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Impact of environment on health
Highlights
In developing countries like India the biological contamination of food, water and air with germs has remained a health menace. Introduction of toxic chemicals and harmful radiations has created new types of potentially serious health problems. Developmental projects have led to pollution of the environment resulting in different type of health problems.
It is well known that various human activities have caused damage to land, air, water and the organisms that inhabit them. The degraded environment in turn poses a serious threat to affect human health and social well-being
In developing countries like India the biological contamination of food, water and air with germs has remained a health menace. Introduction of toxic chemicals and harmful radiations has created new types of potentially serious health problems. Developmental projects have led to pollution of the environment resulting in different type of health problems.
Some of those will be discussed in detail in this lesson. Health types and various types of influences Health of a person is the result of interaction of a large number of influences upon the person. These can be considered as genetic influences, behavioural influences and environmental influences.
Genetic influences- Genes determine the physical and physiological characteristics of an organism. The inherited abnormalities manifest as the hereditary diseases which are passed on from parents to offsprings. Diseases like allergies, hypertension, diabetes, etc. are not entirely genetic. However, they are due to the interaction of genes with the environment.
These are triggered and affected by nutrition, stress, emotion, hormones, drugs and other environmental interactions. Behavioural influences – Alcoholism, smoking, use of drugs, tobacco chewing or irregular food habits causing various kinds of health problems. Environmental influences- Various components of the environment exert their influence on our health.
These can be grouped under physical, chemical, biological, sociological and psychological factors.
Sanitation and other problems in habitations
- Unregulated growth of habitations, inadequate infrastructure facilities and lack of proper facilities for collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of wastes have all contributed to increased pollution causing health hazards.
- Lack of proper toilets, especially in villages, towns and slum areas of cities does not permit proper disposal of human waste which in turn leads to improper sanitary conditions and health hazards.
- Scarcity of clean drinking water is one of the major causes for the spread of many water borne diseases.
- Poor drainage or improper drainage results in the accumulation of waste water in public places in villages, towns and cities. Animal excreta and movement of cattle in and out of water pools and puddles spreads this filth over larger areas further causing sanitary problems.
- Contamination of food, often due to lack of understanding of the reasons and consequences is another health hazard faced by humans.
- Poor personal hygiene and eating without washing of hands leads to many types of health problems.
Villages
One of the major problems of the villages is the lack of safe drinking water supply. Many health problems and diseases in villages are due to use of water which is not clean. Improper disposal or lack of disposal of excreta adds to the sanitation problems. These are linked with high infant mortality rate and low life expectancy.
Provision of low cost sanitary latrines in villages is a very important program of rural development. Ignorance of hygiene and sanitation adds to the problems further. Dissemination of knowledge and provision of safe drinking water is an important agenda.Rural households are not properly ventilated as a result they suffer from lack of fresh air and many rural households are single room units which get filled with smoke from burning of fire wood and biomass and do not get adequate sun light.
They lack of proper drainage that leads to contamination of ground water and other sources of drinking water.
Towns
In most of the cities there is lack of proper drainage. As a result accumulation of waste water form puddles of dirty water. Animals like cattle, dogs and pigs roam freely in cities and their excreta etc. make sanitation problems worse. Roads are not proper and the different types of transport further pollute the environment and cause health problems.
Cities
Rapid growth of urbanization has adversely stressed the environment. About 1/5of the urban population resides in slums and 1/3rd of the population does not have access to sanitation and clean drinking water which results in poor health. Most cities have many unplanned and haphazard areas with inadequate infrastructure.
Industrial areas have been established without environmental assessment. Inadequate commercial areas, inadequate transport network, inadequate green and recreational areas and lack of consideration for environment in planning have led to chaos and environmental degradation. Discharge of sewage into open drains, contaminate city water supply, especially during rainy season.
Slums
Are unplanned aggregations of hutments arranged very closely without any space for roads, parks, drains, etc. Often many persons live in each of these small hutments which do not have proper ventilation and cooking on wood burning challahs fills them with smoke resulting in many respiratory problems and diseases.
Generally toilets are absent making life difficult especially for women. Lack of proper drainage leads to unhygienic conditions. Due to unavailability of clean drinking water, these people suffer from diseases like dysentery which is often fatal to children in these areas.
Industrial areas
Many industries are established in unplanned manner and without environmental impact assessment. This results in air, water, soil and noise pollution with their undesirable consequences. The industrial effluents and waste are often hazardous and may contain toxic heavy metals and other toxic materials some of which ultimately to leach down and contaminate ground water making it unfit for drinking and other use.
Residential and commercial areas
It is very common in cities to have commercial activities in areas meant exclusively for residential purposes. Since these are unplanned there is no proper infrastructure for these activities. There is lot of overcrowding in a confined area. Haphazard parking makes movement of traffic and people difficult.
The noise level is high especially because of hawkers selling their wares at a very loud pitch so as to attract the attention of the prospective customers. Daily generation of garbage- both domestic and commercial is often dumped at the roadside making the whole area filled with filth and unhygienic. Burning of tree leaves and plant residues also leads to air pollution especially during winters.
Traffic
Most often the traffic is chaotic due to inadequate roads, poor enforcement of traffic rules, too many vehicles and lack of proper public transport. The movement of vehicles leads to atmospheric pollution due to the emission from the vehicles, suspended particulate matter and smoke especially from diesel vehicles.
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