Environmental Health

"Learn more about how CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) protect and promote environmental health across the United States.

Your environment is everything around you—the air you breathe, the water you drink, the places where your food is grown or prepared, your workplace, and your home.

When your environment is safe and healthy, you are more likely to stay healthy. But when your environment exposes you to dangerous events or harmful amounts of toxic substances, your health can be affected. In fact, according to the World Health Organization, 24% of all diseases worldwide are caused by something harmful in the environment.

How can my environment affect my health?

Where is contamination in the environment? Contaminants can pollute air, water, soil, or food. We sometimes call these “environmental media”.

Environmental contaminants can be carried to humans by air, water, soil, or food.

Here are some examples of the many ways the environment can affect your health:

• Drinking well water can contain benzene from industrial activities, if near one’s home.
• A child’s exposure to air pollution can potentially cause asthma.
• Individuals can inhale contaminants when they’re released into the air from contaminated sources, such as a mercury spill in a home or school.
• Contaminants can accumulate in food sources, such as the tissue of animals, fish eating birds, or contaminated soil where food is grown.
• People can come into contact with contaminants from natural elements found in rocks and fertilizer and when man-made chemical compounds make their way into the soil..."
  Environmental health