Global issues in environmental medicine.

This overview will discuss a number of the issues posed by the challenge of international environmental health. The reasons that environmental problems occurring elsewhere in the world are of importance to occupational and environmental physicians in North America include the interconnectedness of the biosphere of our planet so that environmental alterations in one part of the globe can have an adverse outcome on our health and well-being; the often high levels of pollution and environmental degradation elsewhere provide an opportunity to determine and predict adverse consequences of environmental agents pertinent to protecting our own health; and, most importantly, our own ability to provide assistance in helping economic development occur in a setting of low risk of environmental pollution.