The Cultures of Environmental Health Protection: Risk Assessment, Precautionary Principle, Public Health, and Sustainability

Adam Finkel makes us think. Reading his many writings is always an intellectual pleasure. I will take advantage of the Editor's request that commentaries use Finkel's article in this issue as a springboard. First, I will expand on my agreement with Finkel about the importance of problem identification. Using Finkel's writings as a base, I will briefly discuss what I believe to be cultural issues at the overlapping interfaces between risk assessment and the precautionary principle; and between public health and legal approaches to protecting the environment. By culture, I mean the sharing of attitudes and practices. I will end by advocating sustainability as a unifying approach to applying public health principles to environmental protection. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.