Environmental health research and how society takes it into account

Environnement, Risques et Sant & eacute; (ERS) is a French scientific and technical journal whose publications can help inform policy-makers about relevant environmental health research. This document has been drawn up in an attempt to define ERS's framework for action : independent or expert environmental health research draws on knowledge and expertise from a wide range of sciences and techniques including technologies, their effects on the planet, human health, the environment, the social context, and so on. The question of interdependence clearly arises from the resulting complexity. This situation corresponds to what Timothy Morton has called "hyper-objects," entities with such vast temporal and spatial dimensions that they confound traditional ideas of what a thing is, what an effect is, and so on. To "grasp" them, researchers need to focus their attention on fragments (as is the case in most publications in this field). However, if we are to accomplish broader (holistic) goals, we need to examine how we approach the complexity which is inherent in hyper-objects. The sciences of the artificial developed by HA Simon and their methodologies are a useful avenue that could be put to good use in environmental health. In comparison with the production of robust expert studies of public utility, research results could be used in another framework, for social progress.