Aqsa Abid, Green Blogger

Environment, the surrounding of an organism in which the organism lives. For healthy life, we depend on environment. The public health  and environment interact in both direct and indirect ways.

But sometimes these interactions affect quality of life, years of healthy life lived, and health disparities. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) it define the environment with respect to the health, as “all the physical, chemical, and biological factors external to a person, and all the related behaviors.”

Environmental health, the interactions between people and their environment in related to preventing or controlling the diseases, injuries and disability .

The objectives of healthy people focus on 6 themes, each of which highlights an element of environmental health:

·         Outdoor air quality

·         Surface and ground water quality

·         Toxic substances and hazardous wastes

·         Homes and communities

·         Infrastructure and surveillance

·         Global environmental health

To increasing quality of life and years of healthy life when we maintain the healthy environment. According to the global report, approximately 23% of all deaths and 26% of deaths among children under age 5 are due to preventable environmental factors. Environmental factors are diverse and far reaching. They include:

·         Exposure to hazardous substances in the air, water, soil, and food

·         Natural and technological disasters

·         Climate change

·         Occupational hazards

·         The built environment

The poor environmental quality has greatest impact on the people whose health status is already at risk.

According to the report  of WHO on Preventing diseases through healthy environment, it estimate that environmental stressor are responsible for 12-18% of all the deaths in 53 countries of the WHO Europe region. If we improving the  quality of environment  then we improve our health.

Different environmental related problems and their impacts on health:

Air pollution is the single largest environmental health risk and is associated with heart diseases, stroke, respiratory problems, eye and skin cancer.

Noise exposure from transport sources and industry can lead to annoyance, sleep disturbance and increases the risk of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases.

Exposure to chemicals also a key concern. On daily lives, people exposed to chemicals via polluted air and water, consumer products and diet. Some of the chemicals have persist in environment  and that chemicals bioaccumulate in food chain and causes harmful effect.

The impacts from climate change also poses  a immediate impacts on health in terms of heat waves, floods, drought and sometime in shifts in the patterns of infectious diseases and allergens.

About the Author: Aqsa Abid is a student of environment at GCWUS. She is passionate to write about environment and conservation.