Dealing with public and environmental health is the role of a host of highly specialized health professionals.
Environmental physicians are concerned with both environmental protection and public health.
They lead multidisciplinary teams of scientists in finding and analyzing pollutants and environmental stressors, studying their biological effects and determining their geographical distribution. They help develop ways to decrease pollution and solve environmental health problems. Environmental physicians also study the effects of chemicals and radiation and contribute to setting health and safety standards. Epidemiologists help figure out what causes these diseases and why some people get them while others don't. They also try to identify risk factors, often related to lifestyle or environment, which may make a person more vulnerable to certain health problems.