A wave of recent man-made disasters occurred globally has not only crippled the already fragile environment, but also worsen the dire economic situation for tens of millions of less-advantageous people' lives around the world. The evilly and synergistic effects of those disasters would eventually pile on the health, both physically and mentally, of people that are affected. The explosion of an oil exploration rig in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 should have brought the horrible memories back for many people when a stricken oil tanker sink off the north-west coast of Spain about eight years ago. While the footages documenting the disaster in the coast of Spain are fading away, the devastating effects linger among folks living in that region as of today. It is a sense of déjà vu for people living in the Gulf states of U.S. who have just barely recovered from the suffering of an once-in-a-life-time hurricane that hits the area in 2005, to face another potential life-threatening disaster that is being washing up to the shore inch by inch. Those unfortunate events took place on such a dramatic scale that has no chance of escaping from media's attention, but were only accounted for the few of many heartbreaking stories that are happening behind the scene at every second of the time on the world stage.

Those behind-the-scene man-made disasters were usually invisible to the publics until the situations worsening, and it often resulted to serious illness, or casualty. A few of the sickening examples such as the Minamata disease in Tokyo Bay, Japan, the sudden arising childhood leukemia and birth defects cases in a small town of Massachusetts U.S. resulting from the intentional discharge of trichloroethylene (TCE) into the drinking water source, the polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) poisoning in Taiwan from the consumption of contaminated rice oil, and the nuclear accident occurred in Chernobyl Ukraine, all highlighted how the dreadful man-made disasters would affect environmental public health at the population level.

As we entering the 21 st century, the assault of the man-made disasters would only be fiercer than the humanity has experienced, and the magnitude of the impact would be far greater that we can anticipate. The phenomenon of global climate change as it is taking place should serve a perfect example for us to reflect on whether we can weather the consequences that are being brought by the changes of climate globally. The alternating drought and flood since 2006 have already claimed thousands of lives in countries such as China , India , France , Italy , and U.S. , and there is no sign of relief. While it is not overwhelmingly accepted yet that the anthropogenic activities over the decades foster the changes of climate pattern, it is evident that we are abusing the resources readily available at our disposal for the interest of convenience in our daily life. The misuse of antibiotics would fit this scenario perfectly. The extensive use of pesticides at home and in agriculture is another obvious one. The adulteration of food supplies with chemicals (melamine in dairy products for human consumption) and genetic materials (genetic modified organisms, GMOs) that is all foreign to us is also becoming a standard protocol. The list goes on and on. The recent finding of linking a common material, Bisphenol-A (BPA), in numerous consumer products to diseases such as endocrine, reproductive, and developmental disorders, as well as cancers points to the future of this world loaded with hundreds of time bombs that are waiting to explode.

The question for pondering is whether we have been deliberately, or non-deliberately, consenting many human activities that puts ecological and human health at the risk levels that we could not manage when the disaster arises. If so, the consequences resulting from those man-made disasters will no doubt discount our sincere efforts in promoting and protecting the basic human rights on many issues at many fronts. The protection of environment public health frequently conflicts with the economic growth or social issues, and therefore presents a dilemma for us and for the society. For instance, the establishment of a metal scraping/recycling industry would provide jobs and precious incomes for families living in an economic depressed village. However, the hazards of the workplaces and the contaminations of the soil, air, and the drinking water sources that people living in the village relying on would undoubtedly become the collaterals of bringing foods to the dinner tables for many families. Although creating jobs for less-advantageous people would fulfill the fundamental principle of human-rights protection, we evidently usher in the adverse health effects to the people that we serve. Circumstance like this kind has repeated itself over and over again, and it is quite often the economic factor prevailed. As we are moving forward into the 21 st century, we need to unlock this dilemma to ensure our effort in protecting human rights and environmental public health would not be in vain.

A new era often accompanies new challenges. While we celebrate the achievement of granting and expanding the human-right protection to many people living in many places of the world from decades of hard working, we have to recognize that we are facing a slew of new enemies of whom are standing in our ways of building a healthier and more sustainable society. Removal of those barriers will require our persistent pursuance and determination. In my opinion, one of the keys to the success of human-right movement in the 21 st century is hinged upon environmental public health education. The human-right protection is parallel to the protection of environmental public health in the new century. The concept of “Seeing is Believing” poses its own danger and is no longer logical to the matters that we are dealing with in the modern era. We need to promote the awareness of the importance of protecting environmental public health, and its correlation to the healthier and sustainable livings. Meanwhile, we ought to eliminate the potential man-made disasters from materializing to ensure no one in this world will suffer from the adverse consequences seeded by the parties whose only interest is seeking the comfort of monetary rewards.

Chensheng (Alex) Lu, MS, PhD
Mark and Catherine Winkler Associate Professor of Exposure Biology
Harvard School of Public Health
Department of Environmental Health
Boston , Massachusetts , USA