Environment and Health

Contents
• Environmental sanitation
• Water
• Waste disposal
• pollution
Environment
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Role of Environment in Health

• Health of man depends on the interaction
between Agent, Host and Environment –
Epidemiological triad
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Epidemiological triad

Host Agent

Disease

Environment
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Cont…..

• Physical environment includes air, water,

soil, housing etc.
• Biological environment includes plants,
animals, insects, bacteria etc.
• Social environment includes customs,
culture, habits, occupation etc.
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Environment and disease

• Many of the diseases in man are caused by
adverse environmental factors like
▫ Water pollution, air pollution, soil pollution, poor
housing, insect vectors, animal reservoirs etc.
• Due to industrialization and urbanization
environmental pollution has increased, resulting
in increased morbidity.
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Environmental sanitation
• Environmental sanitation is not merely sanitary
disposal of excreta
• It means – clean home, clean farm , clean
business, clean neighborhood and clean
community
• The purpose of environmental health is to create
and maintain conditions that will promote
health and prevent disease
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Water and Health

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Water
• Many diseases occurring in man are due to lack
of safe drinking water
• Common water-borne diseases are:
▫ Viral hepatitis E&A, Polio, diarrhea, typhoid,
cholera, amoebiasis etc.
• Providing safe drinking water is very important
to prevent diseases in man
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Sources of water supply

• Rain
• Surface water
▫ Reservoirs, Ponds, Sea (after
desalination)
▫ Rivers
• Ground water
▫ Shallow well
▫ Deep well
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Purification of water
• Purification in small scale (small quantity) –
e.g. in a house

• Purification of water in large scale (large

quantity)
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Purification of water on a large scale

• There are two methods of purification
▫ Slow sand filtration
▫ Rapid sand filtration
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Slow sand filtration

• There are 3 steps
1. Storage
2. Filtration
3. Chlorination
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Storage

• Water is first stored in large tanks for about 10

days
• This will result in impurities settling down
• Some organic material will be oxidized
• A great decrease (90%) in the number of bacteria
occurs in the water
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Filtration
• Large Sand filters are used to filter water
• The sand filter consists of sand of different sizes
about 1-1.5 mts in thickness
• When water flows through the sand it gets
filtered
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Section of sand filter Impure

water

Pure
water
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Rapid Sand filtration

• There are three steps in rapid sand filtration
1. Mixing with Alum
2. Filtration
3. Chlorination
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Rapid sand filtration

• Mixing with Alum

▫ In rapid filtration method water

is Not stored
▫ Water is mixed with Alum, which
will combine with the impurities
and form big particles
▫ The particles of Alum will settle
down with the impurities and are
removed
▫ The clear water is filtered using
rapid sand filter
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Disinfection
• The last step in water purification is disinfection
• Destroys most of the infectious agents in the
water
• Chlorination is the most commonly used method
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Chlorination
• First the amount of chlorine required to
destroy all microbes and organic matter is
calculated. It is the ‘chlorine demand’ of
water
• Wait for 1 hour for the chlorine to kill all the
bacteria
• However some viruses, cysts are not
destroyed
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Residual chlorine
• 0.5mg of chlorine per liter of water is added
extra to protect against contamination during
distribution of water
• This is called ‘residual chlorine’
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Purification of water on small scale

• Boiling
▫ Water must be boiled for 5-10minutes
▫ Care must be taken to prevent contamination later
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Chlorination
• Small quantities of water may be disinfected
with chlorine tablet
▫ 0.5g for 20L
• Bleaching powder can be used to disinfect wells
▫ 2.5gm for 1000L
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Water quality standards

• Physical standards
▫ Turbidity. Turbidity is the presence of suspended
particles which make the water ‘not-clear’.
Drinking water must be clear
▫ Color
▫ Taste and Odour
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Cont…
• Chemical standards
▫ Chloride – should not be more than 200mg/litre
▫ Calcium– calcium should not be more than 100-
300mg/litre
▫ pH – pH should be between 6.5-8.5
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Cont…
• Biological standards
▫ E coli
▫ Viruses
▫ Protozoa
▫ Cysts/eggs
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Cont….

• Biological quality of water is tested by

‘presumptive coliform test’
• Samples of water are added to culture medium
to see if coliforms grow in it
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Thank you