ENVIRONMENTAL COMMENT SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Author Guidelines Available via Internet Authors, reviewers, and potential contributors to Environmental Science & Technology can now receive editorial guidelines via the Internet in a matter of minutes. These guidelines, published annually in the January issue, supply information on the different types of papers accepted by ES&Tand instructions on preparing and submitting manuscripts. Six separate ES&T guideline documents are available via Internet. To receive one or more, simply send an e-mail message to
[email protected] and type the keyword phrase listed for each document. You will receive an e-mail reply containing the document requested. You can request a single document or several with one e-mail message. To receive one document, type only the keyword phrase in the "Subject:" line and leave the body of the message blank. If you are requesting several documents, type each keyword phrase on a separate line in the body of the message; the "Subject:" line can be left blank or it can contain one of the keyword phrases. Make sure that each keyword phrase entered in the body of the IT1Css 3.26 starts at the beginning of a new line. • Editorial Policy. General guidelines for all types of ES&T manuscript submissions, including current research papers, Research Communications, Critical Reviews, Correspondence, Environmental Policy Analysis, and Feature articles. (Type: Author policy) • Peer Review. A description of how the £5&Tpeer review process operates and general editorial advice to authors. (Type: Authooreview) • Current Research Author's Guide. A detailed description on preparing a research manuscript for submission to ES&T, including information on general editorial style, length, nomenclature, references, and supplementary material. (Type: Author research) • Manuscript Preparation: Text and Figures. Instructions for submitting an accepted research manuscript on disk for publication and preparing highquality figures and illustrations. (Type: Author rrep)
The Rediscovery of Public Health Microbiology
M
ost texts on public health or sanitary engineering list the conquest of diseases such as tuberculosis, cholera, and typhoid fever as major triumphs of human civilization. Indeed, these were impressive accomplishments in their day. Few people realize that the rate of death from typhoid fever in the United States was 31.3 per 100,000 people in 1900; by 1940 the rate had dropped to 1.0. These figures correspond to more than 23,000 deaths in 1900 versus 1300 in 1940. By 1961, only 17 people died in the United States of typhoid (A. Greenberg, in Water Chlorination: Environmental Impacts and Health Effects, Vol. 3, Ann Arbor Science Press, 1980, pp. 3-10). No doubt, the advent of water filtration and chlorination and advances in medicine led to the dramatic reductions in this waterborne disease. It is now clear, however, that the celebration may have been premature. Microbial diseases are reemerging worldwide, especially in the developing world: diphtheria in Russia; cholera in Southeast Asia, South America, and lately Zaire; yellow fever in west Africa and the west coast of South America; and plague in India (Chem. Eng. News, Oct. 2, 1995). More frightening, "new" diseases such as the hantavirus and Ebola virus are being recognized that have many environmental vectors. It is clear that the link between sanitation and public health is still valid, but several factors exacerbate the threats of microbiologically mediated diseases. First, there is much more travel worldwide today than in the past, leading to the rapid spread of diseases. Second, many people feel that the early success of antibiotics lulled the public health community into believing that some diseases were virtually eliminated. It may be that the diseases' genetic material was lurking in the background and is now reemerging in the conditions of poor sanitation and pollution that are affecting parts of the world. Finally, we have not given appropriate research emphasis to the possibility of the reemergence of infectious diseases with environmental connections. Our federal research programs in this area have been woefully inadequate. EPA de-emphasized microbiological research in the 1980s, and it has never been fully reinstated in spite of the reemergence of the issue for drinking water (e.g., the Milwaukee Cryptosporidium episode) and repeated warnings from microbiologists. Several years ago scientists convened a workshop in Breckenridge, Colo., and among their recommendations was a call for more research to reduce health risks from microbes in drinking water (Sobsey, JAWWA, March 1993, pp. 44-48). It is now apparent that the research agenda must be even larger, focusing not just on drinking water but on the role of stressed environments on the emergence, alteration, and spread of microbial diseases. Unfortunately even if EPA were to view this as a high priority, there may not be adequate funds to carry it off. Although there is some collaboration between EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in this area, both agencies need to do more. Also, the developed nations must assert their influence to set a similar agenda in health agencies worldwide. We must not delay. The stakes are simply too high.
• Feature Articles. A brief description of the general objectives and format of ES&Tfeatures and how to go about writing one. (Type: Author feature) • Quick Help. Instructions on using this service. (Type: Author help)
0013-936X/96/0930-183A$12.00/0 © 1996 American Chemical Society
William H. Glaze Editor VOL. 30, NO. 5, 1996 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / NEWS • 1 8 3 A
