Improving the environment to promote health and well-being

According to the World Health Organization, approximately one-quarter of all deaths can be linked to an environmental contributing cause. This implies that changes we can make to our surroundings could prevent or forestall one in four deaths across the globe. Of course, these changes—things like reducing exposure to industrial chemicals, lowering the average summer temperatures in urban environments, assuring the safety of public water supplies, eliminating exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke, and improving the safety of roads—are not always easy to realize. But, when compared to the very sticky challenge of convincing millions to shift their behavior toward healthier lifestyles, or the formidable leap needed to translate new molecular biology knowledge into preventive therapeutics, environmental-health approaches are undoubtedly worthy of significant attention and investment.

The College of Health and Human Development, with the support of the Penn State Institutes of Energy and Environment and four other University research institutes, is making such an investment by launching an initiative to recruit six new faculty focused on environmental health over the next three years. This will substantially increase the college’s capacity to improve societal well-being through this important pathway, as well as build expertise needed to help us prepare the next generation of environmental-health scientists.

I look forward to updating you on this initiative in future editions of the magazine. For now, I invite you to read a series of stories in this issue on some of the exciting work already underway here in the college around environmental determinants of health and wellness.