Preface

The text and handbook of hygiene and medical ecology is addressed to pharmacy students.

Hygiene is a medical prevention science that studies the relationship between the environment and humans from the point of view of the correct development, preservation, and improvement of human health so that active longevity can be ensured.

The aim of hygiene is to study the effect of all environmental factors and working conditions which lead to health disturbances and decrease the working capacity. Hygiene investigates the positive effects of the environmental and

social factors, which lead to health promotion. Hygiene is the science which develops and applies norms, standards and recommendations. The purpose is to optimize the human and environmental system.

Ecology is the science of interrelationships in the natural environment: the dependencе of one organism on another, and the ultimate dependencе of all, including man, on the various components of the physical environment.

The text– and handbook is conformable to the syllabus of pharmacy students. Мaterials from different fields of hygiene – communal hygiene, hygiene of nutrition, occupational medicine, childhood and adolescent hygiene are included in

the textbook. The handbook contains the key methods for the investigation of different environmental and occupational factors.

We hope that this textbook corresponds with the contemporary requirements and knowledge in the field of the science of hygiene and that it will be useful for pharmacy students. The authors will gratefully accept all critical remarks, opinions and recommendations.