Ecosystem-based translation of health research: expanding frameworks for environmental health

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Date
2018-08-08
Authors
McFarlane, Rosemary
Butler, Colin David
Maynard, Simone
Cork, Steve
Weinstein, Phillip
Journal Title
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Volume Title
Publisher
Wiley
Rights
© 2018 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
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© 2018 The Authors
Abstract
The high capacity of science and health infrastructure in countries such as Australia has contributed to the relatively low public health impact of many environmental health hazards, including our endemic, wildlife‐origin zoonotic diseases. However, understanding how these and other health risks may be reduced within an ecosystem service framework will be increasingly valuable as climate change and pressures on natural environments intensify. Benefits could transcend national boundaries, especially if regional epicentres of ecological, political and social disintegration widen, creating milieux for potential pandemics. We are in a gainful position to progress research and translation of research into policy using the frameworks already available in Australia. This will be strengthened by promoting common language and metrics across disciplines and agencies, including costing that includes externalities and co‐benefits, and by supporting research into ecological linkage mechanisms and the broader ecosystem service ‘settings’ of health risks. Existing tools inclusive of stakeholder inputs can address ecosystem service trade‐offs. These can be used to identify or trial primordial preventative ‘eco‐social’ strategies. Aggregated, these have the potential to address GEC as health risk. We advocate concerted effort to refine these approaches and to promote a sense of urgency in their implementation.
Description
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
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Citation
McFarlane, R., Butler, C.D., Maynard, S., Cork, S. and Weinstein, P., (2018). Ecosystem-based translation of health research: expanding frameworks for environmental health. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 42(5), 437-440.