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Monday, November 29, 2010
Environmental Sustainability
4:25 PM |
How do environment affect public health in different aspects? In 23 countries worldwide, more than 10 percent of deaths are due to just two environmental risk factors: unsafe water, including poor sanitation and hygiene; and indoor air pollution due to using solid fuels for cooking.
Around the world, children under five are the main victims and make up 74 percent of deaths due to diseases characterized by diarrhea and lower respiratory infections. In some countries, more than one third of the disease burden could be prevented through environmental improvements.
Air pollution:
Air pollution from smoke and various chemicals kills 3 million people a year. In the United States alone, about 3 million tons of toxic chemicals are released into the environment each year- contributiong to cancer, birth defects, immune system defects and many other serious health problems.
Smoking kills 900,000 people every year in India, unless corrective action is taken soon that number will increase to 1 million smoking-related deaths annually by 2010 and beyond.
Some ideas to fight against air pollution:
-Reduce emission from automobiles: automobile numbers are on the rise all over the world. India and China constitute the two largest populations on Earth. The number of automobiles plying the roads here are enormous to the point that any pollution control law is negated. Cleaner engines and low-emission kits can reduce the pollution produced by each automobile unit, but considering the large number of cars running worldwide, they do not do much good in cleaning up the environment.
-Reduce harmful gas emissions from factories: no country can exist today in this materialistic world without industries. Unfortunately, every industry adds some pollutant to the environment. Instead of enforcing laws to make industries pollution-free, it simply lays down laws to regulate the level of harmful pollutants released into the environment. This is because governments are more concerned with the economic benefits of industries than implementing costlier mechanisms of pollution control.
-The call of the hour is a smart strategy or some kind of mechanism that can remove pollution altogether and not just control it to a limited extent. This is the only way that the environment can return to an equilibrium. Keeping in mind the importance of manufacturing units and other industries in this modern world, there needs to be strategies that can remove air pollution to ensure a healthy life for all human beings.
-Controlling the smokers' society: smoking could be controlled (control of traditions, the smokers' society, their environment...) or special smoking areas could be established for that reason.
-Back to Nature: rainforests or other green areas should not be destroyed in order to maintain or even improve the production of fresh Oxygene.
Soil contamination:
Soil is contaminated by many chemicals and pathogens, which are passed on to humans through direct contact or in their food and water. Increased soil erosion worldwide not only results in more soil being displaced, but also contributes to the spread of disease microbes and various toxins.
Some ideas to fight against soil contamination:
-Excavate soil and take it to a disposal site away from ready pathways for human or sensitive ecosystem contact. This technique also applies to dredging of bay muds containing toxins.
-Aeration of soils at the contaminated site
-Bioremediation, involving microbial digestion of certain organic chemicals. Techniques used in bioremediation include landfarming, biostimulation and bioaugmentating soil biota with commercially available microflora.
-Extraction of groundwater or soil vapor with an active electromechanical system, with subsequent stripping of the contaminants from the extract. Containment of the soil contaminants (such as by capping or paving over in place).
-Phytoremediation, or using plants (such as willow) to extract heavy metals
Water pollution:
With 1.2 billion people lacking clean water, waterbone infections account for 80 percent of all infectious diseases. Increased water pollution creates breeding grounds for malaria-carrying mosquitoes, which kill 1.2 million to 2.7 million people every year. Air pollution kills about 3 million people annually. Unsanitary living conditions accout for more than 5 million deaths each year, and more than half of those are children.
Some ideas to fight against water pollution:
-In domestic: utilizing a green infrastructure approach to improve stormwater management capacity throughout the system, and reduce the hydraulic overloading of the treatment plant repair and replacement of leaking and malfunctioning equipmentincreasing overall hydraulic capacity of the sewage collection system.
-Industrial wastewater (heated water): cooling ponds, man-made bodies of water designed for cooling by evaporation, convection, and radiationcooling towers, which transfer waste heat to the atmosphere through evaporation and/or heat transfercogeneration, a process where waste heat is recycled for domestic and/or industrial heating purposes.
At the same time, more microbes are becoming increasingly drug-resistant. And global warming, together with changes in biological diversity, influence parasite evolution and the ability of exotic species to invade new areas. As a result diseases such as tubercolosis and influenza are re-emerging as major threats while new threats - including West Nile virus and Lyme disease - have developed or spread.
References:
-D.Pimetel et al. 1998
-Prüss - Üstün - 2008
-http://environment.about.com/ articles
-Soil contamination (Wikipedia)
-Water pollution (Wikipedia)
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Infectious Diseases
There are at least three major elements playing role in the spread of infectious diseases. The air contamination which includes exhaust gases and tobacco smoke; the circulation of water and sexual intercourse influence the spread of infections in global context. In the developing countries these effects are intensified by malnutrition and poverty.
Air Pollution
Tuberculosis (TB) is contagious disease that spreads through the air. If not treated, each person with active TB can infect on average 10 to 15 people a year (WHO). Tuberculosis is often related to malnutrition and/or AIDS. AIDS leads to weakening of the host's immune system, making it impossible to resist the attack of variety of bacteria. Tobacco smoke and air pollution also worsens the situation. Since 1990 many organizations worked hard on decreasing the number of people affected by TB. However, in order to stop TB it is necessary to improve the systems that detect new cases by implementing new diagnostic tools and technologies. Substantial results can be reached also by developing new more effective drugs, including more efficient vaccines that are able to prevent and eliminate new infections with the disease. (StopTB)
Water Contamination
The spread of Malaria is an example like many other diseases of a vicious circle of:
- people suffering from the illness
- lack of manpower to take care of the sick
- widespread poverty
- inappropriate management of sewage
- polluted drinking water
- eutrophisation (lakes transforming into swamps)
- excellent breeding grounds for Anopheles mosquitoes (transmitting malaria)
- widespread lack of education and information
- ignorance about personal protection and prevention (simple nets can prevent the spread of malaria)
The polluted drinking water, which contains the bacteria Vibrio cholera can also cause a serious infection, namely cholera and it can also start another vicious circle.
In the 1930s Mussolini, the Italian dictator managed to stop the spread of different diseases and epidemics in Italy, including malaria, by establishing and enforcing stringent rules about forming dikes and pumping out the water from the swamps.
Another solution against Malaria is to treat it. As the people who suffer from the disease can't afford to treat it, their own governments and international donors should make more concerned effort to help with funds and management. Good example in this direction is Clinton's Global Initiative foundation and the efforts by the American government during George W. Bush to provide mosquito nets for millions in Africa.
Sexual Intercourse
The number one sexually transmitted virus in the world is the HIV, which causes the most threatening disease of nowadays and future, the AIDS. AIDS is a disease, which weakens the immune system and makes the infected people vulnerable to other illnesses. It is very important to treat this problem, as the number of people living with HIV has risen from around 8 million in the 199§ to 33 million today, and is still growing (Avert). One of the easiest solutions is to teach people about the importance of responsible sex, and the use of condoms to avoid the transmission of the HIV. The next solution is to prevent the spread of the infection from mother to child by providing the necessary treatments. The last partial solution is to treat AIDS, because there is no cure for the disease yet.
As a conclusion I would like to list some ideas about minimizing and stopping the spread of infectious diseases:
- educating children and young adults, especially in the developing countries about prevention and how to avoid infections
- donating money for treatments, vaccines and education
- sending food and bottled drinking water, first aid packages, condoms
- improving the standard of living of people in the developing countries and fighting poverty
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