Environment and Human Health
We are aware of the complex strands that bind us to our environment. We have already started noticing the difference in our health and how it is related to, what we do to our environment. However, a point to consider is that if a bad environment can cause harm to human health, a good environment can actually nurture it.
A report jointly published by the United Nations Environment Programme, the WHO, the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Stockholm, Rotterdam and Basel conventions states that in the year 2012 alone, approximately 12.6 million people lost their lives due to conditions brought on by environmental pollution. UNEP also estimates that environmental degradation is behind 25 percent of all human diseases.
While environmental pollution may have an impact on everyone, research has shown that there are certain demographics that are more vulnerable to its effects – the young, the poor, women, the migrant workers and the elderly. In addition, diseases such as Ebola, Zika and SARS are emerging every few months and spreading because of overpopulation, too much livestock and the resultant environmental impact.
In order to stop the spread of these diseases, healthy ecosystems are essential. While tackling these diseases, such ecosystems can also bring about economic development, reduction of poverty, fewer risks to human well-being and the security of knowing that resources will not run out.
Increasingly, studies conducted on mental health are relating to good mental health with exposure to nature. These studies have linked reduction of the symptoms of anxiety and depression and lowered stress levels to the presence of green space close by. In fact, people who moved to urban areas that are greener were seen to have improved mental health.
This is another example of environmental pollution affecting those in the lower economic strata. In countries where the income levels are middle to low, the unavailability of clean water is responsible for 58 percent of diarrhoea cases. Contaminated water and poor hygiene and sanitation are responsible for the deaths of around 3.5 million people. They also cause premature deaths of around 25 percent of children younger than 14 years of age.
There are several areas of immediate concern, based on the connection between poor human health and environmental degradation. Some of them are Ecosystems that have degraded and natural systems on earth that are under pressure, which are more likely to cause disasters such as disease outbreaks, scarcity of food and natural disasters. Insufficient sanitation, poor hygiene and unsafe water are the causes of deadly diseases, poor mental health can hit economic productivity badly. Poor nutrition combined with dropping levels of physical activity, leading to the spread of non-communicable disease. Directly or indirectly, a healthy environment means healthy people. This is not to say that disease and malnutrition will be eliminated entirely but the incidences of these occurrences will reduce and millions of human lives will not be lost every year.
In Pakistan, people are suffering from a lot of diseases and they are being spread. I urge the government of Pakistan to please do something for the nation.