As was clear from a wide-ranging survey of nutrition issues at last month's Pacific Health Summit in Seattle, Washington, behavioural change is a key element in tackling the twin crises of under-nutrition and obesity, which are all too easily forgotten in the competition for the world's attention. (Editorial)

The present article deals with the extent of water resources, sources and causes of water pollution, impact of water pollution on human health, and challenges, development and future perspectives of food safety.

Melody Petersen covered the pharmaceutical beat for The New York Times for four years. In 1997, her investigative reporting won a Gerald Loeb Award, one of the highest honors in business journalism. She is the author of Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs (2008).(An interview with Melody Petersen)

Previous research has documented effects of both physical and social environmental
exposures on childhood asthma. However, few studies have considered how these two environments might interact to affect asthma. This study aimed to test interactions between chronic exposure to traffic-related air pollution and chronic family stress in predicting biologic and clinical outcomes in children with asthma.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between arsenic exposure
through drinking water and the occurrence of pterygium in southwestern Taiwan.

Reasons for the variability in survival among ALS cases are unknown but may include exposure to environmental neurotoxicants. The authors aimed to determine whether lead exposure, assessed by measuring blood and bone lead levels, is associated with survival in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Traffic-related air pollution is consistently associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Recent human and animal studies suggest that exposure to air pollutants affects vascular function. Diesel exhaust (DE) is a major source of traffic-related air pollution. The goal of this particular study was to study the effects of short-term exposure to DE on vascular reactivity and on mediators of vascular tone.