ABSTRACT
Most forms of pollution have an impact on public health, direct or indirect. Obvious examples of direct health threats include contamination of water, radiation and air pollution. Even the phenomena of global warming, which most would regard as an essentially environmental problem, could have serious public health implications. These problems have a clear international dimension in that pollution does not respect international boundaries. Pollutants can be borne over many thousands of miles by natural phenomena such as wind or currents. Furthermore, many harmful substances, including waste products, are deliberately transported between countries for treatment or reprocessing. Thus, in many respects, we are living in a ‘global commons’.1
