Abstract
Environmental health is one of the emerging research and debate areas that has dominated headlines in the current past. The following discussion analyses environmental health and the impacting factors, and the role of human beings in eliminating the barriers to quality environmental health. It will comprise an introduction, synopsis, body, and the conclusion paragraph. The information draws from at least 3 pieces of literature on this particular subject.
Introduction
Environmental change refers to the frequent disturbance of the environment by either natural ecological events or human influences (Johnson, Ambrose, Bassett, Bowen, Crummey, Isaacson, Johnson, Lamb, Saul & Winter-Nelson, 1997). It may include such things as animal interaction, natural disasters, or human interference. It is noteworthy that environmental changes encompass much more than just the physical changes. It also involves infestation of the environment by invasive species. While most people use the term environmental change and climate change intertwiningly, it is worth noting that they mean denote different aspects and the interchangeable usage may result in erroneous conclusions. Climate change, connotes a variation in the average conditions of weather patterns. Environmental change plays a central role in the facilitation of climate change. It suffices to say that environmental change is the sole cause of climate change. The negative impacts of diverse and extreme climate change, therefore, are also direct impacts of environmental change.
Synopsis
Environmental health describes all the elements and aspects of disease and human health that depend on various environmental factors. It may also define the practice and theory of analysing and monitoring the environmental factors that potentially impact health. Environmental health encompasses both direct and pathological detriments associated with chemical emission into the environment, biological agents and radiation, and their effects on the wellbeing of the general cultural, physical, social and psychological environment which may include urban development, transport, housing and land use (White, Stallones & Last, 2013). The environment, and the ecology, support the life of every living thing that it envelopes, thus, its protection and conservation is imperative for the continued wellbeing of the living organisms. The field of environmental health borrows majorly from three disciplines: toxicology, environmental epidemiology, and exposure science. While each of these subjects contribute unique information to environmental health, the constituent information may have some extent of overlap given that they describe a common subject. Environmental epidemiology focuses on the interlink between human health and the environmental exposures such as exposure to radiation, chemicals or microbiological agents. The field of environmental epidemiology is replete with observational studies and deductive conclusions given that human beings cannot be ethically exposed to lethal agents for experiment purposes. Even then, environmental epidemiology still concentrates on the human health related effects rather than using animals as specimens then situating the findings in the context of human beings. On the same vein, toxicology is concerned with examination of the contributions of environmental exposures to particular health outcomes mostly in animals with a view to applying the case to health outcomes in humans. Unlike environmental epidemiology, toxicology proffers the benefit conducting randomized controlled trials in addition to other relevant studies as animal subjects can be used for the experiments. However, the composite differences in animal and human anatomies can result in outrageous findings, thus, caution and attentiveness are mandatory. Finally, exposure science is chiefly concerned with exposure of human beings to harmful chemicals that contaminate the environment by not only identifying but also measuring the exposures. It supports environmental epidemiology through insightful description of the exposures associated with the particular health outcomes. Exposure science is particularly advantageous in the sense that it accurately gauges the level of the exposures to certain chemicals; however, it fails to provide any information concerning health outcomes like in the case of toxicology or environmental epidemiology.
Environmental Factors that Impact Health
There is a myriad of environmental factors that affect health in significant ways. While in most cases only the negative impacts are highlighted, it is noteworthy that these environmental factors can either be negative or positive. Positive environmental factors comprise those that have a cumulative positive impact on health in that they facilitate wellbeing and encourage health. Promoting such factors acts as preventive medicine. One of the factors include farming which depends on soil quality, bio-integrity, and availability of water, and hunting or fishing which depend on wildlife and fish populations. This group of positive factors is the major source of nutrition which is a baseline for the survival of all the living things. Another pivotal positive environmental factor is water. Health benefits of water can never be understated. Basically, water supports life. In particular, apart from drinking and cooking, water is required for the general sanitation or cleaning. Besides, air quality is positive environmental factor that not only promotes but also sustains health. It defines the lowest levels of ambient air pollution. Air quality is quantified through the measure of various pollution indicators. Though rarely recognised, the presence of ozone layer as an environmental factor also contributes positive health of the living occupants of the environment. The layer offers protection against the harmful ultraviolet rays whose exposure increases chances of such diseases as cancer. The last positive, and critical, environmental health factor is waste recycling or sanitation. Waste recycling decreases the levels of various forms of pollution like water and air, thus, promotes health.
