Health and Environmental Sustainability:Public health issues for present and future

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47648/zhswmcj.2019.v0101.06

Monowar Ahmad Tarafdar1

Abstract

The medical definition of environmental causes of diseases would be all those factors that are not genetic. Environmental factors include all those factors those affect human health mediated by social conditions and individual choice or environment. ‘Sustainable’ includes the environmental issues and ‘development’ includes the economic issues. Climate change alters or disrupts natural systems, making it possible for vector, water, and food-borne diseases to spread or emerge. Climate change can affect the incidence of diseases associated with air pollutants and aeroallergens. Clean air is considered to be a basic requirement of human health and well-being. Poverty increases vulnerability to climatesensitive health outcomes directly by reducing the capacity to adapt to changing conditions. For countries in the early stages of development the major environmental hazards to health are associated with widespread poverty and severe lack of public infrastructure, such as access to drinking water, sanitation, and lack of health care as well as emerging problems of industrial pollution and also urban waste based pollution. A healthy population is a prerequisite for a productive and creative society, which in turn is needed to sustain national development. Social determinants affect the environmental conditions of an individual and may contribute to the fact that specific individuals or population groups more often experience less adequate or potentially harmful environmental conditions; may directly affect exposure beyond and in addition to the exposure. Enhancing environmental sustainability, through reducing carbon emissions, curtailing waste, and managing resources efficiently, will deliver healthy outcome, and provide broader social and economic benefits.

Keywords: Environment, Sustainability, Public Health.


  1. Professor, Department of Community Medicine

    Z H Sikder Women’s Medical College, Dhaka


Volume 1, Number 1, January 2019
Page: 26-30