Overview
Environmental health is an extremely broad term. If defined in words, it is a branch of environmental sciences that educates about phenomena and promotes the study of different kinds of issues related to health care along with the processes for recovering the damages that have been done because of environmental pollution. Popular organizations like World Health Organization takes up environmental as an important research topic. This branch looks after several issues including changes in climate change, food, physical activity, physical environmental health and more.
World Environmental Health Day
The International Federation of Environmental Health (IFEH), had proclaimed 26th September as World Environmental Health Day in the year 2011, a meeting held Indonesia. The goal of this day was the promotion of health of all through a healthy environment. The theme for this year is “Emerging Environmental Health Risks&Challenges for Tomorrow”.
Significance of Environmental Health
Environmental health plays an important role in our day-to-day lives, mainly due to the pollution that is caused by various kinds of resource like smoke. By studying environmental health, one can gain knowledge about how can one deal directly with problems like pollution. One also comes to know every trick to prevent the ill-effects of pollution. This branch of looks into different world dimensions of both natural and artificial environment, as well as human health.
Maintenance of a healthy environment is an extremely important thing for improving quality of life and add more years to it. On an average, around 25 percent of deaths all around the world and serious health issues can be amounted to environmental factors.
Following are the prime environmental factors that have far reaching effects:
- Physical dangers
- The environment that has been built around us
- Exposure to harmful substances in the food, air, water and soil
- Natural and technological debacles, and
- Nutritional scarcities
Major Concerns of Environmental Health
The branch of environmental health looks into different matters of human lives but following are the prime features where environmental health has a direct involvement:
Protection of water
Clean drinking water is the most important factor of human life and it is essential that every human being should be well aware of the significance of water. One should also have knowledge about how can one take care of contaminated water. Environmental health addresses issues like filtration techniques, water treatment, water types and their effects and prevention of leakage.
Air
After water, air is another important factor and is significant for the survival of living organisms. Contamination of air can prove to be extremely harmful for the living beings. Under environmental house, issues pertaining to both outdoor and indoor air, keeping its main focus on air pollution, remedies for infected air, safety steps and precautions.
Climatic changes
Any kind of change in the climate has an effect on the life living organism. With the help of Environmental health, a normal person can have a better knowledge of climatic changes, including rainfall, air pressures, humidity, seasonal viral issues and dry dust. It teaches us can we stay fit in such kinds of changes that comes in our environment.
Body art protection
From past some time, the issue of body art is becoming quite popular in foreign states. We can come to know that what steps do we need to take in relation to side effects and recovery methods of body piercing, body tattooing and cosmetic surgeries.
Food safety
Consumption of safe food is the key. Environmental health makes us aware of safe foods and unsafe foods. It also deals with matters like transportation of food, agricultural farming, fungus protection and its preservation and their effects on our body.
Disasters
Environmental health helps us in studying about natural disasters and they way we can get ready on a mental level to deal with any kind of a natural disaster. It teaches us how to respond and what steps to take when any such thing happens.
Lifestyle
All know the importance of style and standard of living. One can maintain good health by maintenance of a clean environment and suitable living standards. Under environmental health, we can get knowledge about and harmful effects of sub-standard housing and maintenance of better housing standards.
Wastes Management (Chemical, Medical and Liquid)
The liquid and chemical discharge is the main reason of water and air pollution. Environmental health teaches us how does one needs to take care of the waste water disposal and used medical equipments. One also gets to know how to deal with chemicals and their effects.
Toxicity
Sometimes various kinds of consumer cosmetic procedures find a place under environmental health. One can get to know how can we deal with the effects of such procedures on soil, water and air.
Prevention
Following are the important steps of prevention (both small and large scales):
- Creation of human awareness
- Elimination of any kind of toxic chemical and creating green environment
- Promotion of local zero-waste solutions
- Help to communities facing issues of contamination
- Stopping use of harmful pesticides
- Promotion of food independence and sustainable farming
- Putting a full-stop on water contamination because of mining and oil extraction
- Taking care of issues related to health care of children
- Reduction in outburst of waterborne diseases
- Increasing the number of days when the beaches are open for swimming
- Promotion of alternative methods of transportation to work
- Reduction in the emission of air toxic so that the ill-effects of airborne diseases can be reduced
- Promotion of physical as well as environmental health in schools
- Promotion of suitable and healthy standard of living such as reduction of use of lead-based paints
- Reduction in diseases due to sanitation problems, poor water quality and insufficient hygiene
- One should buy organic food substances
Awareness
The most important thing is the creation of such sort of public policies that make all human beings aware about the importance of environmental health. Making the common man aware of the major human and environmental health can only help in reducing any kind of issues regarding the same.
Facts
Following are the facts about environmental health assimilated by World Health Organization:
- Air pollution is that kind of a pollution that shows the worst effect on health. By the reduction of the level of air pollution, the countries of the world can bring down diseases cropping-up out of environmental issues such as lung cancer, respiratory infections and heart disease.
- It is now believed that autism is caused by a grouping of genetics and environmental factors.
- If researches are to be followed environmental exposures have harmful effects on children, both before as well as after birth, especially till they turn 5.
- Environmental issues wildly show their ill-effect on developing countries.
- If there is a better environmental management, a vast percent of deaths can be reduced.
- Environmental factors show an effect on 85 out of the 102 kinds of diseases and injuries in the list of World Health Report.