ABSTRACT
Inter-sectoral collaboration is widely advocated, if rarely implemented. Sustainable development represents one of the most ambitious calls for inter-sectoral collaboration to date. This chapter focuses on an inter-sectoral relationship that could become central to the pursuit of sustainable development and deserves special attention – that between the environment and health sectors. The first section summarizes the case for a shared environment and health agenda, drawing on some simple generalizations about how economic status is currently related to environmental burdens and health impacts. The next two sections elaborate on these relationships, focusing first on the different spatial and temporal scales of environmental risks, and then on different health burdens associated with some of these risks. The final section explores some of the implications for sustainable development. From the start it must be recognized that the relationships being described are not laws of development. Indeed, a central challenge for sustainable development is to change these relationships in order to achieve a more equitable world, for both present and future generations.
