Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is environmental health? Page 4 book
•Environmental health
–“Addresses all the physical, chemical, and biological factors external to the person, and all the related factors impacting behaviors.” (WHO)
–Aims to prevent disease
Promote health for all through a healthy environment
Page 4 book
What is the difference between environmental health and environmental science and environmental toxicology?
Environmental Quality
•Maintaining environmental quality is a pressing task for the 21st century.
Healthy People 2020 Goals (1 of 2)
•Goal number 8, Environmental Health: “Promote health for all through a healthy environment.”
–Institute of Medicine, 1988 (the Bible of Public Health), Federal Government derives Healthcare policies from it.
•Goal number 8, Environmental Health: “Promote health for all through a healthy environment.”
–Institute of Medicine, 1988 (the Bible of Public Health), Federal Government derives Healthcare policies from it.
•Goal number 8 objectives
–Outdoor air quality
–Water quality
–Toxics and wastes
–Healthy homes and healthy communities
–Infrastructure and surveillance
–Global environmental health
Environmental Health Threats
- Trash that fouls our beaches
- Hazardous wastes (including radioactive wastes) leaching from disposal sites
- Continuing episodes of air pollution
- Exposures of toxic chemicals
- Destruction of the land through deforestation
- Global warming
Population and Environment:
The Three P’s
•Principal determinants of health worldwide
–Pollution
–Population
-Poverty
Pollution
•Combustion of fossil fuels
–Petroleum
–Coal
•Dispersement of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere
–Global warming
–Change in distribution of insect vectors
Population
•Overpopulation in developing nations
–Human population exceeding the carrying capacity of the planet
•World population of 10–12 billion during the 21st century?
–Related to urban crowding
Infectious Disease Epidemics:
A Consequence of Crowding?
•Avian influenza A (H5N1) virus: outbreaks on poultry farms in Asia
–Virus mutation, enabling human-to-human transmission
–Resulting pandemic
•Swine flu (H1N1 influenza): spread through North America to other parts of the globe
Declared pandemic by WHO
Poverty
- Linked to population growth
- One of the well-recognized determinants of adverse health outcomes
Significance of the Environment for Human Health
•Role of hazardous agents
–Account for many of the forms of environmentally associated morbidity and mortality
•Examples
–Microbes
–Toxic chemicals and metals
–Pesticides
–Ionizing radiation
Scope of Environmental
Health Problems
- Elevated blood lead levels in the United States
- 8% prevalence rate of asthma in the United States (2009)
- Links to neurodevelopmental toxicity
- Degrading air quality worldwide
- Thought to be significant contributing factor for the development of cancer
Environmental Risk Transition
- Changes in environmental risks that happen as a consequence of economic development in the less developed regions of the world
- Before transition occurs, poor quality of:
–Food
–Air
–Water
- After the transition, a new set of environmental problems take hold.
- Examples include the release of:
–Acid rain precursors
–Ozone-depleting chemicals
Greenhouse gases
Population Growth
- Increasing at an exponential rate
- Threatens to overwhelm available resources
- May cause periodic food scarcity and famine in some areas of the world
Causes of Population Growth
- Increases in fertility
- Reductions in mortality
- Migration
Causes of Population Growth