Ecoepidemiology--a casuistic discipline describing ecological disturbances and damages in relation to their specific causes: exemplified by chlorinated phenols and chlorophenoxy acids

Abstract

Ecoepidemiology is a new concept created in analogy to human epidemiology, and aims at the study of ecotoxicological effects at the levels of ecosystems, biological communities, and populations in relation to causative environmental exposures, mostly by chemicals. By way of example, ecoepidemiology is described by presenting an example of unintentional dissipation and possible discharges of chlorophenols and phenoxy acids into the terrestrial environment and--as a more specific case--a marine, aquatic area, viz., the Køge Bay immediately to the south of Copenhagen, Denmark. The examples are illustrative of the complex situation which characterizes most ecoepidemiological cases. Difficulties with which the ecoepidemiologist are confronted are not only the identification of possible causative and confounding chemicals, and the description of ecoepidemiological effects per se, but also the assessment of critical pathways of multimedium pollutants. Biomonitoring, computer-based handling of data from natural localities, and determination of a variety of anthropogenic impact factors are necessary elements of ecoepidemiological studies.