Environmental health focuses on diseases caused by the environment. It covers air and water quality, climate, ultraviolet radiation, and man-made toxins. Public health officials work to improve environmental health by warning the public about harmful particles and providing information to reduce health risks. The effects of radiation and global change are also major concerns. Public health organizations like the WHO devote much effort to understanding and improving environmental health.
Environmental health is a broad branch of study and theory focusing on diseases and conditions caused by the world around humans. Rather than examining health problems caused by the body, environmental health looks for causes and potential problems in humans’ native environment. The study of environmental health usually covers the physical aspect of both the natural world and the man-made environment. Air and water quality, climate, ultraviolet radiation and man-made toxins are all issues carefully studied with the goal of improving environmental health.
Water and air quality are important aspects of environmental health efforts. Humans need to hydrate and breathe simply to survive; if their air or water is polluted, it increases public health risks. Water and air can be polluted by a variety of both human and natural factors. Chemical runoff from factories can easily lower air quality, but millions of sniffles and sneezes each spring show that pollen can harm human health, too. By encouraging efforts to clean up water and air, and by warning the public about potentially harmful airborne or waterborne particles, public health officials can protect or at least prepare humans for harmful conditions.
One of the major concerns in the study of environmental health is the effects of radiation on the population. While it may seem that radiation is usually man-made, it’s easy to forget that the sun is an intense radioactive body that most humans are exposed to on a daily basis. With the depletion of the ozone layer allowing more ultraviolet rays to enter the atmosphere, many experts believe that high levels of sun exposure may be a factor in many cancers, particularly those related to the skin. The huge explosion of radiation-emitting electronic devices is also worrying industry experts, as even small increases in human radiation exposure can have serious or dangerous results.
Another major area of concern for experts is global change in human living environments. Climate change, global warming and the loss of species diversity can cause serious damage to human living conditions. By working closely with scientists who study all aspects of the environment, from biologists working with endangered species restocking efforts, to meteorologists studying weather changes due to global warming, public health officials can help to provide services and information on the global impact on the human environment.
Public health organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) devote much effort to understanding and improving environmental health. In daily life, humans tend to be exposed to a variety of natural and man-made features that can be hazardous to overall health. By providing information, public health officials can help create an informed public that can reduce the health risks caused by environmental problems. If you see a “wear sunscreen” ad, a billboard urging water conservation, or a sewer sign reading “no landfills – discharges into ocean,” it is likely that public health officials concerned about the environmental factors.
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