Environment and Health: Broad Perspective

The study of disease is actually the study of human and his environment. The term environments include all the external factors living or nonliving, material or nonmaterial which surrounds human. But in modern definition of environment along with basic air, water and soil, it also includes social and economic conditions in which we live.

Environment is divided into three comportments and they are very closely related to each other.

(a) Physical: Air, water soil (earth), housing, wastes, radiation, heat, cold etc.

(b) Biologic: Plants & animals including bacteria, virus, fungus, insects algae etc.

(c) Social: Culture, customs & traditions, habit, occupation, religion etc.

The key to healthy life lies in the environment. Much of man’s ill health can be traced to his environment and its adverse effects on health like poor housing condition, high air pollution, water contamination and water pollution from factories, soil pollution insects & viruses.

The definition of sanitation as given by National Sanitation Foundation of USA as follows: “Sanitation is a way of life. It is the quality of living that is expressed in the clean house, the clean farm, the clean business, the clean neighborhood and the clean community”. Being way of life it must come from within the people. It is nourished by knowledge and grows as an obligation and an ideal in human relations.

In the past sanitation meant disposal of human excreta. In fact to many people sanitation still means disposal of excreta & construction of safe latrines .But in reality the term sanitation covers the whole field of controlling the environment with a view to prevent disease and promote health . Man already controls many factors in environment but his control is not complete. As old problems are solved new problems arises. Problems like air and water pollutions are serious problems at present. Solution of these is not in sight in near future.

The purpose of environmental health is to promote & maintain ecological conditions that will be better for health & prevent disease. At present more than one billion people lack safe drinking water & more than 2 billion people do not haw safe disposal systems of their excreta. In developing countries more than half of the OPD (out patient department) visits and hospital admissions are due to poor sanitation and environment. If environment can be protected & made better use of, the burden by community & nation due to sickness can be reduced drastically.

To achieve better health two things are required, healthy environment and healthy life style. For that, initiative is required by the individual in the family and in the community. A prgramme for hygiene education and low cost sanitation is being developed in Africa with the help of UNICEF and many other non government organizations.

Much of the ill health in developing nation is due to poor environmental sanitation, unsafe water, polluted soil, unhygienic disposal of human excreta and refuse, poor housing, insects and rodents.

The first step of any health programme is to eliminate through environmental control of the factors, which are harmful to health.