Environmental Factors and Their Effect On Human Health
Environmental Factors and Their Effect On Human Health
Environmental Factors and Their Effect On Human Health
For example, Cancer has been linked with the pollutants, sunlight, diesel fumes , tobacco smoke
, asbestos, heavy metals , pesticides and carcinogens . Likewise, cardiac diseases are also blamed
on the high-cholesterol , inhaling carbon monoxide, tobacco smoke . But all those people who get
exposure of these agents didn’t get the cardiovascular disease. People are usually more concerned
about their health indeed and many environmental issues are rising day by day which has
observable consequences on the human health. World health organisation (WHO) is taking many
actions on the issues that are urgent and serious and globe is facing.
The noise pollution in environment causing hearing loss in the some of 10M people in the
Europe.
It has been estimated that the due to the air pollution, the millions of the people die every
year .
In the past 3 decades, it has been observed the dramatically increase in the asthma and
allergies and in Europe one child in seven is suffering from it.
Increase in tobacco smoke in environment has caused the 20 % to 30% increase in the risk
of lungs cancer.
Testicular cancer is also becoming prevalent in some European countries and there is far
more evidence that , exposure to the certain chemicals is affecting the reproductive health
in the humans.
Multi exposure to the pollutants and lifestyle play an important role in the multi-casualty
of the disease . The population exposure to the 124 European countries is as followed in
table.
Ionising radiation :
The ionising radiation is generally assumed to have negative impact on the human health and it
depends upon the dose received. There is average of the 94% of the effect of the ionising radiation
on the European countries as in the rest of the world and almost or entirely depends upon the
natural resources.
At time of accident , the children who were at the age of the 0-18 , there was no-doubt that
, the incidence of the h thyroid cancer was substantially increased in the children which
was related to the accident from the radiation.
In 1886, the liquidators who worked in the plant , there was a chance of increase in cases
of thyroid cancer from those people.
From the contaminated territories of the three affected countries, there was no increase in
cases of the leukaemia in children and adults.
Incidence rate of the solid tumours was significantly increased in the contaminated areas
in the three territories.
Chemicals, with a focus on endocrine- disrupting substances:
Life cycle of chemicals in food whether anthropogenic present in environment or other products
in high concentration can have many different health effects. The several effects on the human
health such as the increased in the incidence rate of the testicular and breast cancer and decline in
quality of sperm was observed in several countries . The increase in incidence rate of these disease
is largely unknown , the exposure to the chemicals can be possible .
The most common cause of the acute and chronic poisoning is the pesticides . The cause of the
effect does not depend upon the chemicals or due to the high toxicity but also on the inappropriate
storage and their use by the non-professionals.
Chemical factors and the casual pollutants that contribute to the human health effect are
summarised as following:
Lack of data , scientific information and evidence concerning about the epidemiological research
and their possible effect on health is lacking due to which poses a big deal on accessing the
problem. Presented by: M. Jamshed (L1F20BSMR0056)
Water sanitation:
Introduction:
Water is one of the most basic and essential necessity that should be available to every human
present in world. In today’s increasing population, clean and purified water is not available to a
large number of population. In developing countries, like Pakistan, India, and Africa about 80%
of their total population is deprived of drinking water facilities. The World Health Organization
(WHO) has stated water as “the primary tool for the enhancement of Health”. According to the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan is ranked as the 3rd country to have improper
sanitation and about 2.1 million people are deprived of the basic necessity of clean and safe water.
There are many complication when talking about unsafe and non-sanitized water. Water shortage
has affected many of the important components of a country from agricultural, environmental to
societal systems. There have been many problems and diseases associated with sanitization of
water. In Pakistan, almost 50% of the diseases are caused due to dirty water. 40% of the deaths are
due to the consumption of contaminated water. Contamination in water can be include various
factors such as waste water from houses and factories, addition of antibiotic or harmful drugs from
different medical organizations, metallic toxins etc. One of the reasons is also the climatic change
that is happening in Pakistan very diversely: the amount of rainfall, poor construction of water
storage sites etc.
Pakistan has been blessed with many different water resources such as ground and surface water.
