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Environmental Health
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Environmental
Health
Environmental health, as defined by WHO, comprises those aspects
of human health, including the quality of life, that are determined
by physical, chemical, biological, social, and psychosocial
factors in the environment. It also refers to the theory and
practice of assessing, correcting, controlling, and preventing
those factors in the environment that adversely affect the healkh
of present and future generations.
Our environment affects health in a variety of ways. Climate
and weather affect human health. Public health depends on sufficient
amounts of good quality food, safe drinking water, and adequate
shelter. Natural disasters such as storms, hurricanes, and floods
still kill many people every year. Unprecedented rainfall triggers
epidemics of malaria and water-borne diseases.
Global climate change has serious health implications. Many
countries will have to adapt to uncertain climatic conditions
due to global warming. As our climate is changing, we may no
longer know what to expect. There are increasing storms in some
countries, drought in others, and a temperature rise throughout
the world. The El Nino winds affect weather world-wide. The
El Nino event of 1997/98 had serious impacts on health and well-being
of millions of people in many countries. It created serious
drought, floods, and triggered epidemics. New strategies must
be evolved to reduce our vulnerability to climate variability
and changes.
Examples
of the links
Millions of children die every year due to diarrhea from contaminated
water or food. An estimated 2000 million people are affected
by these diseases and more than 3 million children die each
year from water-borne diseases across the world. In India, it
is estimated that every fifth child under the age of 5 dies
due to diarrhea. This is a result of inadequate environmental
management and is mainly due to inadequate purification of drinking
water. Wastewater and/or sewage entering water sources without
being treated leads to continuous gastrointestinal diseases
in the community and even sporadic large epidemics. Large numbers
of people in tropical countries die of malaria every year and
millions are infected. An inadequate environmental management
of stagnant water, the breeding site of the Anopheles mosquito,
is the most important factor in the spread of malaria. The resurgence
of malaria in India is leading to cerebral malaria that affects
the brain and has a high mortality.
Millions of people, mainly children, have poor health due to
parasitic infections, such as amoebiasis and worms. This occurs
from eating infected food, or using poor quality water for cooking
food. It is estimated that 36% of children in low-income countries
and 12% in middleincome countries are malnourished. In India,
about half the children under the age of four are malnourished
and 30% of newborns are significantly underweight.
Hundreds of millions of people suffer serious respiratory diseases,
including lung cancer and tuberculosis, from ill-ventilated
homes and public places. Motor vehicle exhaust fumes, industrial
fumes, tobacco smoke and cooking food on improper chulas, contribute
to respiratory diseases.
Millions of people are exposed to hazardous chemicals in their
workplace or homes that lead to poor health due to industrial
products where controls are not adhered to.
Tens of thousands of people in the world die due to traffic
accidents owing to inadequate management of traffic conditions.
Ineffective first aid at the accident site and the frequent
inability to reach a hospital within an hour causes a large
number of deaths, especially from head injuries.
Basic environmental needs - such as clean water, clean air and
adequate nutrition - which are all related to environmental
goods and services do not reach over 1000 million people living
in abject poverty.
Several million people live in inadequate shelters or have no
roof over their heads especially in urban settings. This is
related to high inequalities in the distribution of wealth and
living space.
Population growth and the way resources are being exploited
and wasted, threaten environmental integrity and directly affects
the health of every individual.
Health is an outcome of the interactions between people and
their environment. Better health can only come from more sustainable
environmental management.
Important
strategic concerns
The world must address people's health care needs and the sustainable
use of natural resources, which are closely linked to each other.
Strategies to provide clean potable water and nutrition to all
people are an important part of a healthy living environment.
Providing clean energy sources that do not affect health is
a key to reducing respiratory diseases.
Reducing the environmental consequences of industrial and other
pollutants, such as transport emissions, can improve public
health.
Changing agricultural patterns away from harmful pesticides,
herbicides and insecticides which are injurious to the health
of farmers and consumers and using alternatives, such as IPM
and non-toxic biopesticides, can improve the health of agricultural
communities as well as food consumers.
Changing industrial systems into those that do not use or release
toxic chemicals that affect the health of workers and people
living in the vicinity of indlistries can improve health and
environment.
There is a need to change from using conventional energy to
cleaner and safer sources like solar, wind and ocean power that
do not affect human health. Providing clean energy will lead
to better health.
The key factors are to control human population and consume
less environmental goods and services which could lead to 'health
for all'.
Poverty is closely related to health and is itself a consequence
of improper environmental management. An inequitable sharing
of natural resources and environmental goods and services, is
linked to poor health.
Definition of Health Impact Assessment (HIA): The WHO defines
HIA as a combination of procedures, methods and tools by which
a policy, program or project may be judged as to its potential
effects on the health of a population, and the distribution
of those effects within the population.
Climate
and health
Centuries of human civilization have helped mankind to adapt
to living in a wide variety of climatesfrom the hot tropics
to the cold arctic, in deserts, marshlands and in the high mountains.
Both climate and weather have a powerful impact on human life
and health issues.
Natural disasters (heavy rains, floods, hurricanes) can severely
affect the health of a community. Poor people are more vulnerable
to the health impacts of climate variability than the rich.
Of approximately 80,000 deaths which occur world-wide each year
as a result of natural disasters, about 95% are in poor countries.
In weather-triggered disasters hundreds of people and animals
die, homes are destroyed, crops and other resources are lost.
Public health infrastructure, like sewage disposal systems,
waste management, hospitals and roads, are damaged. The cyclone
in Orissa in 1999 caused 10,000 deaths. The total number of
people affected was estimated at 10 to 15 millionI
Human physiology can adapt to changes in weather, within certain
limits. However, marked shortterm fluctuations in weather lead
to serious health issues. Heat waves cause heat-related illness
and death (e.g., heat stroke). The elderly and persons with
existing heart or respiratory diseases are more vulnerable.
The heat wave in India in 1998 was associated with many deaths.
Climate plays an important role in vector-borne diseases transmitted
by insects like mosquitoes. These disease transmitters are sensitive
to the direct effects of climate, such as temperature, rainfall
patterns and wind. Climate affects their distribution and abundance
through its effects on host plants and animals.
Malaria transmission is particularly sensitive to weather and
climate. Unusual weather conditions, for example a heavy downpour,
can greatly increase the mosquito population and trigger an
epidemic. In the desert and at the highland fringes of malarial
areas, malaria transmission is unstable and the human population
lacks inherent protective immunity. Thus, when weather conditions
(rainfall and temperature) favour transmission, serious epidemics
occur in such areas. The fluctuations in malaria over the years
have also been linked to changes in rainfall associated with
the El Nino cycle. |
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