Environmental Health

Environmental Health

APHA brings national attention to environmental health issues, with a focus on environmental justice, lead contamination, water equity and climate change. Join us in promoting sensible environmental health policies that foster safe, thriving communities.

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What is environmental health?

Environmental health centers on the relationships between people and their environment. When people are exposed to hazards like polluted air and lead in their drinking water, they can develop serious conditions, such as asthma, heart disease, cancer and dementia.

Black, Indigenous and People of Color and low-wealth communities are disproportionately burdened by environmental health hazards, systemic and structural racism and disinvestment, negatively impacting their health and well-being.

The environmental health field advances policies and programs that reduce chemical and other environmental exposures in air, water, soil and food. A key part of any comprehensive public health system, environmental health ensures everyone has a safe place to live, learn, work and play.

How does environment affect our health?

Our Work

We collaborate with partners and members to center equity and environmental justice to support, engage and lift up evidence-based solutions and best practices to creating environments where all communities can live, play, learn and thrive.

smiling women jogging in park

Environment Member Section

The Environment Section works to focus attention on human health effects of environmental factors and helps to shape national environmental health and protection policies.

Girl playing in park with others

Children's Environmental Health

Children are particularly vulnerable to environmental health hazards.

Image of EH Council members

Environmental Health Council

The EH Council protects the public’s health by coordinating and leveraging our collective power to advance health equity and elevate the value of environmental health.

Children play in a forest.

Environmental Justice

Environmental justice is the idea that all people and communities have the right to live and thrive in safe, healthy environments with equal environmental protections and meaningful involvement in these actions.

people outside fenced factory with smoke plumes

Lead Contamination

Lead is a naturally occurring metal used to make common products like batteries and pipes. While it has beneficial uses, lead can be toxic. 

Contact Us

For more information about our environmental health work, contact Kate Robb or @EH_4_ALL.

Additional Resources

This communications toolkit, funded by CDC's National Center for Environmental Health, addresses the need for effective outreach and advocacy and aims to redefine and reinvigorate the public conversation around environmental health.

Building Understanding of Environmental Health: A Communications Toolkit

Conversation guides (PDF) highlighting successful cross-disciplinary collaborations across the country for healthy, equitable communities 

Creating the Healthiest Nation: Health & Housing Equity (PDF)


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Centers Environmental Public Health Environment