Health #

Environment diagram with most of the quadrants a lighter gray. The lower-left, health, quadrant is black with white text.

Reference disciplines include technology impacts and spread, biology, and history.

Key complexities
...basics...
Li AM. Ecological determinants of health: food and environment on human health. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2017 Apr;24(10):9002-9015. doi: 10.1007/s11356-015-5707-9. Epub 2015 Nov 10. PMID: 26552789; PMCID: PMC7089083.

Patrick Harris, Evelyne De Leeuw, Infrastructure and health: laying down the big connections for well-being, Oxford Open Infrastructure and Health, Volume 1, 2023, ouac002, https://doi.org/10.1093/ooih/ouac002

Public health infrastructure. Health.gov. Retrieved May 2, 2025, from https://odphp.health.gov/healthypeople/objectives-and-data/browse-objectives/public-health-infrastructure

Ryan Crowley, Suja Mathew, David Hilden, et al. Modernizing the United States’ Public Health Infrastructure: A Position Paper From the American College of Physicians. Ann Intern Med.2023;176:1089-1091. [Epub 18 July 2023]. doi:10.7326/M23-0670

What is health infrastructure? And why does it matter in urban health? (2023, March 23). Urban Health 360. https://urbanhealth360.org/what-is-health-infrastructure-and-why-does-it-matter-in-urban-health/

Who Team. (2024, October 4). Determinants of health. Who.int. https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/determinants-of-health

World Health Organization. (2023). Strategic health infrastructure investments to support universal health coverage. Who.int. https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/universal-health-coverage/who-uhl-technical-brief-infrastructure.pdf?sfvrsn=daee055c_1&download=true

...individual...tailored scale...
A. Prüss-Ustün, J. Wolf, C. Corvalán, T. Neville, R. Bos, M. Neira, Diseases due to unhealthy environments: an updated estimate of the global burden of disease attributable to environmental determinants of health, Journal of Public Health, Volume 39, Issue 3, September 2017, Pages 464–475, https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdw085

Biddle, J. S. (2018, May 3). What environmental factors affect health? Environmental Health Sciences Center. https://environmentalhealth.ucdavis.edu/communities/what-environmental-factors-affect-health

Environmental health impacts. (2025, March 10). Europa.Eu. https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/topics/in-depth/environmental-health-impacts

Environmental risk factors and NCDs. Who.int. https://www.who.int/teams/noncommunicable-diseases/integrated-support/environmental-risk-factors-and-ncds

National Research Council (US), Institute of Medicine (US), Woolf, S. H., & Aron, L. (2013). Physical and social environmental factors. National Academies Press. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK154491/

Virolainen, S.J., VonHandorf, A., Viel, K.C.M.F. et al. Gene–environment interactions and their impact on human health. Genes Immun 24, 1–11 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41435-022-00192-6

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Awry states
...acceptable toxicity...
A timeline of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. (2017, June 14). AP News. https://apnews.com/article/1176657a4b0d468c8f35ddbb07f12bec

Haynes, T. (2019). Dark Waters. Focus Features.

Lanphear, Bruce. (2017). Low-level toxicity of chemicals: No acceptable levels?. PLOS Biology. 15. e2003066. 10.1371/journal.pbio.2003066.

Toxic levels of concern. Noaa.gov. https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/chemical-spills/resources/toxic-levels-concern.html

...distress...
Daily Global 5km Satellite Coral Bleaching Heat Stress Monitoring. NOAA Coral Reef Watch. https://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/product/5km/

Fire. NASA Earth Observatory. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/global-maps/MOD14A1_M_FIRE

Lazaro Gamio, Zack Levitt, Elena Shao, Malika Khurana. (2025, May 1). Tracking Heat Across the World. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/world/global-heat-map-tracker.html

Thiem, H. (2023, August 21). Former Hurricane Hilary brought Southern California its first-ever tropical storm watch. Climate.gov. https://www.climate.gov/news-features/event-tracker/former-hurricane-hilary-brought-southern-california-its-first-ever

