Evolution of Environmental Health Flashcards
What was Hippocrates’ contribution?
- Father of Medicine
- hygiene
- emphasis on external factors influencing health; what’s happening outside –> our health
What were things that were issues in the early ages?
- weather
- poisonous food
- pathogens
- shelter
- wild animals
What are the four humors of the body?
- Yellow bile: aggression & anger
- Black bile: melancholy
- Phlegm: apathetic behavior
- Blood: good humor, lively (rosy cheeks)
What were issues during the Ancient Origins?
- Food safety
- Clean water
- Air pollution
- Mold, parasites pests
How did ancient origins address food safety?
preservation (salting, smoking, pickling, fermentation, etc)
Why was clean water an issue during the ancient origins?
lead was a bitch
* aqueducts from romans that were used to direct water from place to another were made with lead –> poisonous water
* lead was also used in older engines (reduced nocking sound)
- general sanitation issues
- solution: Hippocrates’ sleeve
Where was indoor air pollution coming from?
- indoor fires
- modern sources (pets, heaters, house cleaners, smoking)
Why are rats bad?
carry diseases through human wounds & their droppings/urine/saliva also have bad stuff
What are some characteristics of the Industrial Awakenings environment?
6
- Crowded, dark, unventilated housing → one bad envi component impacted a lot of people
- Ill functioning open sewers
- Noise poll
- Smell poll
- inadequent/non-existent water supply (beer > water)
- Streets covered in horse manure & refuse
- Factories would run 24/7, workers had shifts, kids would wake them up
How was clean water a pressing need during the Industrial Awakenings?
- Greater pop density → higher prob of water contamination & disease outbreakes
- Regular outbreaks of cholera and yellow fever (due to dirty water)
- Contamination from nearby industries
- Used rudimentary GIS for cholera, found a location, people who drank from that pipe were getting sick
How was sewage management a pressing need during the Industrial Awakenings?
- Provision for piped water & indoor toilet
- They had to go to the pipes and remove the nasty shit themselves YIKES
- Large volumes of liquid waste generated
How did Radical tech advancement negatively impact 3 P’s during the Industrial Awakenings?
How did new and dangerous machines deployed in the industry affect this?
- tech advancement needed more employment (bad working conditions, hiring kids)
machines
* no knowledge on long term impacts
* improper training
* machines break easily → can cause hazards depending on machine
Explain how coal mining was an envi health issue
By nature, disturbing rock & carving into mountain is unsafe: you dk what’s above/below it
* added poles for stability
* needed canary in mines as indicators for CO2 levels (or running out of oxygen)
Workers were also fatigued
* respiratory health: soot is small and can build up in lungs
What did these people do?
1. John Graunt
1. William Farr
1. Edwin Chadwick
1. John Snow
- John Graunt: census
- William Farr: rural vs urban, chronic vs acute diseases
- Edwin Chadwick: sanitation laws, social epidemiology & envi health
- John Snow: GIS king, broad street pump
How did lit, art and design react to envi during Industrial Awakenings?
- Celebrating nature & forms of nature
- Led to idea of pristine environments being wholesome, healthful, and restorative
- Romantic Movement: envi was seen as romantic, where you can relax
What were the main developments during the 20th century for environmental health?
4
- looking into Chemical hazards (bodily function & organ devt)
- Growth of Environmental Psychology (envi x human wellbeing)
- Ecohealth (Planetary Health) (ecology x human health)
- Health care services for environmental exposure (Occupational medicine)
Why are persistent organic pollutants persistent?
- Synthetic, so environment doesn’t know how to deal w/ them and break the bonds
- Harder for it to decompose in the environment
- Starts chain reaction
However, DDT and other chemicals can be processed to be sequestered (NOT degraded)
* Sequester in fat of organisms (very ideal actually), or an organism that isn’t mobile
* when doing this, POP is still in the environment, but not degraded
* But it becomes a problem for the food chain, and therefore for people also
How is DDT a chemical hazard
dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane
* POP (mostly carbon)
* Toxicity is chronic (over a long period of time)
* Was marketed as non-toxic <3 wow silent spring! Not the person drinking a glass of ddt
* Downstream: impact on humans (reproductive), impact on birds (thinner egg shells :()
* Birds’ eggs are semi-permeable enough, but doesnt let important things leave
* If bird ingests worms or whatever na may DDT, thinner shells → not viable for incubation
