Environmental Health in Sustainable Development
The basic human need of a safe environment, one that provides clean water, adequate food and shelter and to which people can live together in peace, is the same for everyone.
Environmental health is that part of science that deals with environmental risks and effects on human health represent the means they live and where you work, natural or artificial changes to the site represents and pollution caused by the same man that medium.
The problem interdisciplinary environmental health
Agenda 21 states that the main health problems that afflict the world’s population are the main cause of poverty, rapid population growth and consumption exacerbated in some countries that maintain inappropriate development styles.According to Schaeffer, “the two main elements in the equation of health and environment are: 1) how environmental factors affect health, and 2) how current environmental trends are changing patterns of risks health (Schaeffer, 1994).
Environmental Health
In this context, some of the environmental factors that affect health are:
- Water supply and sanitation
- Housing and habitat
- Diet
- Environmental pollution
- The use of chemicals
- Occupational hazards
- Accidents and road trauma
- Some of the environmental trends that affect health are:
- Population and settlement patterns
- Poverty and underdevelopment
- Increased use of resources
- Macroeconomic Policies
- Transboundary and global trends
Environmental health in sustainable development
The Pan American Health Organization, through the Division of Health and Environment, characterizes the environmental health in a way that allows operationally contend with the problem through a strategy of intervention.
Divide the problem of environmental health program in two ways:
- Environmental media or basic sanitation, and
- Effects on health or environmental quality.
Classification of the World Health Organization
The “traditional risk” are those related to poverty and development insificiente, namely: no access to potable water supply and sewerage, urban sanitation services, housing, indoor residual pollution by burning coal or oil. The “modern risks” are those related to development but lack of safeguards regarding the environmental hazards to health, eg water pollution-intensive industry, intensive agriculture, industrial and vehicular air pollution, radioactive contamination, and so on.
In developed countries, are practically nonexistent and traditional risks, by contrast, the modern risks are of a wide variety on the contrary, in developing countries are highly prevalent traditional risk and moderate to high risk modern . Therefore, as many developing countries have both types of risk, is said to be in a stage of “transitional risk.”
Environmental Health
Strategy for environmental health:
Basic sanitation and environmental quality are the two elements that define the needs of action of the Pan American Health in the Region of the Americas.
In the area of basic sanitation are covered activities related to improving the basic conditions that affect health, or water supply, excreta disposal, solid waste, housing.
Operational components of the Basic Sanitation:
1. Water
1.1. Coverage, availability and accessibility
1.2. Improvement and preservation of water quality
2. Solid Waste
2.1. Coverage, availability and accessibility
2.2. Housing hygiene
Sanitation Activities:
- Legislation
Information Systems
Laboratories
Human Resource Development
Managerial capacity
Social participation
Development of cooperating centers
Efficient use of resources
Economic-financial aspects
Policy issues as privatization or decentralization
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