...health-contributing functions are actively suppressed...
Jewett, C. (2025, April 3). F.D.a. layoffs could raise drug costs and erode food safety. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/health/fda-layoffs-food-and-drug-safety-rfk-jr.html

Kozlov, M. (2025). “One of the darkest days”: NIH purges agency leadership amid mass lay-offs. Nature, 640(8058), 293–294. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-01016-z

Kozlov, M., & Mallapaty, S. (2025). Exclusive: NIH to terminate hundreds of active research grants. Nature, 639(8054), 281–282. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00703-1

Liu, J. (2025, April 3). FDA employee found out she’d been laid off by email at 5 a.m.: “I don’t see how this benefits Americans at all.” CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/03/thousands-of-health-department-workers-laid-off-by-trump-admin-doge.html

Molteni, M., Emory Parker, J., & Wosen, J. (2025, April 24). NIH grants plummeted $2.3 billion in Trump’s first months, as federal-academia partnership crumbles. STAT. https://www.statnews.com/2025/04/24/trump-100-days-nih-new-grants-cut/

Perrone, M., & The. (2025, April 18). After RFK Jr. cut food safety inspectors, the strained FDA struggles to close the gap. Fortune. https://fortune.com/well/2025/04/18/rfk-jr-fda-food-safety-inspectors-doge-job-cuts/

Sorscher, S. (2025, April 1). RFK’s cuts to FDA are a threat to public health and safety. Center for Science in the Public Interest. https://www.cspinet.org/statement/rfks-cuts-fda-are-threat-public-health-and-safety

Taylor, M. F. A. (2025, April 17). FDA fires most negotiators for pharma user fee talks, sources say. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/fda-fires-most-negotiators-pharma-user-fee-talks-sources-say-2025-04-17/

...healthy...used for control...
Beyond Ivy League, RFK Jr.’s NIH slashed science funding across states that backed Trump. (2025, April 25). CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/25/health/nih-science-funding-states-kff-health-news/index.html

Bush, E. (2025b, April 13). One of the country’s leading Alzheimer’s projects is in jeopardy. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/one-countrys-leading-alzheimers-projects-jeopardy-rcna199788

Cameron, D., & Mullin, E. (2025, April 1). Doctor behind award-winning Parkinson’s research among scientists purged from NIH. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/doctor-breakthrough-parkinsons-research-nih-purge/

Facher, L. (2025, April 8). Unique pain research office eliminated in HHS purge. STAT. https://www.statnews.com/2025/04/08/nih-layoffs-include-entire-division-devoted-to-chronic-pain/

Jocelyn Kaiser, M. W. (2025). Health agencies purge Trump-targeted programs and websites. Science. https://www.science.org/content/article/health-agencies-purge-trump-targeted-programs-and-websites

Johnson, C. Y. (2025, April 6). NIH scientists have a cancer breakthrough. Layoffs are delaying it. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025/04/06/nih-firings-cancer-immunotherapy-treatment/

Kaiser Family Foundation. (2011). Timeline: History of Health Reform in the U.S. https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/5-02-13-history-of-health-reform.pdf

Oza, A. (2025, April 21). NIH bans all future grants to universities with DEI programs or Israel boycotts. STAT. https://www.statnews.com/2025/04/21/trump-nih-grants-draft-rule-would-prohibit-university-dei-programs-israel-boycott/

Rogers, K. (2025, April 10). Trump’s latest cuts will hit small-town culture hard. Slate. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/04/trump-doge-neh-funding-grants-canceled-fellowships.html

...profited...
https://ersatzgrace.medium.com/increasing-costs-of-healthcare-d0ee23f7ff46

Roy, A., Zingales, L., & Thernstrom, A. (2010, April). Health care and the profit motive. Nationalaffairs.com. https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/health-care-and-the-profit-motive

Ubel, P. (2014, February 12). Is the profit motive ruining American healthcare? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterubel/2014/02/12/is-the-profit-motive-ruining-american-healthcare/