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Review
. 2024 Nov 18:12:1373530.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1373530. eCollection 2024.

Building competency to deal with environmental health challenges: experiences and a proposal

Giovanni S Leonardi  1   2 , Ariana Zeka  1   3 , Matthew Ashworth  4   5 , Catherine Bouland  6 , Helen Crabbe  1 , Raquel Duarte-Davidson  1 , Ruth A Etzel  7 , Nia Giuashvili  8 , Özden Gökdemir  9 , Wojciech Hanke  10 , Peter van den Hazel  11 , Paul Jagals  12 , Ejaz Ahmad Khan  13 , Piedad Martin-Olmedo  14   15 , Joseph Pett  16 , Ekaterine Ruadze  8 , Maria Grazia Santamaria  17 , Jan C Semenza  18 , Cecilia Sorensen  19 , Sotiris Vardoulakis  20 , Fuyuen Yip  21 , Paolo Lauriola  22
Affiliations
Review

Building competency to deal with environmental health challenges: experiences and a proposal

Giovanni S Leonardi et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

The global landscape of professional training in environmental health, encompassing ecological public health or environmental public health, lacks consistent global implementation for training programs for public health practitioners, clinical professionals, and individuals across various disciplines, as well as standardized curricula for undergraduates. This training gap is related to the overall lack of capacity in addressing the population impacts of the triple challenge of pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change, impeding the worldwide transition to and development of ecological sustainability. This paper reviews existing approaches and their potential to address implementation challenges within the necessarily tight timescale. Spreading of best practice appears feasible even without substantial additional resources, through the reorientation of current practices via comprehensive multi-disciplinary training programs. By adopting international best practices of training in environmental health, the focus in training and education can shift from future decision-makers to enhancing the competencies of current professionals and their institutions.

Keywords: ecological public health; ecological sustainability; ecology; education; environmental change; environmental health; professional training; public health.

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Conflict of interest statement

MA was employed by Institute of Environmental Science and Research Limited (ESR). The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. PL declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The “HEAD” (Health, Environment, and Development) triangle: links between different disciplinary territories. Source: Parkes (35) (modified).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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