ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

Topic: Introduction
Program: B. Community Health
Lecturer: Talemwa Rogers
Content
• What is Health?
• What is the environment?
• What is environmental health?
• Facets of environmental health.
• Hazard
• The role of environmental health in public health
• Careers in environmental health
• Reading assignment
• FOUNDATION OF ENVIROMENTAL SCIENCE (New topic)
What is Health?
Health is a state of complete physical, emotional and mental well-being and not merely
absence of disease or infirmity.
Cont…
• “Your health depends on the environment around you. Environmental health deals with
the study of how the environment affects human health. It differs from the study of how
humans affect the environment, because it focuses on people’s health.

• An environmental scientist might study how water pollution is hurting fish. An

environmental health scientist would study what happens to the health of people when
they catch and eat those fish.

• Environmental health is not just about the health of the environment – it always comes
back to you and whether the environment you are part of is helping you stay healthy, or
making you sick.”
What is the environment?
• The circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded OR „ The
complex of climatic, edaphic (soil-based), and biotic factors that act upon an organism or
an ecologic community
Cont…
• All that which is external to the individual host. [It] can be divided into physical, biological,
social, and cultural factors, any or all of which can influence health status in populations.

• Chemical − Air pollutants, toxic wastes, pesticides, VOCs „

• Biologic − Disease organisms present in food and water − Insect and animal allergens „
• Physical − Noise, ionizing and non-ionizing radiation „
• Socioeconomic − Access to safe and sufficient health care
• The “environment” isn’t only pristine nature, but cities, towns, workplaces, schools -
anywhere humans spend time.
What is environmental health?
• Environmental health comprises those aspects of human health, including quality of life,
that are determined by physical, biological, social, and psychosocial factors in the
environment.

• It also refers to the theory and practice of assessing, correcting, controlling, and
preventing those factors in the environment that can potentially affect adversely the
health of present and future generations.
What is Environmental Health Science?
• “The study of those factors in the environment that affect human health”(NIEHS charter)
• Factors (“pollutants” or “toxicants”) in environment (air, water, soil, or food) transferred
to humans by inhalation, ingestion, or absorption − that affect / lead to production of
adverse health effects
Facets of Environmental Health
• Environmental epidemiology − Associations between exposure to environmental
agents and subsequent development of disease „
• Environmental toxicology − Causal mechanisms between exposure and subsequent
development of disease „
• Environmental engineering − Factors that govern and reduce exposure „
• Preventive medicine − Factors that govern and reduce disease development „
• Law − Development of appropriate legislation to protect public health
Hazard
• “Every day, you come in contact with things in your environment that can help you or hurt
you. Some of these things are important for keeping you healthy, such as oxygen or
medicines.

• However, some of these things may be harmful

• to your health, such as tobacco smoke or snake
venom.
• Things in the environment that are harmful are
called hazards and include things like chemicals,
disease-causing bacteria, loud noises and even stress.
• Hazards can be natural or human-made.
The role of environmental health in public health
• Environmental health is a part of public health where the primary goal is preventing disease and promoting
people’s health. Environmental health is associated with recognising, assessing, understanding and
controlling the impacts of people on their environment and the impacts of the environment on the public. The
role of the environmental healthworker, therefore, includes the following functions of public health:

Improving human health and protecting it from environmental hazards.

Developing liaison between the community and the local authority, and between the local and higher levels
of administration.
Acting independently to provide advice on environmental health matters; designing and developing plans of
action for environmental health.
Initiating and implementing health/hygiene, sanitation and environmental programmes to promote
understanding of environmental health principles.
Enforcing environmental legislation.
Monitoring and evaluating environmental health activities, programmes and projects.
Careers in Environmental Health
• “People working in the fields of environmental health do many different jobs. They work
to identify environmental hazards, and prevent people from being harmed by them.
• Some are scientists working in laboratories.
• Some work for the government writing
regulations and studying pollution.
• Some work for corporations to help make sure that
workplaces are safe and that the environment is kept
as clean as possible.
• Most of these jobs require a solid understanding of
science and math, knowledge about history and the law,
and good communication skills.
Reading Assignment
• Why is it important of studying Environmental health in Public Health?
FOUNDATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL
SCIENCE
This lesson will explore briefly the exciting field of environmental
science. You will learn what environmental science is and also
discover what disciplines it incorporates. Also, the importance of
environmental science will be explained.
Content
• What is environmental science
• Three main goals of environmental science
• An interdisciplinary field
• Importance of environmental science
• ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLANGES
What is environmental science?
Environmental science, interdisciplinary academic field that draws on ecology, geology
•
, meteorology, biology, chemistry, engineering, and physics to study environmental
problems and human impacts on the environment.
Three main goals of environmental science
1. To learn how the natural world works,
2. To understand how we as humans interact with the environment, and also,
3. To determine how we affect the environment. This includes finding ways to deal with
these effects on the environment.
• Broadly, however, the environmental sciences contain two main sub-groupings:
• the life sciences (such as biology) and
• the earth sciences (such as geology).
• Furthermore, the environmental sciences include disciplines that are focused on present-
day phenomena (such as meteorology) as well as on conditions that existed in the past
(such as palaeoclimatology).
An interdisciplinary field
• Environmental science is also referred to as an interdisciplinary field because it
incorporates information and ideas from multiple disciplines.
• Within the natural sciences, such fields as biology, chemistry, and geology are included
in environmental science.
• It is a complex and broad field is that it also includes fields from the social sciences and
the humanities.
• The social science fields incorporated include geography, economics, and political
science.
• Philosophy and ethics are the two fields within the humanities that are also included.
• By combining aspects of the natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities, the
field of environmental science can cover more concepts and also examine problems and
topics from many different points of view.
Importance of Environmental Science
Importance of this subject can be described in terms of the various objectives that it fulfils
for saving the environment. So far, seven such objectives have been identified:
• It guides us to know how our developmental and day-to-day activities affect environment
and how we are affected by changes in the environmental conditions.
• It guides us to create a pollution-free environment (that is, clean air, water, land, and
food) by adopting different methods of preventing and controlling pollution.
• It guides us to utilize our natural resources such as water, forest, minerals, and fossil
fuels in an efficient manner, that is, with maximum utility and minimum wastage, by
adopting conservation and recycling strategies.
Cont…
• It guides common public to live an eco-friendly lifestyle by adopting the above three
features, that is, knowing environmental implications of one’s activities, preventing and
controlling pollution, and utilizing the resources efficiently in day-to-day activities.
• It guides industries to operate in an eco-friendly mode by adopting clean and efficient
technologies and installing pollution control systems.
• It guides us to solve complex global environmental problems such as climate change,
ozone-layer depletion, desertification, and energy crisis by using different
interdisciplinary tools and approaches.
• It guides the entire development process to become sustainable by ensuring equal
distribution of natural resources between present and future generations, as well as by
caring for nature in every walk of life in a holistic manner.
ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES
A Focus on environmental change
Reading assignment on other environmental challenges
Introduction
• Given that the earth system is dynamic - in other words, is constantly changing at all
spatial and temporal scales - and because environmental changes can have profound
consequences for human societies and economies,
• the work of environmental scientists frequently focuses on the investigation of process
and change. In fact, the task of understanding environmental change is central to
environmental science - yet it is a task that may present formidable challenges, for
several reasons:
Environmental challenges of Environmental change
• Scientific knowledge is cumulative, limited and partial; many environmental changes
involve parts of the earth system that are not yet fully known or understood - as in the case
of the extinction of species that have not yet been formally discovered or identified

