How do we make ourselves sick?
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Answer:
Seven ways we are making ourselves sick (and how we can stop)
Here are seven ways that our failure to care for the environment is affecting our own health.
1. We are breathing polluted air.
Air is the foundation on which all human life depends. Yet, according to World Health Organization, nine out of every ten people in the world breathes air that is polluted. Microscopic pollutants from diesel fuel emissions and burning of trash, coal, kerosene and biomass penetrate deep into lungs and bloodstreams and result in various diseases. Meanwhile, methane emissions from industrial agriculture, oil and gas production and solid waste contribute to ground-level ozone and cause asthma and chronic respiratory illnesses. Globally, air pollution accounts for 7 per cent of lung cancer deaths, 18 per cent of pulmonary disease deaths, 20 per cent of stroke deaths, and 34 per cent of heart disease deaths.
Over 90 per cent of air pollution-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, but high-income countries are not immune.
2. We are drinking contaminated water.
80 per cent of wastewater flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused. This puts an approximate 1.8 billion people at risk of contracting cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio and other health complications.
Since the 1990s, water pollution has worsened in almost all rivers in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization is emphatic that frequent and proper hand hygiene is one of the most important ways to prevent viral infection. Yet, a survey of the 42 countries with available data indicates that fewer than half of the population has basic handwashing facilities–water and soap–in their own homes.
3. We are compromising the nutritional value of the foods we eat.
However, population growth and urbanization have coincided with a rise in health problems related to poor nutrition, around the world. Remarkably, while an approximate 800 million people suffer from insecure food supplies, 2.1 billion people are obese or overweight. This underscores the fact that having sufficient food and having nutritious foods are two very distinct challenges.
Two billion people lack essential vitamins and minerals critical for growth and development, such as vitamin A, iron and zinc.
4. We are consuming harmful substances.
Aside from contributing to environmental pollution, the use of pesticides for intensive farming can be a serious detriment to human health. In developing countries, 25 million people suffer from acute pesticide poisoning every year. While pesticides deemed harmful have been banned by countries signatory to the 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, their residue can remain in soil and water for years.
Food processing–treatments to improve taste, appearance and longevity–and packaging also present risks. A 2015 evaluation by the World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer classified processed meat as carcinogenic, linking it to colorectal cancer; and in some countries, endocrine disrupting chemicals, which can produce adverse developmental, neurological and immune effects, can be found in plastic bottles and metal food cans.
5. We are increasing our exposure to zoonotic diseases, like COVID-19.
By altering natural wildlife habitats for our own living, agriculture and industrial purposes, humans have reduced the natural “buffer zones” that would have separated them from wildlife, and created opportunities for diseases like COVID-19 to spill over from wild animals to people.
6. We are experiencing increased resistance to antimicrobial drugs.
Since the middle of the twentieth century, antimicrobial treatments have been used in both human and veterinary medicine. In many parts of the world, they are also added to animal feed, to promote faster growth. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, “the use of antimicrobials in animal production and health is expected to double within 20 years.”
As a consequence, antimicrobials have become less effective as medicine, in both animal and human healthcare. Globally, an approximate 700,000 people die of resistant infections every year.
7. We are reducing nature’s wealth of medicines
Worldwide, an estimated 60,000 plants, animals and microbe species are employed for their medicinal, nutritional and aromatic properties. They comprise a large portion of existing pharmaceuticals. In the United States, 118 of the leading 150 prescription drugs are based on natural sources -and natural products have been particularly important in the area of cancer therapy.
Worldwide, an estimated 15,000 medicinal plant species may be threatened with extinction; and estimates suggest that the Earth loses at least one potential major drug, every two years.
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