But due to increased population, and increased developmental work there are different effluents
that released into water bodies forming life-threatening diseases. The places that are very well
developed such as the twin cities Islamabad and Rawalpindi showed in a study that there are 94%
and 64% cases of water borne diseases respectively.
There are various methods that can be used by people in community and national level such as
chlorine methods and RO water purification system. RO is a system that plays a huge role in
purification of Coliform using semi-permeable filters. CNT’s can also be used.
Cross-Sectional Study of a Low Economic Area of Islamabad:
Objective:
A cross-sectional study was carried in a slum area of Islamabad known as Noorpur Shahan. The
study was carried for checking the prevalence of water borne disease. There were some houses
selected and a special investigator visited every house for the filling of surveillance forms.
Results:
The tables below shows the gender, frequency of water borne diseases, source of water, storage
place of water and frequency of hand washing.
Cumulative
No. of Times Frequency Percent Valid Percent
Percent
Discussion:
Clean, pure water and sanitation is the right of every human who is alive. In Pakistan the mortality
rate of people dying from water borne diseases is more than many other countries such as India,
Africa and China etc. The study carried out taking victims from a very low developed area of a
highly developed city like Islamabad of Pakistan. In case of treatments of diseases most people
can’t afford due to the fees and expenses of their own.
Most of the people use different types of sources such as municipal and well which are
contaminated due to the adding of sewage water or due to addition of contaminants from leaked
pipes, factories or medical institutes. Same as the storage methods are not very safe as to store
water in tanks and coolers can cause in growth and production of different bacteria and fungus etc.
The hand wash frequency is also not good in this community. As they don’t know much about the
thing that washing hands can reduce the risk of diseases up to 40%-50%. They only wash hands
when necessary.
According to the survey in Pakistan, Pakistan is ranked as the 10th country to have population who
is mostly doing work as labor. About almost 67% of our population has a high occupational risk.
One of the drawback of Pakistan is that there is no proper service to record all the injuries or deaths
that is caused by any of the occupation. Recently, in 2010 the most populated province of the
country i.e. in Punjab, the Punjab Occupational and Safety Heath Council (POSHO) has formed
laws about the safety of workers. The first policy of about the labor was introduced in 1972, and
recently in 2010 amendments were made and a policy was made for the safety and security of the
working labor.
Methodology:
The data collected is from the year 2000 to 2013. The comparison was done between two time
spans 2001-2002 and 2012-2013. The trends that are being compared in the following study are
the gender, major industrial division, area etc.
The method used in this study is the index value method. The Index value is a method to measure
certain variables that cannot be measured as an absolute value, so measure these quantities in a
special averages. It compares the vales of a certain year with the years selected in the base.
Results:
The below mentioned figures and tables explains the results that were obtained:
Gender 2001– 2003– 2005– 2006– 2007– 2008– 2009– 2010– 2012– Slope
02 04 06 07 08 09 10 11 13
Male 100.0 100.1 100.8 102.2 98.4 97.5 99.5 96.1 93.0 −0.8
Female 100.0 98.2 88.2 67.2 123.8 138.2 107.8 158.9 207.0 12.0
Male 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 0.0
Female 6.6 6.5 5.8 4.3 8.3 9.3 7.1 10.9 14.7 0.9
Figure 6: index values based on gender of injured people from year 2001-2 and 2012-13
Area 2001– 2003– 2005– 2006– 2007– 2008– 2009– 2010– 2012– Slope
02 04 06 07 08 09 10 11 13
Rural 100 101.5 95.6 101.4 103.4 107.8 109.2 108.0 108.3 1.4
Urban 100 95.7 113.0 95.8 90.1 77.1 72.9 76.4 75.5 −4.2
Rural 294.0 311.9 248.6 311.4 337.3 411.0 440.5 415.5 422.2 21.8
Urban 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 0.0
Figure 7: index values of injured people based on areas from year 2001-2 and 2012-13
Industry 2001– 2003– 2005– 2006– 2007– 2008– 2009– 2010– 2012– Slope Annu
divisions 02 04 06 07 08 09 10 11 13 al
IEP
%
Agriculture, 100 105 93 95 109 118 116 116 115 2.7 46.1
forestry, hunting,
& fishing
Construction 100 85 105 116 119 116 114 104 121 2.6 13.7
Wholesale & 100 106 110 107 92 87 113 113 106 0.6 9.0
retail trade, &
restaurants &
hotels
Mining & 100 0 433 242 75 275 100 192 167 3.5 0.2
quarrying
Other industry 100 883 583 567 933 5,633 5,867 7,317 167 586.7 1.5
divisions
Figure 8: index values of injured people in different industries from year 2001-2
Discussion:
The injury rate is been in increasing in all different occupational sectors either be forestry,
agriculture or mining etc. The injuries that resulted in death can be from a small wound that was
untreated to major injury such as loss of a body part or falling from height which results in instant
death.
