Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I Theory and Methods
- Part II Phenotypic and Genotypic Variation
- Part III Reproduction
- Part IV Growth and Development
- Part V Health and Disease
- 27 Evolutionary Medicine, Immunity, and Infectious Disease
- 28 Complex Chronic Diseases in Evolutionary Perspective
- 29 Evolutionary Medicine and the Causes of Chronic Disease
- 30 Beyond Feast–Famine: Brain Evolution, Human Life History, and the Metabolic Syndrome
- 31 Human Longevity and Senescence
- 32 Evolutionary Psychiatry: Mental Disorders and Behavioral Evolution
- 33 Industrial Pollutants and Human Evolution
- 34 Acculturation and Health
- Index
- References
33 - Industrial Pollutants and Human Evolution
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I Theory and Methods
- Part II Phenotypic and Genotypic Variation
- Part III Reproduction
- Part IV Growth and Development
- Part V Health and Disease
- 27 Evolutionary Medicine, Immunity, and Infectious Disease
- 28 Complex Chronic Diseases in Evolutionary Perspective
- 29 Evolutionary Medicine and the Causes of Chronic Disease
- 30 Beyond Feast–Famine: Brain Evolution, Human Life History, and the Metabolic Syndrome
- 31 Human Longevity and Senescence
- 32 Evolutionary Psychiatry: Mental Disorders and Behavioral Evolution
- 33 Industrial Pollutants and Human Evolution
- 34 Acculturation and Health
- Index
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION: THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY OF INDUSTRIAL POLLUTANTS
Human experience with industrial pollutants is very recent and very brief relative to the span of our species' evolution. Marked increases in pollution exposure began in the mid 1700s with the industrial revolution. It seems paradoxical that Homo sapiens evolved in response to features of decidedly nonindustrialized environments but is now largely an urban species living in industrialized societies. Are we somehow prepared by our evolutionary history to deal with industrialization, or is this an adaptive challenge confronting modern Homo sapiens?
This large question is dissected into more scientifically manageable ones that evolutionary human biologists can use to structure research. For example, using demographic measures of species success (Gage,2005), Homo sapiens appears to be flourishing. This conclusion is based on comparisons of populations' mortality profiles, over space and in different historical periods. Using other measures of adaptation however, such as patterns of growth and development or morbidity patterns, the adjustment may appear far less than complete. Although industrialization produces economic benefits and related health benefits, it also produces pollutants that are detrimental to biological systems particularly among the socioeconomically disadvantaged who experience greater exposure. Should we consider all the impacts together in a summary measure of success such as life span, or should we “unpack” the urban environment by determining the specific constituents of urban environments, and evaluate the effects of each constituent on specific outcomes (Schell and Ulijaszek, 1999)? This latter approach is taken here.
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- Information
- Human Evolutionary Biology , pp. 566 - 580Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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