Environmental Health and Population

Environmental Health : objective

After completion the lecture the students enable to:

• Understand what is environmental health

● Discuss the importance of applying an ecologic
perspective to any investigation of human-environment
relationships.
● Explain the concepts of prevention and long-range
environmental impact and their importance for
environmental health.
● Relate the effect of the described hazards on people’s
health.
 Introduction
 Refresh your memory:

Health.
Disease.
Environment
Pollution.
 HEALTH:
“health is a state of complete physical, mental,
social and spiritual well-being and not merely
the absence of disease and infirmity.”
in recent years the statement is amplified to
include,
“THE ABILITY TO LEAD A SOCIALLY AND
ECONOMICALLY PRODUCTIVE LIFE.”
 HOLISTIC CONCEPT OF HEALTH:

 This concept recognizes the strength of

social, economic, political and
environmental influences on health
 determinants of health:
 Heredity
 Health and family welfare services
 Environment
 Life-style
 Socio-economic conditions
 Others
 CONCEPT OF DISEASE

Disease result from complex interaction

between man, an agent and the environment.
From ecological point of view disease is
defined as “maladjustment of the human
organism to the environment”.
 Public Health ‘‘Is the science and art of preventing
disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical and
mental health and efficiency through organized
community efforts for the sanitation of the
environment, the control of community infections,
and education of the individual in principles of
personal hygiene, the organization of medical and
nursing services for the early diagnosis and
preventive treatment of disease, and the
development of the social machinery which will
ensure every individual in the community a standard
of living adequate for the maintenance of health.
EPIDEMIOLOGICAL
TRIAD
ENVIRONMENT

VECTOR

AGENT HOST
 ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACT
Environment
(Physical, biological and psychosocial)

Human activities health of individual

Definition: ‘Environment’
• [All] that which is external to individual
human host. [It] can be divided into
physical, biological, social cultural any or
all of which can influence health status in
populations.’ (WHO)
 COMPONENTS OF ENVIRONMENT:

PHYSICAL: air, water, soil, housing, climate,

geography, heat, light, noise, debris, radiation, etc.

BIOLOGICAL: man, viruses, microbial agents,

insects, rodents, animals and plants, etc.

PSYCHOSOCIAL: cultural values, customs,

beliefs, habits, attitudes, morals, religion, education,
lifestyles, community life, health services, social and
political organization.
The environment is all external conditions,
circumstances, and influences surrounding and
affecting the growth and development of an
organism or community of organisms.
 Environmental hazards
 Environmental hazards may be biological,
chemical, physical, psychological,
sociological, or site and location hazards.
 ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS

Biological
• Bacteria Physical
• Viruses  Noise

• Protozoan  Radiation

 Heat / cold

Chemical  Vibration

• Solvents
• Metals
• Toxic compounds
• Pesticides
 Discussion

 How do you think that air, water and where

they live can impact their health?
 Definition: ‘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’ (WHO)
 Environmental health has been defined by the World
Health Organization (WHO)
 as the ecological balance that must exist between man
and his environment in order to ensure his well-being.
This well-being concerns the "whole man" - not only
his physical health but also his mental health and the
optimum social relations within his environment. In the
same way it concerns the "whole environment", from
the individual human dwelling to the entire atmosphere.
 Environmental health is defined as those health
outcomes that are a result of environmental risk factors.
The World Health Organization has defined
environmental health as “all the physical, chemical, and
biological factors external to a person, and all the
related factors impacting behaviors. It encompasses the
assessment and control of those environmental factors
that can potentially affect health.
 Environmental health is the study and
management of environmental conditions
that affect the health and well-being of
humans.

 It is targeted towards preventing disease and

creating health-supportive environments”
Environmental Health
 Environmental Health services and programs include:
 Food protection.

 Sanitation technologies.

 Housing and institutions.

 Safety

 Vector control,

 Waste management,

 Water supply,

 Air quality,

 Land development and use.

 Health Effect…

• ‘…is the specific damage to health

that an environmental hazard can
cause an individual person. Often
the same hazard can cause a range
of different effects of different
severity.
Environmental Factors Affecting Health
 Interdependence
 Health depends on resources.
 Good health depends on accessibility to
sustainable resources.
 Bad health results from inaccessibility to
sustainable resources or exposure to a
hazard.
 Sustainable resources and hazards exist in
the environment.
 Therefore, quality of health depends on
the environment
 Interdependent Environments
 A relational definition of
environment is a function of scale,
boundaries, spatial proximity and
recipient populations
 When considering a global scale,
focus is on the effect of an
unbounded environment, e.g. air, on
all populations anywhere
 Interdependent Environments
 When considering local scale, focus
is on effect of both a bounded and an
unbounded environment, e.g. water
and air, on a subpopulation closest to
the exposure event
 The local scale is a subpart of the
global scale
 Population Perspective of Relations
All populations
Human population

Community, nation

Family

Individual
 Health and Environment
Perspective of Relations
Environmental health
Public Health
Occupational Health

Family Health

Personal
Health