More health for your buck: health sector functions to secure environmental health.

The article discusses the burden of environmentally-related diseases in developing countries where childhood mortality rates due to diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections are linked to poor sanitation and indoor burning of solid fuels, respectively. The authors discuss 6 specific functions that health-system agencies can develop to improve environmental health. The 6 areas involve inter-sectoral policy, regulations, disease-specific and integrated programs, health facilities, outbreak response, and epidemiological evaluations of disease.