The following recommendations can be useful for strengthening the infrastructure in the country:
1. Development of a strong rural health care system, as most of the agricultural labor force
belongs to rural areas.
2. Specific legislation for rural area workers and at the economic sector level.
3. Boosting the health safety status of workers and spreading safety awareness and safety
knowledge.
4. Extending ESSI coverage to both self-employed workers and contributing family workers.
5. Development of injury surveillance and injury prevention programs, especially for rural area
workers.
6. Allocation of safety budget or making investments for the enforcement of health safety policies
such as using safety equipment and training workers regarding new work technologies.
References:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4674496/
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2049080122014698
184-1551049605.pdf
Presented by: Taniya Zia (L1F20BSMR0068)
Climate Change
Introduction:
Environmental change alludes to huge, long haul changes in the worldwide environment.
The worldwide environment is the associated arrangement of sun, earth and seas, wind,
downpour and snow, woods, deserts and savannas, and all that individuals do, as well.
The environment of a spot, say New York, can be portrayed as its precipitation, changing
temperatures during the year, etc.
However, the worldwide environment is more than the "normal" of the environments of
explicit spots.
Objective:
A case study connecting flood risk discernments and climate change effect on the people of
mountains. A case study of country networks along Indus and Chenab waterways, Pakistan
Material and Method:
Four(4) flood-inclined country networks of Muzaffargarh, Pakistan, were chosen along Indus and
Chenab waterways. Examining was finished utilizing the Yamane inspecting strategy, and a family
review was led. The outcomes were investigated utilizing enlightening insights, chi-square, one-
way ANOVA, Pearson's connection tests, and relapse examination.
Most of the respondents were between the age of 30 and 40 (41.2%). The instruction level of the
head of families was generally up to secondary school (42%), with Muradabad having the least
secondary school graduates. Around 79.4% of the head's work was all day. The respondents
resided in old places of 30-50 years (47.7%) and claimed them out and out (59.1%). The most
continuous vocation source was the confidential area (71.3%), trailed by administrations (16.5%).
The pay levels were low.
Environmental change is the single greatest health danger confronting humankind, and
wellbeing experts overall are as of now answering the wellbeing hurts brought about by
this unfurling emergency.
The Intergovernmental Board on Environmental Change (IPCC) has presumed that to turn
away devastating wellbeing influences and forestall a huge number of environmental
change-related passings, the world should restrict temperature climb to 1.5°C. Past
discharges have proactively made a specific degree of worldwide temperature increase and
different changes to the environment inescapable.
Worldwide warming of even 1.5°C isn't viewed as protected, be that as it may; each extra
10th of a level of warming will negatively affect individuals' lives and wellbeing.
While nobody is protected from these dangers, individuals whose wellbeing is being hurt
first and most awful by the environment emergency are individuals who contribute least to
its causes, and who are least ready to safeguard themselves and their families against it -
individuals in low-pay and hindered nations and networks.
The environment emergency takes steps to fix the most recent fifty years of progress being
developed, worldwide wellbeing, and destitution decrease, and to additionally broaden
existing wellbeing disparities between and inside populaces.
It seriously risks the acknowledgment of widespread wellbeing inclusion (UHC) in
different ways - including by intensifying the current weight of illness and by compounding
existing obstructions to getting to wellbeing administrations, frequently at the times when
they are generally required.
More than 930 million individuals - around 12% of the total populace - spend something
like 10% of their family financial plan to pay for medical care.
With the most unfortunate individuals generally uninsured, wellbeing shocks and stresses
as of now at present drive around 100 million individuals into neediness consistently, with
the effects of environmental change deteriorating this pattern.