On the other hand, negative environmental factors threaten and harm health, thus, controlling and minimising their effect promotes public environmental health. The major negative environmental factor is global warming. Global warming is replete with environmental conditions that favour the thriving of diseases vectors both exotic and endemic, invasive biota like bacteria and viruses, and the vectors that host them. A typical example of negative health impacts of global warming can be seen in Erythromelagia (Liu, Zhang, Lin et al., 2015). Erythromelagia is a vascular disease that comes from extreme temperature changes which induce such syndromes as swelling of the hands and feet, increased body temperature, burning pain and erythrema. Liu, Zhang, Lin et al. (2015) note that the disease is currently synonymous with southern China due to the rapid and unprecedented temperature decline immediately after a temperature surge. Similarly, the continuously warming oceans and accompanying extreme weather patterns have increased the breakout and prevalence of infectious diseases. While in some areas the extreme climatic conditions result in prolonged rainy seasons, some areas receive long droughts. These diverse environmental changes create opposite conditions which favour the survival and increase of vectors, allowing them to multiply in devastating proportions. Such conditions like El Nino cause flooding which apart from devastating human health directly, create an enabling and promising grounds for the breeding of a blizzard of lethal vector that carry and spread infectious diseases.
Essentially, environmental disruption through such factors as floods, storms, droughts, volcanoes, fires, and earthquakes also have negative health impacts. High winds, for instance, wreak havoc both on land and in the oceans, thus, apart from creating favourable conditions for the breeding of vectors, result in several cases of death and unhealthy living conditions. The high winds that often accompany the extreme weather facilitate the spread by carrying the invasive biota and the vectors for longer distances, therefore, affecting large swaths of land and exposing the people to harm. Other negative factors include the presence of abiotic and biotic contaminants that compromise the quality of water, thus, endangering health since the water ceases to be usable. Ocean acidification is one of the abiotic contaminants. It is considered one of the adverse and harmful impacts of environmental change. Some negative environmental change factors are associated with human activities like biological, nuclear, or chemical warfare, extensive aerosol usage, and deforestation.
My Role in Eliminating Environmental Barriers to Health
While it is apparent that there are particular health benefits of environmental change, researchers agree that the negative consequences will, in the future, outdo any of the benefits. It is only by proactive and mitigative efforts will the situation be averted. Eliminating the environmental barriers to health requires a concerted effort that begins with the basic contribution of environmental citizens. My major role is to inform people and create awareness concerning the benefits of conserving the environment. Essentially, I play a major role in educating, empowering, and enlightening people about the various environmental issues including the barriers to health and feasible ways of eliminating. Besides, I have the responsibility of mobilizing community partnerships and activities with a view to solving the environmental health problems through proactive elimination of the barriers. In essence, my roles can be summarised as monitor, diagnose, mobilize, develop, enforce, link, assure, evaluate, and research. The first item in the list comprises monitoring the surrounding and health status with an aim of pinpointing and solving the existing environmental health problems. The role envelopes both proactive and reactive measures aimed at dealing with the environmental barriers to health. Diagnosing and launching an inquest into the environmental problems and the health barriers will also go a long way in facilitating a community’s environmental safety and reducing the negative factors.
While I may not have the requisite and sufficient muscle to develop or implement any policies, I still have a central responsibility in contributing to, and shaping up, the policy discussions. Active participation in the discussions streamlines the eventual policies in the sense that they will be tailored to specific community contexts and will be able to fulfil the environmental health needs of the particular populations. In the same vein, I can participate in the enforcement of the regulations and laws that seek to eliminate the environmental barriers to health and promote environmental safety. Also, I can link members of the community to the necessary environmental health services. While this is a reactive measure, it also counts as proactive in the sense that it is from dealing with the specific environmental needs in the affected people that a way forward can be found with respect to averting such future cases. Participation in the evaluation, accessibility, effectiveness, and quality of environmental health services also remains my part to play. The final role is to utilise the relevant resources to research for new trends, insights, and any relevant information regarding mitigative measures to environmental health problems. In this manner, I will be able to make informed decisions and come up with innovative solutions to eliminate environmental barriers to health. As an environmental citizen, my contribution, and the individual roles, are pertinent to crafting more focused mitigative framework and effective proactive methods that would see to the elimination of environmental health barriers and promotion of community environmental health.
Summary and Conclusion
Environmental issues continue to dominate most of the contemporary discussions and debates; and for a good reason- the environment supports life. For the environment to support life, it should be operating at its optimum from disruptions or upsets. Environmental health, which is a product of the environmental and climatic changes, depends on several factors. The environmental factors that impact health can either be positive or negative with the negative factors increasingly dominating their positive counterparts. Such positive factors like responsible farming, hunting, fishing, the ozone layer, water, and high air quality support human health with respect to the environment. To this end, this collection of positive factors facilitate life and improve environmental health while supporting human life. Conversely, negative environmental factors affecting health mostly create favourable conditions that facilitate the breeding of harmful diseases causing organisms like vectors and bacteria. These increase the emergence and prevalence of infectious diseases. Even then, mitigative and proactive approaches could help promote environmental health by eliminating the associated health barriers. My roles are described by ten items including monitor, diagnose, inform, mobilize, develop, enforce, link, assure, evaluate, and research as previously discussed. The benefits of optimal environmental health are unparalleled.