Environmental hygiene is carried out to preserve or improve the sanitary conditions of the environment.
Environmental hygiene is a concept that is linked to maintaining the sanitary conditions of the environment to prevent it from affecting people's health . It should be noted that the idea of hygiene refers to cleanliness and cleanliness .
More precisely, we can say that environmental hygiene is the science that is dedicated to both the prevention , control and improvement of the environmental conditions that surround us and that are basic and necessary to maintain public health. This means, therefore, that it is dedicated to taking special care of the air, water, soil, flora and fauna, among other natural resources.
And it is largely dependent on this aforementioned hygiene that human beings have a good quality of life. Hence, within its field of action they range from pest control in homes or buildings to the development of actions regarding school or health hygiene, among others.
Purpose of environmental hygiene
Environmental hygiene involves the care of chemical, physical and biological factors external to the person . These are factors that could affect health: therefore, the objective of environmental hygiene is to prevent diseases by creating healthy environments.
The discipline that pursues disease-producing agents that were introduced into the environment by human action is known as environmental medicine . Environmental hygiene must take care of the health of both current and future generations.
Fumigation is a common environmental hygiene activity.
Fight against sporadic legionellosis
In this sense, we can highlight that in recent years there has been important work on environmental hygiene to try to put an end to what is known as sporadic legionellosis , an infectious disease that appeared in the 1970s . The origin of this pathology is unknown, although it is known that it is caused by an aerobic Gram-negative bacteria. It is established that it arises fundamentally in air conditioning units, cooling towers and even water stagnation.
Hence, every year, especially in the summer season, the relevant authorities maintain much more exhaustive control of the aforementioned elements to prevent citizens from becoming infected.
Environmental hygiene tasks
Environmental hygiene generally includes disinfection tasks (to control bacteria and organisms that are harmful to health), fumigation , disinfestation and deratization.
For example: if someone throws toxic waste in a square, the State must take care of the corresponding cleanup through the offices linked to environmental hygiene. This will prevent children and people passing through the square from getting sick when they come into contact with said waste.
Removing rats from a public office is another example of how environmental hygiene is protected. These animals can cause various diseases in humans. The most common thing, if rats are found, is to vacate the site in question and let the specialists act.