COVID-19 and Environmental Health Sciences – Pending Tasks and Future Outlook

Objectives: COVID-19 is virtually the first pandemic in modern world, and causes global scale public health burden and unprecedented socioeconomic damages throughout the world. This pandemic has changed many aspects of everyday lives, most vividly characterized by social distancing and lockdown, and calls for involvements of environmental health sciences. The purpose of this essay is to identify current tasks, and to initiate discourse on the longer-term efforts of environmental health sciences, in order to address several issues and concerns related with the outbreak and similar disasters expected in the future. Results: Several pending tasks of environmental health sciences are identified. Knowledge and communication gaps were identified for the use and disposal of personal protective equipment and hygienic products such as face masks and disinfectants. Increased use of disposables including plastic bags and tableware has been justified as a quarantine measure, but often without evidence supporting the use. Importance of management of chemical safety is also highlighted, as many diseases related to chemical exposure, e.g., diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases, are identified to exhibit increased risks for severe illness from COVID-19. On the other hand, global efforts to respond to climate crisis are considered by many experts as one of the most essential strategies to prevent or curtail the probability of another pandemic events. Environmental health sciences should play major roles in this effort. Conclusion: New societal environment changed by COVID-19 pandemic shapes roles of environmental health sciences. The list of the topics proposed in the essay is not complete, and I hope this proposal would initiate active discussions among the interested scientists to identify more areas of active involvement and hence contribution of the environmental health sciences. keywords: COVID-19, environmental health, face mask, sanitation, chemical exposure, climate crisis.