Environments, urbanisation, climate change Flashcards
Define Environment
Define Environmental Health
Define Population Growth
- Environments: all which is external to the human host; physical, biological, social, cultural
> can influence health status of population
Aspects of human health and disease determined by factors in the environment - Environmental health is the segment of public health that is concerned with assessing, understanding, and controlling the impacts of people on their environment and the impacts of the environment on them
- Pop Growth - framed as the basic source of environmental problems, debated, some blame it on the management of sources and pollution and others on inequality and lifestyle world
What are the different environments?
(biological, urban, social, economic, political, food, cultural, ecological).
- Personal/Ambient
- Inner/Outter:
the one within the body
the one outside it.
separating them are three principal protective barriers:
the skin, which protects the body from contaminants outside the body
the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, which protects the inner body from contaminants that have been ingested
the membranes within the lungs, which protect the inner body from contaminants that have been inhaled.
In another definition, people’s “personal” environment, the one over which they have control, is contrasted with the working or ambient environment, over which they may have essentially no control.
personal environment,influenced by hygiene, diet, sexual practices, exercise, use of tobacco, drugs, andalcohol, and frequency of medical checkups, often has much more, if not adominating, influence on human well-being. As may be noted, the personal environment and the lifestyles followed by individuals account for about 70 percent or more of such deaths.The environment can also be considered as existing in one of three forms—gaseous,liquid, or solid. Each of these is subject to pollution, and people interact with all of them.
Another perspective considers the environment in terms of the four avenues of mechanisms by which various factors affect people’s health.
- Gaseous environment, (gaseous, liquid, and solid environments)
Subject to pollution and people interact with all of them
Oil spill, chemical gases from factories
How environments affect health/ PH
Our earth is constituted from environments and all of them are interconnected and create an entire system. One environment’s action can directly or indirectly influence another’s. Firstly, there are multiple environments, such as: personal, biological, chemical, urban, rural, physical, ecological, socioeconomic etc. All of these environments intercationate directly with our personal environment, influenced by hygiene, diet, sexual practices, exercise, use of tobacco, drugs, and alcohol, and frequency of medical check-ups, that has if not a dominating, influence on human well-being than the working of the outdoor environment (Moeller, 2005). People’s ‘personal’ environment is separated from the exterior by 3 protective layers: skin, GI tract, membranes in the lungs, that protects it from unwanted hazards on 3 different levels.
The socio economic environment can influence peoples’ health because of its impact on the proximity to environmental pollution, e.g. increased air and water pollution due to nearby industrial and toxic waste facilities; more exposure to lead paint, pesticides, people with a low socioeconomic status tend to live in slums, urban area with poor air quality and sanitary, extreme weather,including heatwaves and extreme cold. This is linked to where they live, work and goto school, often in socially deprived urban neighbourhoods close to heavy traffic.Dilapidated buildings allow outdoor air pollution to enter, are harder to keep a comfortable temperature and are more likely to be damp and mouldy.
Personal environment: stimulation to go outside, availability of green spaces, social cohesion
Chemical environment: Certain industries are more likely to be cancerous, pollution and chemical safety varies between countries; lead, zync
Physical factors: earthquakes, catastrophes(can lead to biological hazards and diseases)
For noise, the evidence is mixed, with exposure linked to local factors, in particular road traffic levels. In some cities, wealthier neighbourhoods are located in city centres, characterised by high noise levels, while other city centres suffer social deprivation.
Socially deprived people, children, the elderly and those with ill health are less resilient in terms of coping with or avoiding climate hazards, given that they have fewer resources to heat or cool their home and reduced mobility when faced with rising flood waters. Disadvantaged social groups take longer to recover and restore their homes from the impacts of floods and suffer greater mental health impacts.
Certain groups are particularly sensitive to environmental stressors, including children, pregnant women, the elderly and those suffering from ill health. In particular,exposure to certain hazardous chemicals during critical windows of development in fetuses and young children can lead to irreversible effects. High proportions of pregnant women and children in European cities are exposed to air pollution and noise levels above health-based guidance values
What is Systems Approach?
A systems approach ensures that each problem is examined not in isolation, but in terms of how it interacts with and affects other segments of the environment and our daily lives.
What is done in the environment in one place will affect it somewhere else so a system approach ensures that each problem is not examined as if it was isolated. (Moeller)
“Attempts to control pollution in one segment of the environment can often result in the transfer of pollution to a different segment or the creation of a different form of pollution. Such interactions can be immediate or can take place over time; they can occur in the same general locality or at some distance.” Some nice examples of direct, long distance, and long term effects are given. In the spirit of the idea ‘all magic comes at a cost’ it shows how things that helped us improve/develop production processes (i.e. industrial farming), have led to a global legacy of contamination as well.
What are EU Environment Approaches for Health? EEA WHO European Green Deal (2019) The European Deprivation Index (EDI) Parma Declaration on Environment and Health (2010) Paris declaration Ostava declaration Lisbon Treaty DPSEEA model
- WHO European Healthy Cities Network
Going on for around 30 years and links together 1400 municipalities
Their common aim is to engage local governments in political commitment, capacity-building, partnership-based public innovations
Interacts directly with WHO, that proies political, strategic and technological support - New Urban Agenda
Focus on polycentric strategy of diversity of urban areas in Europe, cultural, economic, historic diversity across Europe
Main themes are migrants and refugees, climate adaptation and sustainable use of land and nature-based solution - Covenant of Mayors
First initiative of its kind to address local authorities to endorse their efforts in implementing sustainable and climate policies and to provide them with harmonised data, methodological and reporting frameworks - European Green Deal Capital Awards
To promote and reward efforts but also to exchange sustainable ideas between cities
Has a record of achieving high environmental standards
European cities to serve as environmental role models for others and encourage sustainable best practices across europe - At the same time, the Paris Declaration, “City in motion – people first”, which was adopted in2014 by European Ministers at the Fourth High-level Meeting on Transport, Health andEnvironment, endorsed a commitment to incorporate transport, health and environmental objectives into urban and spatial planning policies.