Air Pollution
Introduction:
Air contamination is the pollution of air because of the presence of substances in the
environment that are hurtful to the soundness of people and other living creatures, or cause
harm to the environment or to materials.
There are various kinds of air poisons, like gases, particulates, and organic atoms.
Noise pollution:
Introduction:
An interrupting noise that interferes, distracts, or takes away from normal functioning is
referred as noise pollution. Noise pollution is not an emerging problem but the effects of
urbanization and industrialization have made it a big issue. The community noise level in the
United States was approximately increased to 11% between 1987 to 1997 and was expected to
keep raising at the rate or more. The human ear’s response to sound relies on both one is sound
pressure measured in decibles, while the other is sound frequency recorded hi hertz. Young people
in good health with healthy ears can hear sound with frequencies ranging from 20 Hz to 20,000
Hz. The term sound pressure level (SPL), which can be defined as the logarithm ratio of the
pressure of a sound, to describe noise level, a dimensionless unit of power is applied to reference
pressure. The standard value is 0.0002 microbars which is the level at which humans can hear.
When level of sound crosses the 70 dB mark it becomes noise. A sound level above 70 dB can
severely damage the ears. When the noise level is above 100 dB it can cause permanent hearing
loss. Heavy machinery utilized in factory, rail road engine whistles and horns, shunting in railroad
stations, aeroplanes, and other types of noise pollution all have a negative influence on human
health. In cities like Karachi and Lahore that are experiencing rapid growth, noise pollution is a
significant environmental issue. The noise of traffic is the largest noise pollution source . For
example, In Karachi, the average noise is 90 dB produced by vehicles on road. In a research
conducted in the Tangail Munciple area, Bangladesh, a noise level of 112.3 dB was noted. Noise
pollution not only causes permanent hearing loss but heart-related disease, physiological and
neurological disorders, and various problems such as anxiety, high blood pressure, rage and
frustration, as well as cardiovascular issues, asthma and variety of gastrointestinal ailments. ENT
department in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore, carried out a study that shows driving public
transportation road noise exposes drivers to a lot of noise, and 65 percent of them have hearing
loss as a result (NHIL). 10% had a debilitating hearing loss while 25% had normal approach.
Conclusion:
The study's findings showed that the sound levels within all of the studied regions in Rawalpindi
city exceeded the NEQS and WHO guideline values for sound levels in particular contexts that
resulting in a negative impact on people's health, mental and physical well-being, as well as the
environment. In marketplaces and shopping centres, background noise the causing pollution is
partially brought on by air conditioning units, fans, and generators.
The newest active noise control (ANC) techniques, such as white noise machines, should
be employed to combat the impacts of noise pollution. This gadget changes the annoying
noise into a soothing sound.
Strict rules should be implemented barring the use of speakers in communal locations, loud
whistles, and audio systems in buses and other vehicles for transportation.
Methodology:
Different parameters were selected to understand the study properly. These parameters include
non motorized transport, public transport, and travel demands. The study explains the difference
between the years 1987 till 2004.
Non-motorized transport:
The public transport in karachi is working under the control of people who are working in private
sector, very less collaboration of government sector that’s why the travel demand is increased and
is not fulfilled. As a result, karachi has public transportation availability to the ratio of population
is 1:40 opposed to the ratio availability in Hong Kong is 1:8 and in Mumbai is 1:8.
Travel demand:
The cyclical nature of a city's urban transportation requirements and their dependence on its
residents' travel habits. A study carried out in 1987 and in 2004 shows that although the usage of
personal transport is most common in karachi, and its usage is increasing day by day but still the
public transport is continued and provide more than 50% of the travel demand. coaches and shuttles
are thus the most significant source of public transportation in karachi. The better transportation
policies, services, availability, and cost may contribute to decrease in the usage of personal cars.
Conclusion:
This essay has examined the urban planning, transport networks, transportation rules, climatic
status, and transportation initiatives in Karachi. The assessment reveals that the transportation
system is in danger and that the current urban planning and transportation laws have not offered a
comprehensive strategy for urban transportation growth. There should be improvement in the
strategies used for public transport in future because the present situation is very critical. This
research suggested some methods which can be adopted in order to get peaceful and pleasant travel
system in Karachi.
