Fundamental Principles of Stochastic Environmental Health Modelling

Abstract

Environmental health science is concerned with the study of connections between two distinct kinds of processes: (a) natural processes that produce pollutants which can affect the state of human health, and (b) health processes describing this state. Generally, a process is a coordinated series of changes in the complexion of reality, a group of events linked to each other either causally or functionally. The term natural process, in particular, refers to changes in the physical, chemical and biological properties of the environment (e.g., it is used to denote a soil parameter, hydrogeologic variable, exposure indicator, protein production, chemical agent concentration, climatic and atmospheric parameter). Of particular importance are natural processes which contribute (directly or indirectly) to the production and distribution of environmental pollutants in space-time. The term health process, on the other hand, is used to denote the variables describing changes in the health state of a receptor (human body, organ, skin, etc.) or a group of receptors (population). Health state includes diseases such as cancer or asthma and population events such as epidemics.

“If science is not to degenerate into a medley of ad hoc hypotheses, it must become philosophical and must enter upon a thorough criticism of its own foundations”.

A. N. Whitehead