Your Health & Your Environment
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Your Health & Your Environment |
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 People
are not only surrounded by their environment but constantly contribute to it
with every behavior, including breathing. Everything we consume or even
touch can affect our environment.
The frontline in public health has become a struggle to create a health-promoting environment where the healthy choices are also the easy choices. Action to tackle smoking and encourage physical exercise and healthy eating are priorities, but success has been mixed. The most effective weight loss strategies are those that include an increase in overall physical activity. For treatment of relatively mild cases of anxiety and depression, physical activity is as effective as the most commonly prescribed medications. But to encourage people to walk, jog, or bicycle there needs to be a safe place to pursue these “life-saving” activities. Respiratory disease, especially asthma, is increasing yearly in the U.S. population. Bad air makes lung diseases, especially asthma, worse. Americans spend approximately 90% of their time indoors. Unfortunately, evidence indicates that the air within our homes and buildings is often more polluted than outdoor air, even in large cities. In addition, those at greatest risk of adverse health events from pollution, the young, elderly and chronically ill, are usually the ones who spend the most time indoors. The risk for everyone increases with time exposed to the polluted environment.A popular method for improving air quality in the home or office is the use of an air cleaning device. A HEPA filter can be effective for controlling air born particles. Avoid ozone generating machines. They can react with airborne chemicals to produce corrosive compounds, and they are not proven to be effective air purifiers. There are a number of household plants that have an affinity for removing various airborne toxins: spider plant, Boston fern, bamboo palm, peace lily, and pot mum, to name just a few. The more hours in automobiles, driving over impervious highways that generate massive tree-removal, clearly degrade air quality. When the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996 brought about a reduction in auto use by 22.5%, asthma admissions to ERs and hospitals also decreased by 41.6%. Climate change can also add to health threats, with more heat waves set to increase early deaths among older people, as well as food-borne diseases, such as salmonella, and a longer hay fever season. Hurricanes and severe weather puts us all at risk. With global warming we are threatened with even more storms developing in ever warming ocean waters. As seen with hurricane Katrina our elderly, people in hospital and nursing homes, children, pets and the poverty stricken are all at a higher risk when severe weather strikes. Another concern is the potential impact of higher temperatures and heavier rainfall events on waterborne diseases. Heavy rainfall and associated flooding can flush bacteria, sewage, fertilizers and other organic wastes into waterways and aquifers. A significant number of waterborne disease outbreaks across North America, including the E. coli outbreak were preceded by extreme precipitation events. Higher temperatures tend to increase bacterial levels and can encourage the growth of toxic organisms, including those responsible for red tides (toxic algal outbreaks). Warmer weather may also make conditions more favorable for the establishment and proliferation of vector-borne diseases by encouraging the northward migration of species of mosquitoes, ticks and fleas, and by speeding pathogen development rates. Some diseases of potential concern include malaria, West Nile virus, Lyme disease, and Eastern and Western Equine Encephalitis. Mosquito-borne diseases, such as West Nile virus and malaria, may also be able to exploit an increase in breeding grounds resulting from increased flooding. You can see by these examples how closely our personal health is related to the health of our environment. By understanding how intertwined people are to the planet we can begin to focus on making our environment safer and healthier and by doing this both our health and our planet will improve. These examples also show us how vital it is that we all take responsibility for our choices in life and that many of our choices impact not only us but the environment we all live in. A healthy home is well ventilated, free of pests, toxics, and dangerous gases, and this is the same conditions we need for our overall environment. We need to remember that our environment is similar to the life in a fishbowl. Everything we do has an effect on the planet and we must learn to live in harmony with our environment. |
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