The considerable progress of environmental health

Environmental health is not the health of the environment but deals with the impacts of the quality of the environment on public health. The relationships between environmental hazards (physical, chemical, biological) and human diseases are much better revealed, described and quantified and are of major importance. The great advances made in analytical methods prove the great diversity of the chemical dangers to which man is exposed. This confronts the difficulties in measuring the effects in order to quantify the risks. At the international level and in France, the major health organizations have integrated these problems, and national plans on this subject are developed. The major themes of "One health" and the "Exposome" measurement are unifying and carrying ambitions. Health warnings are increasing, and citizens are demanding accurate information on the risks to their health. This is why health professionals must become aware of the progress of this issue and for that reason be better trained in the risk assessment associated with environmental exposures. The pressures on the environment, and therefore on humans, associated with climate change, urban growth, air pollution or chemical multiple exposure are some of the significant contributions to diseases that should no longer be ignored. (C) 2020 l'Academie nationale de medecine. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.