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    Chapter 1 Intro To Environmental Health Technology

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    NUR ' AMIRAH BINTI ABDUL GHAFAR / UPM
    The document provides an introduction to environmental health, describing the relationship between humans and their environment and defining key terms. It discusses how environmental exposures can impact public, occupational, family, and personal health. Environmental health problems are investigated by disciplines like epidemiology and toxicology and addressed by responders in environmental protection, health services, and related fields through monitoring, hazard identification, risk assessment, and restoring health. The impacts of environmental factors on population health are studied across different scales.

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    Chapter 1 Intro To Environmental Health Technology

    Uploaded by

    NUR ' AMIRAH BINTI ABDUL GHAFAR / UPM
    39 views26 pages
    The document provides an introduction to environmental health, describing the relationship between humans and their environment and defining key terms. It discusses how environmental exposures can impact public, occupational, family, and personal health. Environmental health problems are investigated by disciplines like epidemiology and toxicology and addressed by responders in environmental protection, health services, and related fields through monitoring, hazard identification, risk assessment, and restoring health. The impacts of environmental factors on population health are studied across different scales.

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    Chapter 1 Intro to Environmental Health Technology

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    The document provides an introduction to environmental health, describing the relationship between humans and their environment and defining key terms. It discusses how environmental exposures can impact public, occupational, family, and personal health. Environmental health problems are investigated by disciplines like epidemiology and toxicology and addressed by responders in environmental protection, health services, and related fields through monitoring, hazard identification, risk assessment, and restoring health. The impacts of environmental factors on population health are studied across different scales.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    39 views26 pages

    Chapter 1 Intro To Environmental Health Technology

    Uploaded by

    NUR ' AMIRAH BINTI ABDUL GHAFAR / UPM
    The document provides an introduction to environmental health, describing the relationship between humans and their environment and defining key terms. It discusses how environmental exposures can impact public, occupational, family, and personal health. Environmental health problems are investigated by disciplines like epidemiology and toxicology and addressed by responders in environmental protection, health services, and related fields through monitoring, hazard identification, risk assessment, and restoring health. The impacts of environmental factors on population health are studied across different scales.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 26

    CHAPTER 1

    Introduction to Environmental
    Health
    Learning Objective
    •  Describe relationship between human & environment

    2
    Health & Environment

    Environmental health
    Public Health

    Occupational Health

    Family Health

    Personal
    Health

    3
    Definition of Environment
    •  Natural environment
    –  Physical, chemical, biological factors & processes external to
    people
    •  Built environment
    –  Human made settings – buildings, housing, sanitation,
    transportation systems – all settings
    •  Social environment
    –  Conditions w/in which people live, shaped by cultural, social,
    economic, political relations & factors

    4
    Environmental Exposure
    •  Natural exposures
    –  Seasonal, latitudinal, altitudinal gradients in solar irradiation
    –  Extremes of hot/cold weather
    –  Physical disasters
    –  Local micronutrient deficiencies in soil
    •  Human interventions
    –  Chemical contaminants → air, water, soil, food, work place
    –  Physical hazards: ionizing radiation, urban noise, road trauma

    5
    Forces Driving Global Economy
    –  Industrial & agricultural production
    –  Resource exploitation & contamination
    –  Energy extraction & use
    –  Transportation & building patterns
    –  Militarism
    –  Market driven consumption patterns

    6
    Global Environmental Change &
    Population Health
    •  Climate Change
    •  Stratospheric Ozone depletion
    •  Biodiversity: Losses & Invasions
    •  Land Degradation, food & Malnutrition
    •  Persistent Organic Pollutants
    •  Exporting Hazards

    7
    Magnitude of environmental
    change
    •  During the 20th century we humans
    –  ↑2x our average life expectancy
    –  ↑4x the size of our population
    –  ↑ x 6 the global food yield & water consumption
    –  ↑ x 12 the production of carbon dioxide
    –  ↑ x 20 overall level of economic activity

