When we improve the health of the environment, we improve the health of the people who live and work in that environment.  An environmentally literate citizenry actively values and conserves natural resources so that our State offers abundant outdoor recreation, urban green spaces, clean air and water.

Public health and the environment

A 1995 study by the National Academy of Sciences found that environmental exposures to toxic substances, excluding cigarette smoke, added up to the fifth leading cause of death in the United States (McGinnis & Foege, 1993). Because many of these diseases are preventable, environmental education will only become more important over time.

A decade of research has consistently found that the public's top environmental concern is the protection of human and family health. Fully 60% of adults say the main reason to protect the environment is a health concern – to protect themselves from pollution. This is confirmed by NEETF/Roper data (2001) on support for more water quality regulation (around 70%) and more air regulation (around 60%). When the 2001 Roper Green Gauge study asked people what environmental issues topped their list of concerns, 32% cited ozone depletion over the earth, 31% cited polluted drinking water, 24% identified water pollution and 20% named air pollution in the community – all issues with strong links to human health concerns.

Pollution and human physiology

“The impact of pollutants on human physiological systems is a growing concern and one that could loom larger in our future. Scientists are expressing concerns about the accumulation in our bodies of a variety of chemicals encountered in the environment, from benzene in gasoline, to mercury in fish, to lead in drinking water. Approximately one-third of the public (31%) correctly identifies drinking water as the primary source for the ingestion of chemicals and minerals (NEETF and Roper, 1999a). Another third (32%) wrongly says that unhealthy chemicals enter the human body primarily through the air people breathe. That these two answers receive similar support indicates a public that knows that water and air pollution can be dangerous if they contain pollutants. Nevertheless, Americans have not received sufficient information to differentiate between the two sources of pollution and perhaps do not understand the importance of water as a medium for ingestion. Modest estimates are that Americans spend about $1 trillion a year on health care. Experts estimate that as much as 90% of diseases are preventable (Fries, Koop, Beadle, et. al., 1993; Iglehart, 1999). If health-related environmental literacy could cut illness by even 2%, that alone would save the country about $18 billion per year.”

Source: http://www.neefusa.org/pdf/ELR2005.pdf, p. 82-83