Health and Environment
Public health and environment
Proper environmental management is the key to avoiding the quarter of all preventable illnesses which are directly caused by environmental factors. The environment influences our health in many ways — through exposures to physical, chemical and biological risk factors, and through related changes in our behaviour in response to those factors. Thirteen million deaths annually are due to preventable environmental causes. Preventing environmental risk could save as many as four million lives a year, in children alone, mostly in developing countries.
Environmental health addresses all the physical, chemical, and biological factors external to a person, and all the related factors impacting behaviours. It encompasses the assessment and control of those environmental factors that can potentially affect health. It is targeted towards preventing disease and creating health-supportive environments. This definition excludes behaviour not related to environment, as well as behaviour related to the social and cultural environment, and genetics.
The Children’s Environmental Health Network is a national multi-disciplinary organization whose mission is to protect the fetus and the child from environmental health hazards and promote a healthy environment. To achieve this mission, the Network has had several goals: to promote the development of sound public health and child-focused national policy, to stimulate prevention-oriented research, to educate health professionals, policy makers and community members in preventive strategies; and to elevate public awareness of environmental hazards to children.
Environmental Health
Our environment affects our health. Our average life span has almost doubled over the past century or so mainly because we have clean, safe drinking water. If parts of the environment, like air and water, or soil become polluted, it can lead to health problems. For example, asthma attacks can result from pollutants and other chemicals in the air and in the home. Some environmental risks are a part of the natural world, like radon in the soil. Others are the result of human activities, like lead poisoning from paint, or exposure to asbestos or mercury from mining or industrial use.
The Collaborative on Health and the Environment:
CHE is a diverse network of 2900 individual and organizational Partners in 45 countries and 48 states, working collectively to advance knowledge and effective action to address growing concerns about the links between human health and environmental factors.
The environment and health for children and their mothers:
More than three million children under five die each year from environment-related causes and conditions. This makes the environment one of the most critical contributors to the global toll of more than ten million child deaths annually - as well as a very important factor in the health and well-being of their mothers.
Polluted indoor and outdoor air, contaminated water, lack of adequate sanitation, toxic hazards, disease vectors, ultraviolet radiation, and degraded ecosystems are all important environmental risk factors for children, and in most cases for their mothers as well. Particularly in developing countries, environmental hazards and pollution are a major contributor to childhood deaths, illnesses and disability from acute respiratory disease, diarrhoeal diseases, physical injuries, poisonings, insect-borne diseases and perinatal infections. Childhood death and illness from causes such as poverty and malnutrition are also associated with unsustainable patterns of development and degraded urban or rural environments.
