Conceptualizing ‘Environmental Health’ with Respect to the Socio-Environmental Disparity and Communicable Disease Burden in India

Environment (physical surroundings) and human beings share a dynamic relationship and each influences the other. An environmental problem e.g. air pollution, which is an anthropogenic issue, cannot be studied by overlooking the fact that human behavior has a major role towards its contribution. This human-environment dynamism will be discussed in this paper with respect to the socio-environmental heterogeneity (a main outcome of poverty) and communicable disease (CD) burden in India. CD epidemiology has always been simplified to the epidemiological triad (host, agent and environment are pre-requisites to disease causation) and that the agent can be eliminated by effective public health interventions carried out in the physical environment. However, with progress in health research not only has the scope of environment expanded to include one’s social, cultural and political milieu (besides one’s physical surroundings) but also, due to development and other technological advancements the relationship between CDs and their risk factors (which are mainly found in one’s physical environment) have become complex with social behavior having crept into the equation. Now, eradication of these diseases can only follow elimination of their risks, for which, an understanding of human behavior (arising mainly from deprivation in this study) is needed. The study thus advocates inclusion of human behavior (not resulting due to environmental consequences but can result in environmental consequences) in the definition of ‘environmental health’ as given by the World Health Organization.