write an essay on 'HEALTH HAZARDS' [on 400words] in a community
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Annalee Yassi and Tord Kjellström
Development, and industrialization in particular, have made immense positive contributions to health, including greater personal and social wealth, as well as vastly improved health and education services, transportation and communication. Unquestionably, on the global scale, people are living longer and are healthier than they were centuries and even decades ago. However, industrialization has also had adverse health consequences not only for workforces, but for the general population as well. These effects have been caused either directly by exposure to safety hazards and harmful agents, or indirectly through environmental degradation locally and globally (see “Industrial pollution in developing countries” in this chapter).
This article outlines the nature of environmental health hazards and the reasons for linking environmental health with occupational health.
Environmental health hazards, like occupational health hazards, may be biological, chemical, physical, biomechanical or psychosocial in nature. Environmental health hazards include traditional hazards of poor sanitation and shelter, as well as agricultural and industrial contamination of air, water, food and land. These hazards have resulted in a host of health impacts, ranging from catastrophic direct effects (e.g., the recent cholera epidemic in Latin America and the chemical poisoning outbreak in Bhopal, India), to chronic effects (e.g., in Minamata, Japan), to subtle, indirect, and even disputed effects (e.g., in Love Canal, USA). Table 53.1 summarizes some of the major notorious disasters in the last half century that have caused “environmental disease” outbreaks. There are undeniably countless other examples of environmental disease outbreaks, some of which are not easily detectable on the macrostatistical level. Meanwhile, over a billion people in the world lack access to safe drinking water (WHO 1992b) and over 600 million are exposed to ambient levels of sulphur dioxide that well exceed recommended levels. Moreover the pressure on agriculture and food production as both population and per capita demand increase, will likely lead to a greater burden on the environment (see “Food and agriculture” in this chapter). Environmental health impacts thus include the indirect effects of industrial disruption of adequate food and housing, as well as the degradation of the global systems on which the health of the planet depends.
Development, and industrialization in particular, have made immense positive contributions to health, including greater personal and social wealth, as well as vastly improved health and education services, transportation and communication. Unquestionably, on the global scale, people are living longer and are healthier than they were centuries and even decades ago. However, industrialization has also had adverse health consequences not only for workforces, but for the general population as well. These effects have been caused either directly by exposure to safety hazards and harmful agents, or indirectly through environmental degradation locally and globally (see “Industrial pollution in developing countries” in this chapter).
This article outlines the nature of environmental health hazards and the reasons for linking environmental health with occupational health.
Environmental health hazards, like occupational health hazards, may be biological, chemical, physical, biomechanical or psychosocial in nature. Environmental health hazards include traditional hazards of poor sanitation and shelter, as well as agricultural and industrial contamination of air, water, food and land. These hazards have resulted in a host of health impacts, ranging from catastrophic direct effects (e.g., the recent cholera epidemic in Latin America and the chemical poisoning outbreak in Bhopal, India), to chronic effects (e.g., in Minamata, Japan), to subtle, indirect, and even disputed effects (e.g., in Love Canal, USA). Table 53.1 summarizes some of the major notorious disasters in the last half century that have caused “environmental disease” outbreaks. There are undeniably countless other examples of environmental disease outbreaks, some of which are not easily detectable on the macrostatistical level. Meanwhile, over a billion people in the world lack access to safe drinking water (WHO 1992b) and over 600 million are exposed to ambient levels of sulphur dioxide that well exceed recommended levels. Moreover the pressure on agriculture and food production as both population and per capita demand increase, will likely lead to a greater burden on the environment (see “Food and agriculture” in this chapter). Environmental health impacts thus include the indirect effects of industrial disruption of adequate food and housing, as well as the degradation of the global systems on which the health of the planet depends.
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