide with health-relevant data, and to inform industrial policy orientations with relevant and documented health considerations.

In order to address such knowledge gap, contributions are invited, including original research as well as review articles. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Descriptive and analytical epidemiological studies conducted in contaminated sites
  • Methodology, strategies, and data needs for addressing the impact on human health of contaminated sites
  • Health impact assessment in contaminated sites
  • Disentangling occupational and nonoccupational risk factors
  • The role of social health determinants; environmental justice
  • Biomonitoring studies
  • Implications of health findings for policy and remediation schemes

The special issue aims to be a useful resource to all researchers and agencies with an interest or mandate to deal with human health in contaminated sites. Contributions are therefore welcome from different settings, with variable degrees of data availability, quality ,and resolution.

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jeph/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/jeph/icsh/ according to the following timetable:


Articles

  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2014
  • - Article ID 198574
  • - Editorial

Industrially Contaminated Sites and Health

Marco Martuzzi | Roberto Pasetto | Piedad Martin-Olmedo
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2013
  • - Article ID 753719
  • - Review Article

Environment and Health in Contaminated Sites: The Case of Taranto, Italy

Roberta Pirastu | Pietro Comba | ... | Annibale Biggeri
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2013
  • - Article ID 684035
  • - Research Article

Lung Cancer Risk and Past Exposure to Emissions from a Large Steel Plant

Oscar Breugelmans | Caroline Ameling | ... | Carla van Wiechen
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2013
  • - Article ID 560342
  • - Research Article

Comparative Assessment of Particulate Air Pollution Exposure from Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator Emissions

Danielle C. Ashworth | Gary W. Fuller | ... | Kees de Hoogh
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2013
  • - Article ID 328737
  • - Research Article

Ecological Study on Hospitalizations for Cancer, Cardiovascular, and Respiratory Diseases in the Industrial Area of Etang-de-Berre in the South of France

Laurence Pascal | Mathilde Pascal | ... | Christophe Declercq
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2013
  • - Article ID 939267
  • - Research Article

The Health Profile of Populations Living in Contaminated Sites: Sentieri Approach

Roberta Pirastu | Roberto Pasetto | ... | Pietro Comba
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2013
  • - Article ID 158764
  • - Review Article

Contaminated Sites in Europe: Review of the Current Situation Based on Data Collected through a European Network

Panos Panagos | Marc Van Liedekerke | ... | Luca Montanarella
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2013
  • - Article ID 129470
  • - Review Article

A Review of Exposure Assessment Methods in Epidemiological Studies on Incinerators

Michele Cordioli | Andrea Ranzi | ... | Paolo Lauriola
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2013
  • - Article ID 737926
  • - Review Article

A Review of the Epidemiological Methods Used to Investigate the Health Impacts of Air Pollution around Major Industrial Areas

Mathilde Pascal | Laurence Pascal | ... | Vérène Wagner

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