Environmental disease

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In epidemiology, environmental diseases are diseases that can be directly attributed to environmental factors (as distinct from genetic factors or infection). Apart from the true monogenic genetic disorders, which are rare, environment is a major determinant of the development of disease. Diet, exposure to toxins, pathogens, radiation, and chemicals found in almost all personal care products and household cleaners, stress, racism, and physical and mental abuse are causes of a large segment of non-hereditary disease. If a disease process is concluded to be the result of a combination of genetic and environmental factor influences, its etiological origin can be referred to as having a multifactorial pattern.

There are many different types of environmental disease including:^[1]

• Disease caused by physical factors in the environment, such as skin cancer caused by excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation in sunlight
• Disease caused by exposure to toxic or irritant chemicals in the environment such as toxic metals
• Disease caused by exposures to toxins from biologic agents in the environment, such as aflatoxicosis from molds that produce aflatoxin
• Disease caused by exposure to toxic social factors in the environment, such as racism
• Lifestyle disease such as cardiovascular disease, diseases caused by substance abuse such as alcoholism, and smoking-related disease