- In addition, in 2017 the Sixth MinisterialConference on Environment and Health adopted the Ostrava Declaration in which MemberStates committed to develop national portfolios for actions on environment and health,including efforts by European cities and regions to become “healthier and more inclusive,safe, resilient and sustainable through an integrated, smart and health-promoting approach to urban and spatial planning [and] mobility management”.
- Treaty of Lisbon stipulates that a ‘high level human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Union policies and activities
- DPSEEA model: a model proposed by the World Health Organisation. This model is composed of the following elements: Driving Force, Pressure, State, Exposure, Effect, and Action.
What is CC (Climate Change bitch)
And what are the causes?
Climate is the statistical description of weather and of the related conditions of ocean, lnd surface and ice sheet. Climate change is the alteration of climate over a period of time, 30 years due to natural and human induced causes
The causes? Human: Industrialization Travelling Migration CO2 emissions pollution Natural: Catastrophes, volcano eruption Rise in sun levels of radiation
Impacts of CC on health (direct, indirect)
Direct:
Mental health, well being stress because of extreme weather conditions
Vector borne disease
INfectious diseases
injuries
extreme weather events(may cause stress and MH effects), heatwaves, storms, forest fires, floods and droughts
Heavy precipitation and flooding events can disrupt water treatment and distribution infrastructures, increasing the risk of ingress of faecal pathogens and thus of waterborne outbreaks
Increases in drought frequency: impacts on freshwater sources, eutrophication and algae blooms, food safety effects, VBDs and injuries
Indirect:
Pollution → cancers etc tcc
Diseases threat because of CC
Communicable Diseases: Lyme disease Malaria Chikungunya West Nile Virus Non-communicable disease: Respiratory diseases Cardiovascular diseases Undernutrition Mental illness Allergies Poisoning injuries Vulnerable groups: children elderly people expectant mothers persons with pre-existing medical conditions outdoor workers migrants and other marginalised groups
What are adaptation and mitigation?
Adaptation can be understood as the process of adjusting to the current and future effects of climate change.
Adaptation aims to manage climate risk to an acceptable level, taking advantage of any positive opportunities that may arise.
Adaptation is defined by the IPCC as “the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects. In human systems, adaptation seeks to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, human interventions may facilitate adjustment to expected climate and its effects’’
-Mitigation means making the impacts of climate change less severe by preventing or reducing the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere.
What kinds of adaptation and mitigation measures can be taken to prevent/address climate change and its unfavourable health outcomes?
Adaptation Measures:
Redesigning infrastructures due to the rise of sea levels, The Nl
Individuals reducing their waste food
Water management
Mitigation Measures:
Planting trees
The Paris Agreement on Climate Change identifies and promotes measures that both mitigate climate change and improve health, for example, by reducing carbon emissions, air pollution and the environmental impact of the health sector itself
Mitigate climate change and improve health, b reducing carbon emissions, air pollution and environmental impacts on health itself
More EU Adapatation Metigation Measures Two-Pronged Approach EU Green Deal Paris Agreement HiAP (health in all policies) Deal with scientific uncertainties
- two-pronged approach
Contains both adaptation prevention measures and mitigation.
A: address those consequences of cc that can no longer be avoided
M: reduce greenhouse gas emissions
- European green deal
Commitment by the european commission to implement cross-section measures in policy making regarding energy, transport, agriculture etc. to make EU a into a mode economy where
by 2050 no longer greenhouse gas emissions
Economic growth couples from resource use
No place or person left behind
Implement hiap - Paris agreement
International treaty on CC, that aims to reduce the climate change temperature below 1.5, 2 celsius degrees
legally binding global deal to identify and promote measures that both mitigate climate change and improve health, for example, by reducing carbon emissions, air pollution and the environmental impact of the health sector itself. Its main aim focuses on “enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change, with a view to contributing to sustainable development and ensuring an adequate adaptation response in the context of the global temperature goal” and regarding health regard to health, implementation of the Paris Agreement provides its parties with opportunities to strengthen the climate resilience of their health systems—for example, through improved disease surveillance and preparedness for extreme weather events and ensuring climate-resilient health facilities, with undisturbed access of health facilities to essential services such as energy, water and sanitation. - Hiap
Collaborative Approach that includes health considerations into policy making across all sectors, so all groups of people are healthy
What are the pathway of risk? (CC) (direct, idnirect, social)
Pathways of risk: Direct effects: torms droughts floods heatwaves Indirect effects: water quality air pollution land use change ecological change Social dynamic age and gender health status social capital public health infrastructure mobility and conflict status
Vector borne diseases because of CC
caused by parasites, viruses and bacteria that are transmitted by vectors
vector are living organisms that can transmit infectious pathogens between human, o from animals to humans
many vectors are bloodsucking insects, which ingest pathogens and microorganisms during a blood meal from an infected hosts (human or animal) and later transmit it to another new host
malaria transmission cycle:
vector = mosquito
humans
lyme disease:
vector=oxoid tickets
chikungunya cycle:
vector=asian tiger mosquito
rural cycle (Africa): different hosts
human primates, bats, rodents and other vertebrates
urban cycle: human are the primary hosts
→ climate change can affects potential transmission rates of climate sensitive vector-borne disease, but other factors need to be considered as well
