Poverty and lack of development are critical contributing factors to environmental hazards that affect the health of many hundreds of millions of people worldwide, particularly at the household level. Too often in too much of the world, however, the industrial and commercial development that helps reduce poverty has resulted in ambient environmental degradation and threats to human health as well. Workplace hazards are all too common everywhere. There is therefore a double need for research and action: a) to reduce the environmental health hazards of poverty and, b) to guide economic development in ways that produce healthy environments for the public and workers as well as economic well-being. Health is not only a goal in its own right but also a prerequisite to sustainable economic development.

This publication appears as number 4 of volume 109 of Environmental Health Perspectives.