Environmental epidemiology: an introduction to its merits and problems.

Abstract

During the course of this century the science of epidemiology has expanded its interest from only infectious diseases to include a wide variety of diseases and health events. It has become more of a systematic methodology which can be used for the description and the analysis of diverse health events. The basic assumption of epidemiologic research is that diseases do not occur randomly, but in patterns which reflect the underlying causes. By studying the patterns etiologic factors can be discovered. Recently, Environmental Epidemiology has been emerging as a new subspecialty. In 1989 the newly founded International Society for Environmental Epidemiology held its first Annual Meeting; its second meeting was held in August 1990 in Berkeley, California.