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Environnement, Risques & Santé

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One health and environmental inequality Volume 21, issue 3, Mai-Juin 2022

Author
ISJPS-UMR 8103-Université, Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne, 2B, boulevard Morland, 75004 Paris, France
Tirés à part : C. Larrère

Article previously published in Humanité et Biodiversité magazine 7 and republished with its agreement.

 

Much is known about health inequalities in society. Here, we focus on their environmental dimension, that is, the diverse and unequal ways in which the environment impacts individuals and populations, their health in particular. This enquiry changes our conception of social issues, by shifting attention from the job issue alone to the more complex one of the living environment. We explain that neither the environment nor health can be seen merely in terms of objective data. It is not so much a question of how well we know our world and our bodies, but how we experience them. In the first part of this paper we provide an overview of the general issue of environmental inequalities before addressing their relation to health. Lastly, we examine the quantitative approaches and their limitations.