• Environmental changes may be cryptic: in other words, impossible (or extremely difficult) to
detect, even using modern scientific techniques - as in the case of changes that occur in
the genetic material of organisms but which are not immediately apparent in the structure
or behaviour of those organisms

• Environmental changes may occur over vast spatial scales, making it difficult to establish
effective scientific monitoring programmes - as in the case of changes in the strength or
direction of oceanic currents at the global scale
Cont…
• Conversely, environmental changes may occur over extremely small spatial scales, again
making observation and monitoring difficult - as in the case of the contamination of soils
and groundwater by nanoparticles

• Environmental changes may occur over very long temporal scales, including the geological
timescale, and they may be imperceptible over the average human lifespan - as in the case
of changes in the amount of solar radiation received due to variations in the earth's orbit

• Conversely, environmental changes may be extremely rapid and their significance may not
be appreciated until it is too late to conduct scientific monitoring and to establish baselines -
as in the case of the collapse of an animal population following the outbreak of a virulent
disease
Cont…

• Environmental changes may have occurred in the past when scientific monitoring
techniques were not available, or were not used - as in the case of the historical rapid
depletion of some whale species due to the operation of commercial fisheries

• Environmental changes may involve complex environmental systems and subsystems,

including myriad feedback mechanisms, and the causal relationships between the
various components may not be known with sufficient certainty - as in the case of
regional and local climate change due to radiative forcing
Cont…
• Environmental changes may have both natural and human (anthropogenic) causes, and
it may be extremely difficult to disentangle the relative significance of each - as in the
case of vegetation change in pastoral areas that have become drought-prone and
desiccated

• For reasons such as these, many concerns have been expressed about the accuracy
and reliability of scientific knowledge and understanding of environmental change.
Indeed, the subject of environmental change has become one of the most problematic
and fiercely contested aspects of environmental science.
Reading Assignment
Write short notes on seven of the following environmental challenges;

• Climate change • Over fishing

• Polar ice caps • Urban Sprawl
• Transportation • Deforestation
• Natural resource use • Water pollution
• The Nitrogen cycle • Population growth
• Lower biodiversity • Water Production
• Air Pollution • Genetic
• Ocean Acidification modification of
• Ozone Layer Depletion crops
• Acid rain
References
• (No Title) (no date). Available at: https://depts.washington.edu/ceeh/downloads/Intro_to_EH_slideset.pdf (Accessed:
20 October 2020).
• 1.2 What is environmental science? (no date). Available at: https://www.soas.ac.uk/cedep-
demos/000_P500_ESM_K3736-Demo/unit1/page_09.htm (Accessed: 22 October 2020).
• environmental science | Definition & Facts | Britannica (no date). Available at:
https://www.britannica.com/science/environmental-science (Accessed: 22 October 2020).
• Hygiene and Environmental Health Module: 1. Introduction to the Principles and Concepts of Hygiene and
Environmental Health: View as single page (no date). Available at:
https://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=187&printable=1 (Accessed: 20 October 2020).
• Last, J. M. (Ed.). (1995). A Dictionary of Epidemiology (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
• ResearchGate (no date a). Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273775623_Introduction_to_Environmental_Sciences/link/550d14580cf2ac2
905a5c6f5/download (Accessed: 22 October 2020).
• ResearchGate (no date b). Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273775410_ENVIRONMENTAL_SCIENCES_SCOPE_AND_IMPORTANCE
/link/550d10dd0cf275261097c39e/download (Accessed: 22 October 2020).