THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOOD HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT - ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH TIPS



Question:
Introduction to Environment
What is good health?
List the component of environment and explain discussing the relationship between environment and good health
Remedies
Summary    

1.1       INTRODUCTION
            The term environment implies all the external factors living and non-living, materials and non-materials-which surround man. in its modern concept, environment includes not only the water, air and soil that form our environment but also the social and economic conditions under which we live.
            For descriptive purpose, environment has been divided into three components, all closely related.
(i)        Physical: Water, air, soil, housing wasters, radiation etc.
(ii)       Biological: Plant and animal life including bacteria viruses, insect rodents and animals.
(iii)     Social: customs, culture, habits, income occupation, religion etc.
            The key to mans health lies largely in his environment. In fact, much of man’s ill-health can be traced to adverse environmental factors such as water pollution, soil pollution air pollution, poor housing conditions, presence of animal reservoirs and insect vectors of diseases which pose a constant threat to man’s health often, man is responsible for the pollution  of his environment through urbanization industrialization and other human activities. In 1972 the UN conference on the human environment focused worldwide attention on the environmental hazards that threaten human beings. To facilitate work in this area, world health organization has complied a wide-reigning survey of environmental hazards to human health.
GOOD HEALTH
1.2       Health: according to world health organization (WHO) it is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely an absence of disease or infirmity.
            In recent years, this statement has been amplified, to include the ability productive life”.
            The world health organization definition of health has been criticized as being too broad. Some argue that health cannot be defined as a “stat” at all, but must be seen as a process of continuous adjustment to the changing demands of living and of the changing meanings we give to life. It is a dynamic concept, it helps people live well, work well, and enjoy themselves. The world health organization definition of health is therefore considered by many as an goal than a realistic proposition. It refers to a situation that may exist in some individuals but not in everyone all the time; it is not usually observed in groups of human beings and in communities. Some consider it irrelevant to everyday demands, as nobody qualifies as healthy, that is perfect biological, psychological and social functioning. i.e. if we accept the world health organization definition, we are all sick.
Environmental Health: It can be defined as the control of all factors in man’s physical environment which exercises or may exercises a deleterious effects on his physical development, health or survival. It include the aspect of human health, like quality of life, which is determined by physical, biological, chemical, social and physiological factor’s in the environment. It is an organized community efforts that monitors the relationship between man and his environment in order to achieve a better healthy living.

2.1       THE COMPONENT OF ENVIRONMENT 
i.          Physical environment (Abiotic)
ii.         Biological environment (Biotic
iii.       Social and occupational environment
1.         THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT  (ABIOTIC) 
            The physical component of the environment is the concrete setting, on which man creates the basis for his life and his activities on the plant earth. It consists of the non-living components of the environment and includes the air, land water, housing, radiation etc.
            Gupta and Maliajan (2005) man depends on the physical environment for survival and on the other hands; the physical environment determines the distribution of animals, insects and other living things on earth. Man interacts with his physical environment and the result of his interactions can produce positive or negative effects. His positive interact-interaction with the physical environment gives him good health, while his negative interactions expose him to infections or accidents.
2.         BIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT (BIOTIC)
This comprises of the living components of the environment and can be grouped into flora (plants) fauna (animals) and micro-organisms Omodu (2005).
This aspect of the total environment is also dependent on the physical environment as the types of plants and animals found in region depends on the characteristics of the air, water, food, temperature and light present.
Living things must survive and as a result, need to feed. The need for survival leads to struggle among them in the environment. There are inter-relationships and inter-dependence in man’s interaction with these other living things in the environment and the effects of these relationships can also be positive or negative for example, a bacterium serve some useful purposes to man in the areas of fermentation, decomposition of refuse and organic matters etc. but also causes disease in man when it enters the human body.

3.         SOCIAL AND OCCUPATIONAL ENVIRONMENT             
            The social environment borders on the behaviour of man in the society and how his behviours affect his life and the life of others. It is often referred to as man-made environment. It denotes the complex of psychosocial factors influencing the health of the individuals and the community. This environment is unique to man and includes cultural values, customs, habits, beliefs, attitudes, morals, religion, education income, standard of living community life and the social and political organization Pak (2007).
            In quest for survival man has engaged himself in various occupation in order to realize his comfort. It has been discovered that in man’s place of work, he is surrounded with an airway of materials, substances including “people”. His relationship with these and other factors in his work place has positive or negative impact on his health, and that of others around him.
            It is therefore important that all those factors that posses danger to man are controlled to enable him harvest from the beneficial ones.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENVIRONMENT AND GOOD HEALTH
Environment been our surrounding that is the compound of man. Hence the enteraction between man and it environment cannot be over emphasized.
Good health depend mainly on the environment of man, over thousands of disease has been implicated or incriminated in our environment most of disease the man which occur as a result of improper banding of our physical environment include the following:
-              Malaria
-              Typhoid
-              Filiariasis
-              Cholera
-              Worm disease etc.
However the relationship between government and good health can be seen in two ways.
1.      Positive aspect and
2.      negative aspect

POSITIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOOD HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT: This can be traced on how nature works. For instance our environment, we have plant and animals takes in carbondioxide (co2). This means that nature has exchange of gases occurred in a normal environment. But the process can be happened by the activities of man which can be either unnecessary deforestation or burning and even the industrialization.
            Above all environment is not naturally n a negative relationship with good health but it is man that turns the environment into an enemy while in search of good live.

NEGATIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOOD HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT
In physical environment the negative relationship between good health and environment emanate from poor maintenance of the environment by man. environment management has be described as a systematic and logical approach in manipulating environment resources in such away that it can be prudently used with sense of equity and quality. Man bring problem back to himself in quest to sustain his life from using the environment and as such the environment that is ordinarily supposed to be his good friend turn out to be his enemy by brining out pathogenic organism, which bring about ill health.
The following are some example of diseases that can be affected with good health as a result of poor environment.
-           Malaria: The dumping of refuse in gutter leads to the blockage of drainage system and there by bring mosquitoes around our surrounding.
ii.         Allowing unwanted plant (weed) to grow around our environment (house)
-           Typhoid (i) Improper disposal of excreta around the environment.
(ii)       Dumping of refuse close to our houses which can encourage breeding of house mechanical to our food.
            Therefore, there are many disease which can affect good health that emanated from the environment.

Remedies
For environment to be in good relationship with health, the following should be put in to consideration.
-              Housing
-              Water
-              Soil
-              Waste
-              Air
HOUSING
For a house to be built, it should be able to meet the sanitary requirement as it is stipulated in the public health law cap 103 section vi and vii there should be enforcement in housing regulation to ensure that people stop constituting public nuisance in the name of house.
WATER
Water is said to be life one can not do without it according to world health organization (WHO) a person nee about lites of water per day. 
About 80% of disease are contaminated through water, and as such effect need to be taken into consideration.
To ensure good health as it is relate to water the following should be done:
REMEDIES
-              Portable water
-              Apply of quantify and quality of water to the public.
-              Treatment of water before useage
-              Avoid drinking water from shallow well and other surface water like streams, river etc.
-              There should be regulation on package water production to ensure that people don’t buy pathogenic organism in form of water (sachet water)
-              Each house hold should have filter for domestic water treatment.

SOIL
Soil is the top layer of the earth in which plants, trees grows on etc.
-              Avoid deposition of toxic note on the soil (pstrollsom product)
WASTE        
Waste is a term has many definitions according to the perceptions of both environmentalists and environmental experts. It could be regarded as anything that is worthless, useless and discardable materials.
REMEDY
-              To prevent spread of disease
-              To eliminate health hazards
-              To prevent soil degradation.

AIR
Air is a gaseous mixture which make up the atmospheric surrounding of the earth. It consist of approximately 78% nitrogen, 20%, 20%, oxygen, 0.04% canborivoxide etc.

REMEDIES
-              Air quality monitoring
-              Air purification. 

Summary
Most peoples consider it common knowledge a bad environment affects one’s health whiles good environment promotes health however, his common sense is not translated in policy. In some case the link between environment and health is disputed, but even in those cases where it is not, policy action is limited. Many policy discuss create situations, which are hazardous to the health of million people. Health is an important cross cutting issues touching upon the activities of all other working groups.
Few environmentalist considered running a three part series about he connection between good health and environment. The places looked at, where we live access to wholesome water and fresh food, physical, biological and social activities and finally in how health awareness can be part of what we learn at school.
Paul Mattessich, executive director of wilder research says dramatically that an individual who leaves in an unhealthy environment dies, five, seven, eight years sooner than an individual that leaves in a healthy environment, and this is cause by differences in environment constituents and factors. These are some factors that indicates good health in an environment income community learners, education, avbolity of wholesome water and fresh food and exercise the these stated, all linked to healthy living of an individual in a certain environment (conducive environment).
However, environment have a great link or relationship with health as we get sick so as well as environment gets sick. Bacteria, virus and other infection inrobes infects man by transmitting diseases that enhances unbalanced health. We pollutes the environment by releasing toxic and harmful substances and materials in the environment which will lead to environment pollution which does not encourage good health.
In other words the fact stipulated above is being regarded as the opposite to the relationship between health (good health) and environment in a positive manner.
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