Environmental Health Essay

Overcrowding Overcrowding in ho personas crumb arise from several exertions, and the physical and psychological effects on people financial support in overcrowded conditions fag be quite severe. Overcrowding poses severe direct and indirect health risks to all(a) told segments of the cosmos, particularly the elderly, young children, and the disabled. Overcrowding results in insufficient ventilation in homes, causing or exacerbating respiratory illness. Susceptibility to disease, the severity of diseases, the spreading of illness, and the mortality due to disease all increase as a result of social and physical overcrowding.Overcrowding physically and emotionally overburdens mothers and other cargongivers, increasing health risks of dependents. Lack of space and overcrowding directly impacts on the physical development and psychological wellbeing of disabled re positioningnts. Children living in overcrowded and spoilt conditions be to a greater extent(prenominal) than likel y to experience respiratory problems such as coughing and asthmatic and wheezing. For more children this means losing sleep, curtail physical bodily process, and missing school.Effects of overcrowding include meningitis, tuberculosis, sum disease, stomach cancer, respiratory disease. Children in overcrowded housing are up to 10 times more likely to contract meningitis than children in general. Meningitis can be life threatening. long effects of the disease include deafness, blindness and behavioural problems. Children in unfit and overcrowded homes miss school more frequently due to illnesses and infections. Overcrowding is linked to slow down cognitive development, and homelessness to delayed development in communication skills.Urbanization front end of people from rural to urban areas with population crop equating to urban migration. It is a double edged sword as on atomic number 53 hand it provides people with varied opportunities and scope for economic development and o n the other hand it exposes community to new threats. Unplanned urban growth is associated with environmental degradation meaning that population demands that go beyond the environmental service capacity, such as drinking water, sanitation, and waste disposal and treatment. quick growth of urban centres has led to substandard housing on marginal land and overcrowding. Outbreaks of diseases transmitted through respiratory and faeco-oral r out(p)e due to population density. It exacerbates health risks related to insufficient and pitiful water supply and poor sanitation systems. Lack of privacy leading to depression, anxiety, stress etc. callable to the numbers of motorized vehicles and industries in the cities of the developing world Problems of noise and propagate defilement arise. Air pollution can affect our health in umpteen ways with both short-term and long-term effects.Short-term zephyr pollution can aggravate medical conditions like asthma and emphysema. long health effe cts can include chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer, heart disease, and even damage to other vital organs. urine pollution Water pollution can come from a number of different sources. If the pollution comes from a single source, such as an oil spill, it is called point-source pollution. If the pollution comes from galore(postnominal) sources, it is called nonpoint-source pollution. Most types of pollution affect the immediate area surrounding the source.sometimes the pollution whitethorn affect the environment hundreds of miles away from the source, such as nuclear waste, this is called trans boundary pollution. Industrial and agricultural work involves the make use of of many different chemical marrows that can run-off into water and pollute it. Metals and solvents from industrial work can pollute rivers and lakes. These are poisonous to many forms of aquatic life and whitethorn slow their development, make them infertile or even result in death. Pesticides are used in far ming to control weeds, insects and fungi.Run-offs of these pesticides can construct water pollution and poison aquatic life. Subsequently, birds, humans and other animals may be pois superstard if they eat infected tip. Petroleum is a nonher form of chemical pollutant that usually contaminates water through oil spills when a ship ruptures. rock oil spills usually have only a localized effect on wildlife but can spread for miles. The oil can flummox the death of many fish and stick to the feathers of seabirds causing them to lose the ability to fly.Industry is a massive source of water pollution, it produces pollutants that are extremely harmful to people and the environment. legion(predicate) industrial facilities use freshwater to carry away waste from the define and into rivers, lakes and oceans. Pollutants from industrial sources include ? Asbestos This pollutant is a serious health hazard and carcinogenic. Asbestos fibres can be inhaled and cause illnesses such as asbesto sis, mesothelioma, lung cancer, intestinal cancer and liver cancer. ?Lead This is a gilded element and can cause health and environmental problems. It is a non-biodegradable substance so is hard to clean up once the environment is contaminated.Lead is harmful to the health of many animals, including humans, as it can inhibit the action of bodily enzymes. ?hydrargyrum This is a metallic element and can cause health and environmental problems. It is a non-biodegradable substance so is hard to clean up once the environment is contaminated. Mercury is as well harmful to animal health as it can cause illness through mercury poisoning. ?Nitrates The increased use of fertilisers means that nitrates are more often being washed from the change and into rivers and lakes.This can cause eutrophication, which can be very problematic to shipboard soldier environments. ?Phosphates The increased use of fertilisers means that phosphates are more often being washed from the soil and into rive rs and lakes. This can cause eutrophication, which can be very problematic to marine environments. ?Sulphur This is a non-metallic substance that is harmful for marine life. ?Oils Oil does not dissolve in water, instead it forms a thick layer on the water surface. This can stop marine plants receiving enough light for photosynthesis.It is also harmful for fish and marine birds. ?Petrochemicals This is formed from artillery or gun and can be toxic to marine life. Carbon footprint semisynthetic climate change, or global warming, is caused by the release of certain types of gas into the atmosphere. The dominant man-made greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide (CO2), which is emitted whenever we burn fossil fuels in homes, factories or power stations. But other greenhouse gases are also important. Methane (CH4), for example, which is emitted mainly by agriculture and landfill sites, is 25 times more potent per kilogram than CO2.Even more potent but emitted in smaller quantities are nitr ic oxide (N2O), which is about 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide and released mainly from industrial processes and farming, and refrigerant gases, which are typically several thousand times more potent than CO2. In the UK, the descend impact on the climate breaks down like this carbon dioxide (86%), methane (7%), nitrous oxide (6%) and refrigerant gases (1%). Given that a single item or activity can cause multiple different greenhouse gases to be emitted, separately in different quantities, a carbon footprint if written out in full could get pretty confusing.To avoid this, the convention is to express mail a carbon footprint in terms of carbon dioxide analogous or CO2e. This means the total climate change impact of all the greenhouse gases caused by an item or activity rolled into one and expressed in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide that would have the identical impact. Loss of biodiversity Human activities are responsible for most of the loss in biodiversity thro ughout the world. With an increasing population, we are consuming more and more inherent resources.. We do this by driving more, using more energy in our homes, and buying many more products than we need.Biodiversity is important since it provides us with raw materials that we use to make products such as clothes, shoes and paper. And although we use many graphic products and materials in our daily lives, we also use many human-made chemicalscleaners, fertilizers, bug spray, pesticides, and many others. Even though we use them to help us, they have many side effects. Toxins and pollution are very harmful to biodiversity. The chemicals that we use end up in our waterways. Plants and animals are killed by oil spills. Wildlife gets caught in plastic trash.