Box 3.A Continuum of Roles

A continuum of roles illustrates several levels and types of activity for physicians in the area of environmental medicine. Physicians can:

• provide clinical care and advice for individual patients in an office setting (the environmentally competent clinician);
• be advocates for individual patients by communicating with employers, landlords, local public health authorities, and other relevant agencies, as needed;
• become involved at the community level by advising and educating local citizens, groups, colleagues, public health officials, and community leaders about environmental health; and
• participate in public health policymaking at the local, national, or international level.