J Leg Med. 2020 Apr-Jun;40(2):195-228. doi: 10.1080/01947648.2019.1696722.
Environmental health sits at the intersection of public health and environmental protection. Governments often confront environmental health concerns through environmental laws. Authority to take actions like passing these laws is determined by federalism, which divides the authority to make laws and policies on various issues between those levels of government. However, tensions often arise when these levels of government attempt to share regulatory authority over environmental issues. Issues of federalism are especially prevalent in environmental health issues, where incidents not only cross state and local borders and affect different levels of government but may also involve both environmental and health agencies. This article describes the history of environmental federalism in the United States through the lens of public health, including how the regulatory structure transitioned from primarily state control to a more centralized federal system of governance. It also describes modern federalism in environmental health, the levels of government involved in environmental health decisions, and the legal authorities that allow these governments to regulate environmental health in the United States. Finally, this article describes the implications of federalism in environmental health.
环境卫生处于公共卫生和环境保护的交叉点。政府通常通过环境法来应对环境卫生问题。通过联邦制来决定采取这些行动的权力，联邦制将制定有关各种问题的法律和政策的权力在各级政府之间进行划分。然而，当这些政府试图共同监管环境问题时，往往会产生紧张关系。在环境卫生问题上，联邦制问题尤为突出，因为这些问题不仅跨越州和地方边界，影响到不同级别的政府，而且还可能涉及环境和卫生机构。本文通过公共卫生的视角描述了美国环境联邦主义的历史，包括监管结构如何从主要由州控制向更加集中的联邦治理系统转变。它还描述了现代环境卫生领域的联邦主义、参与环境卫生决策的各级政府，以及允许这些政府在美国监管环境卫生的法律权力。最后，本文还描述了联邦主义在环境卫生方面的影响。