Introduction
One of the thorough and useful methods to create land use classification maps is to use geospatial
techniques like remote sensing and geographical information. It significantly enhances the choice of
regional agriculture, industrial, and urban sectors. Changes in land usage have been seen in the Islamabad
city and the area around it, and daily new agricultural, industrial, commercial and urban developments are
appearing. This study’s objective was to evaluate how land usage and cover in Islamabad changed
between 1992 and 2012. Utilizing two satellite pictures, two supervised classification algorithm,
quantifying the spatial and temporal dynamics of land use change was possible using GIS and a post
classification detection approach. There was an increase in the amount of water, developed area, and
agricultural land between 1992 and 2012. However, the tendency for the forest and arid regions was
downward. This transformation was fueled by population growth, climate change and economic
development. Deforestation and rapid urbanisation have a variety of effects on the ecosystem.
Explanation
Around the world, the human induced alteration of earth’s surface is referred to as land use and land
cover. Despite the fact that humans have been modifying the land of thousands of years in order to ensure
livelihoods and other necessities, the amount, intensity, and rate of LULLC are far worse now than they
were in the past. unprecedented local, regional and global changes in ecosystem and environmental
process are driven by these shifts. As a result, LULC changes are crucial to research and analysis of the
current global changes since the data on these changes are crucial for informing future decisions about
ecological management and environmental planning.
Changes in land use and cover are crucial for many different applications, including those in agriculture,
environment, ecology, forestry, geology and hydrology, according to empirical investigations by
researchers from a variety of disciplines. These applications discussed issues such as the loss of
agricultural land, degraded soil, urbanisation, altered water quality etc. At the same time, a significant
project to study land use change has evolved as worldwide initiatives in recent decades, and has acquired
enormous momentum in its efforts to understand the process driving land use changes. Such initiatives
sparked academics focus in using diverse methodologies to identify further simulate environmental
processes at different scales.
Change detection has become a crucial process in managing and monitoring natural resources and urban
growth in large part due to accessibility of quantitative analysis of spatial distribution of population of
interest. Numerous methods are available for identifying and documenting differences, some of which
may also related to change. Simple change identification, however, is rarely sufficient on its own; instead
the “from-to” analysis, which require knowledge of start and end land cover is necessary.
One of these issues is haphazard urban expansion, which frequently lacks effective strategies, that plagues
emerging nations like Pakistan.
Urbanization alter local temperature
conditions, destry and fragments native
habitats, and produce anthropogenic
pollutants, to name a few ways it impacts
city ecology. There is evidence that a
landscape’s spatial layout has an impact on
ecological processes. As a result of
population increases, there is often some
fast development outcropping and
encroachment of prime agricultural land.
The most diverse metropolis of Pakistan is
in Islamabad, which also happens to be
country’s capital in terms of population. It has Pakistan highest population of foreigners and expatriates.
Urban spread onto the capital’s productive rural area is a result of the city’s constant population growth.
The process of urbanization has resulted in haphazard city growth, decreased living circumstances, and
worsened the environmntal situation all of which have a negative impact on human population. In order to
create a sensible land use policy, it is necessary to ascertain the trend and rate of land cover conversion.
Area of Study
Punjab's potohar plateaus' northern edge, where Islamabad situated, is 14 kms to northeast of Rawalpindi.
It is located 72*74 east of Greenwich on the
map, 33*49’ north of Greenwich. Islamabd is
located at the height of 457 to 610 meters.
Islamabad has a 906.50km square area. The
margala hills are located in the north and
northeast of another 3626km square area that is
referred to as the specified Green area.
Methods
Data Gathering
Islamabad was captured on two multispectral
satellite photos during the epochs of 1992 and
2012 in order to evaluate LULC changes in the city. For the month of October, USGS, an earth science
data interface, and SUPARCO provided 1992 and 2012 pictures respectively. In addition to employing
high-resolution photography, auxiliary, data was gathered, including topographic maps, and aerial photos.
The reference data points was utilized for picture categorization and accuracy evaluation were gathered
using the GPS from march to October 2012 for the 2012 image analysis.