Econology: integrating health and sustainable development. Part One: theory and background

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Abstract
Environmental sustainability is rapidly becoming the most critical public health issue. Prevailing notions of health in environmental decision-making do not embody concepts inherent in health promotion and the new public health. Health promotion emphasizes the importance of income and power equity, and social support/connectedness (health-economy relationship), alongside direct and indirect human health threats posed by environmental toxins (health-environment relationship). Health promotion also acknowledges the inherent limitations of scientific research, and the need for value-based decision-making in the absence of definitive information. Twelve principles are developed from brief reviews of the health-environment-economy relationships. While fear for personal health underpins increasing public concern over environmental degradation, persons with expertise or a constituency in public health are not members of any of Canada's federal and provincial Round Tables on Environment and Economy. Health promotion professionals should not wait to be invited to participate in sustainable development debates; they should invite themselves. Their discipline specific roots in epidemiology and clinical public health practice will significantly enrich the vocabulary of the debate. Their current a-disciplinary generalism may allow them to function as effective and necessary cross-discipline translators.

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