Environmental health depends on environmental factors.
Environmental health is a concept referring to the dimensions of health that are determined by different environmental factors , whether biological, chemical, social or other types.
The notion of health is usually linked to the absence of a disease , although specialists emphasize that the concept is associated with the complete physical and mental well-being of a person. Environmental , for its part, is that linked to the environment (the context or the environment).
The importance of environmental health
To understand what environmental health refers to, we must understand that the environment (the environment, the workplace, etc.) can affect the health of the current population and even future generations . Therefore, carrying out activities that improve their conditions has a positive impact on people's health.
In other words: the evaluation, control and correction of environmental factors that affect health effectively results in better health for people. Environmental health, therefore, acts on these issues.
Environmental sanitation is essential to improve environmental health.
The fight against pollution
Environmental health is generally associated with the fight against pollution . A factory that produces toxic smoke emissions and contaminates the water with its discharges poses a problem for environmental health: it can cause everything from poisoning to cancer in the people who live near it. That is why it is necessary to control its operation.
Precarious housing and poor nutrition are also factors analyzed by environmental health. Two people with the same genes will have different health states if one lives in a neighborhood without drinking water and eats junk food and the other resides in an urban environment with all the amenities and eats a varied diet.
Factors that affect environmental health
The factors that influence environmental health are many and are grouped into several categories. Some of them are listed below.
Physical factors
- Atmospheric : these are those related to the air and climate changes, which impact both our mood and our physical health. A clear example is the pain and illnesses that appear with sudden changes in temperature, such as certain respiratory problems and allergies.
- Sidereals : these are the general characteristics of our planet, the Moon and the Sun, in addition to the other bodies that surround it and the comets, since all this affects the environment and, consequently, our life and our health environmental.
- Electricity : the use of household appliances or industrial machinery can cause electrical shocks of various magnitudes, with consequences ranging from disability to death. Paradoxically, the lack of access to electricity can also lead to accidents , since the use of fuel to illuminate a home can cause poisoning or burns, for example.
Chemical factors
They are the ones that most commonly act on environmental health, since they are found in the air , in water and in all the products we consume daily ; In fact, they can enter our body through the nasal passages, the digestive tract or through direct contact with our skin or the different mucosal areas of the body. It is worth mentioning that its action can occur individually or in combination.
Some of the chemical factors are inorganic natural elements; This group includes mercury and lead , among other metals and non-metals that can be inhaled, absorbed or ingested , in solid or liquid state, depending on the case. There are also natural organic substances, and both types in their synthetic versions (a very common synthetic organic substance is the pesticide used in agriculture).
Biological factors
In this category we find: bacteria , parasites (this includes unicellular and multicellular, in addition to their toxins), viruses, various microorganisms (such as mycoplasmas), fungi and mycotoxins, allergens of biological origin, plants (due to their toxins or those that derived from pesticides, for example) and vaccines (especially those that include aluminum and mercury).