    8
    Environmental Threats
    •  Household Exposures •  Community level Exposure
    –  Sanitation & clean –  Outdoor air quality
    drinking water –  Traffic & transport
    –  Solid household fuels –  Industry & manufacturing
    –  Housing quality –  Waste management
    •  Workplace Environment –  Microbial & chemical
    –  Agriculture contamination or water & food
    –  Mining & Extraction –  Urbanization
    –  Construction •  Regional Exposures:
    –  Manufacturing Transboundary
    –  Service Occupations –  Atmospheric dispersion of
    contaminants
    –  Land use & water Engineering
    World Health report
    •  Global level risks (climate change)
    –  Highest in poor countries
    –  Greenhouse gases emitting activities in rich countries→
    –  “environmental risk transition”
    •  MDG monitoring by WHO
    –  on health & environment related indicator
    –  →Global & national time trend analyses for certain
    environmental health hazards
    eg: # proportion of population access to clean water&
    sanitization, use solid fuels etc.
    –  Global statistical data is Increasingly ambitious & sophisticated &
    multidisciplinary

    10
    World Health report
    •  Low & middle income countries
    –  Largest environmental health burden
    •  Significant household level risks, ↓ w/ development
    •  Young children particularly affected
    •  Community level environmental risks (urban air pollution) ↑
    w/ development, then ↓
    •  Rich countries
    –  Environment least important factor in illness
    –  Behavioral risks dominate (smoking, diet, physical activity, etc)

    11
    Environmental Risk Transition
    •  Risks in low & middle income societies
    –  Dominated by poor food, water, & air quality
    –  Household level
    –  Poor sanitation, contaminated water, low quality fuels
    –  Activities that solve these problems→ Community problems
    •  urban air pollution, hazardous waste, chemical pollution
    •  Industrialized societies
    –  Household and community problems have come under control
    –  Problems → Global scale
    •  Greenhouse gas emissions

    12
    Characteristics of Environmental
    Risk Transition
    •  Economic Development
    →Environmental Risk Transitions
    →Epidemiological transition (shift in diseases)

    •  Shift in Temporal Scale: Latency


    →Infectious diseases (short period btw exposure & disease)
    →Cancer, chronic non infectious diseases (long)

    13
    Scale & Distribution of
    Environmental Risks to Health
    •  Relative importance of environmental exposure as cause of
    human disease & premature death remains contentious
    –  Knowledge of disease etiology incomplete
    –  Statistic is moving target
    –  Latency period (for non-acute outcomes)
    –  Past exposures that have changed/ceased

    14
    Scale & Distribution of
    Environmental Risks to Health
    •  Complex bidirectional relationships
    –  Environmental conditions, socioeconomic circumstances,
    demographic change & human health
    –  Difficulty estimating the environmental contribution to disease
    burden

    15
    Interdisciplinary roles in
    Environmental Health
    •  To implement the systematic approach, role players are needed
    •  3 major classes of role players are:
    1.  Environmental health problem investigators
    2.  Environmental problem responders
    3.  Health problem responders

    18
    1. Environmental Health problem
    investigators
    •  monitors populations to identify health trends
    •  measures the range of effects of health trends- to
    characterize degrees of adverse intensity
    •  identify potential hazards, potential pathways of hazards, and
    populations susceptible to hazards

    19
    Related Disciplines

    Epidemiologists Risk Assessors Biostatisticians

    Health Service
    Toxicologists Microbiologists Administrators

    Behavioral Public Health


    Social Workers Psychologists Educators
    2. Environmental problem
    responders
    –  focus on the health hazard that has been identified and
    characterized
    –  analyze the environment of the exposed population to see what
    controls are needed and what controls can be implemented to
    minimize risk of recurrence and risk of future occurrence
    –  where means of control does not exist, it may be necessary to
    invent

    21
    Related Disciplines

    Engineers Risk Assessors Biostatisticians

    Toxicologists Chemists Biologists/


    Microbiologists

    Physicists Mathematicians Educators


    3. Health problem responders
    –  focus on populations of individuals
    –  attempt to identify how health is adversely affected
    –  classify severity of effect as either injury or deleterious
    –  attempt to restore compromised health to a ‘normal’ functional
    state

    23
    Related Disciplines

    Medical Doctors/
    Surgeons Dentists Biostatisticians
    Psychologists/
    Nutritionists Psychiatrists Nurses

    Epidemiologist Social Workers Clinicians


    Biologists/
    Toxicologists Pharmacists Microbiologists

    Physiologists Mathematicians Educators


    Summary
    •  Environmental health is the broadest scope of health problem
    definition
    •  Environmental health studies the impact of the environment
    on populations
    •  It is a population based science that can be scaled to study
    individual within populations
    •  Problem definition and potential resolution is possible
    through the implementation of a systematic approach

    25
    End of Chapter 1

    26

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