Environment and Health in Developing Countries

This book contains articles by well respected international scholars on deteriorating environmental conditions and its impact on health in developing countries. The word "environment" is taken here in a broader context including economic, social and political factors in addition to physical environment e.g., air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, etc. The papers are mostly descriptive in nature, although it has beeen indicated how modeling techniques could be used, to analyze the cases. The papers also suggest ways to improve the serious condition. First, the conceptual problems and methods of analysis of social sciences, public health and environmental studies are presented. It is followed by some case studies in international perspective with major emphasis on India, particularly on Bhopal disaster and alleged Plague in Surat. A number of papers have discussed the incidence of infectious diseases like Malaria, T.B., AIDS etc. Some of the papers were presented at an international meeting held recently at Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta, with the cooperation of many national and international organizations.