Routledge Handbook of Water and Health (Routledge Environment and Sustainability Handbooks)

This comprehensive handbook provides an authoritative source of information on global water and health, suitable for interdisciplinary teaching for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students. It covers both developing and developed country concerns. It is organized into sections covering: hazards (including disease, chemicals and other contaminants); exposure; interventions; intervention implementation; distal influences; policies and their implementation; investigative tools; and historic cases. It offers 71 analytical and engaging chapters, each representing a session of teaching or graduate seminar. Written by a team of expert authors from around the world, many of whom are actively teaching the subject, the book provides a thorough and balanced overview of current knowledge, issues and relevant debates, integrating information from the environmental, health and social sciences. Review The knowledge that water makes up approximately 60 percent of a human body indicates that life truly cannot exist without water. Writings of Hippocrates, as early as 400 BCE, detailed a connection between water and health. The first chapter of this book includes a chronological account of advances in water treatment that predate the germ theory and awareness of aesthetic and environmental hazards associated with water. Contributions to this volume are divided into eight major themes, which are then augmented, detailed, and embellished by a series of generally short paragraphs. These themes include water hazards, exposure pathways, interventions, tools used for investigation, and lessons learned from history. Water-based diseases are presented in multiple-page charts in chapter 5. Summary treatment charts include water toxins, hazards, and technologies. A historical retrospective on the 1854 investigation of the London cholera epidemic by Dr. John Snow is included, as Dr. Snow’s revelation connecting the Broad Street pump and the cholera outbreak is considered one of the greatest medical achievements. A map and a picture of the historic Broad Street pump are prominently included. Overall, the book’s chapters range from trivial to profound, but the references are replete for most submissions. --R. M. Ferguson, Eastern Connecticut State University, March 2017 issue of CHOICE About the Author Jamie Bartram is Director of The Water Institute and Don and Jennifer Holzworth Distinguished Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. Associate Editors: Rachel Baum (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA), Peter A. Coclanis (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA), David M. Gute (Tufts University, USA), David Kay (University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK), Stéphanie McFadyen (Health Canada, Canada), Katherine Pond (University of Surrey, UK), William Robertson (Water Microbiology Consultant, Canada), and Michael J. Rouse (Independent International Consultant on Water Industry, UK).