08 Ecology and Health

Highlights:

1. Ecological factors affecting health and well-being
Exhaustion of natural resources e.g. water, land, food
  • Water scarcity : affect personal hygiene
  • Food scarcity : nutrition
  • Food and water-born diseases due to improper heating of food and water
Global warming
  • Alter the pattern of exposure of vector-borne infections include malaria and dengue fever
Forms of Pollution and their impact on health
  • Chemical
    • some toxic substances accumulated in various tissues and organs in different body systems
  • Radiation
    • risks of anemia and cancer
  • Water
    • transmitting pathogens causing typhoid fever, dysentery, cholera and parasitic worms
  • Noise
    • damage of hearing, neurasthenia
  • Air
    • respiratory illnesses such as asthma, pneumonia, and bronchitis
Natural disasters
  • Physical
    • Physical injury, Deficiency in nutrition, infectious diseases due to crowding of survivors
  • Mental
    • Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
  • Social
    • breakdown of social network in some cases
2. Actions at different levels
Individual
  • Personal roles in protecting the environment
    • e.g. resource conservation, 3R – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
Society
  • Government roles in the protecting the environment
    • e.g. legislation, promotion such as campaigns related to cleanliness and hygiene control of pollutants, industrial waste, food safety, etc.
Global
  • Relationships between developed and developing nations and societies
    • Example(1): Emission of Carbon Dioxide
    • Example(2): Electronic Wastes
  • The WHO approach to health promotion and illness prevention
    • The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion – fundamental conditions and resources for health are peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable ecosystem, sustainable resources, social justice and equity


Latest Update: October 2019

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Assessing my learning

  • How does ecology affect our health?
  • What is a healthy ecology?
  • How can we build and maintain a healthy ecology?