|
 Teaching
Healthy Ecosystems in Medicine & Dentistry
The University of Western Ontario Ecosystem
Health Program
http://www.med.uwo.ca/ecosystemhealth/aboutus.htm
Our Health and the Environment
 When
people are ill from asthma, do their doctors suggest they think
about how much they use their cars or what kind of car to drive,
to keep the air clean? Or when was the last time your doctor reminded
you that environmentally-friendly behaviour and keeping ecosystems
healthy was important to keeping people and you healthy?
Perhaps this isn't happening very often just yet. But at the
University of Western Ontario (Western) a new program in the medical
school is teaching doctors in training to think about human health
in a new way. The UWO Ecosystem Health Program helps both students
and staff learn to look closely at the links between human health
and the state of the surrounding ecosystems in which they live.
Until now, traditional Western medicine has been human-centred.
It considers the immediate factors in a person's life diet, exercise,
stress, exposure to bacterial or viral causes of disease, heredity,
and, in the case of environmental sensitivities, their daily surroundings to
be the most important factors affecting health. In the field of
environmental health, a person's environment is examined as a potential
hazard that can affect his or her health in a negative way. But
looking at the health of ecosystems, of nature, on which
all living beings including humans depend for their own well-being,
has not traditionally been part of doctors' training.
How is Human Health Connected to Ecosystems?
 The
air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat are all directly
connected to ecosystems. Trees filter dust from the air, forests
cool local climates and retain moisture, soil and wetlands filter
and purify water, birds and insects help control pests which can
destroy human food crops. All of these active, living environmental
agents depend on the health of the systems of which they are part
to do their "work." They maintain what some scientists
are now referring to as "ecosystem services." What are
these essential services? Here is a list of some of the "services" that
healthy nature provides for humans (and all other creatures on
earth):
Ecosystem Services
- purification of air and water
- detoxification and decomposition of wastes
- generation and preservation of soils and renewal of their fertility
- maintenance of biodiversity
- protection from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays
- dispersal of seeds
- pollination of crops and natural vegetation
- cycling and movement of nutrients
- control of the vast majority of potential agricultural pests
- partial stabilization of climate
- mitigation of droughts and floods
- protection of coastal shores from erosion by waves
- moderation of weather extremes and their impacts
- provision of aesthetic beauty and intellectual stimulation
that lift the human spirit
Source: http://esa.sdsc.edu/daily.htm
Without these vital life-supporting "services" of ecosystems,
we cannot be healthy physically, mentally, economically or emotionally.
The UWO Ecosystem Health Program Thinking in Systems
The goal of Western's Ecosystem Health Program is to encourage
students and faculty to "look outside the box" of traditional
medical training, and include a study of the two-way relationships
between human activity and the environments in which they live,
to ask
- how do natural environments affect humans?
- how does human activity affect natural environments - and change the
affects that those environments have on humans?
 Medical
and dental students are taught to look not only at the health
of a patient, but also at the health of that person's community,
the local and global populations, and the biosphere. They
look at "the big picture:" they include the medical,
environmental, economic and socio-political aspects of health.
The Program also works with
people from other academic disciplines to encourage a multi-disciplinary
approach focused on the links between ecosystems and human activity.
Doctors investigating ecosystem health examine natural systems
in somewhat the same way they do people they consider prevention (how
can ill-health be prevented?), they use the tools of diagnosis (what's
wrong?), and prognosis (what are the chances of improving?) and
then they consider the relationships between ecosystem health and
human health. From this study, they hope to understand and make
the most of ecosystems' ability to renew themselves while meeting
reasonable human goals.
Western's Ecosystem Health Program Activities
The Ecosystem Health Program has developed a range of activities
in addition to full courses. The Ecosystem Health Team makes presentations
to different departments in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry,
to community groups, and at conferences and seminars.
They have also developed a collaborative project with the Ontario
Veterinary College at the University of Guelph called EarthFiles.
This program brings together medical, veterinary and environmental
science students to discuss ecosystem health issues through a case
study.
Another department activity is the development -- with the International
Society of Ecosystem Health (ISEH) -- of an International Course
in Ecosystem Health. This course has been held at the University
of Western Ontario since 2001.
Western also offers a summer forum on ecosystem health for medical
students from across Canada, as part of the National Initiative
for Ecosystem Health (NIFE).
Ecosystem Health and Climate Change
 Observing
the health of ecosystems over time is an important way to monitor
change. The growing scientific and medical interest
in the watching the health of ecosystems over time will create
a record of how these systems respond to climate change. It will
then relate these changes to human health, and help determine actions
that might be taken to mitigate unwanted change.
 One
of the early symptoms of climate change is a migration of new organisms including
unwanted carriers of disease towards warming northern climates
such as Canada's. These organisms can affect both human and ecosystem
health. Climate change can also have effects on water availability
and quality, an important public health issue.
Bringing the medical community into the environmental field is
a new and significant move which will change the way people think
about health.
References
Recommended Books
- G. Daily, editor. 1997. Nature's Services: Societal Dependence
on Natural Ecosystems. Island Press, Washington, D.C.
- V. Smil. 2003. The Earth's Biosphere - Evolution, Dynamics
and Change. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
ACTIVITY 1
- Examine the list of 'ecosystem services' that are provided
for all life on earth. For each service listed explain why this
service is important to living things including humans. HINT Imagine
what it would be like without each service,
- Answer these questions from the article:
a) ' How do natural environments affect humans?'
b) ' How does human activity affect natural environments and change the effects
which those environments have on humans?'
- What health issues will be affected by climate change?
|
