Environmental factors include temperature, food, contaminants, population density, sound, light, and parasites. There are a number of specific environmental problems that can hinder people's health and well-being. These problems include chemical pollution, air pollution, climate change, disease-causing microbes, lack of access to health care, poor infrastructure and poor water quality. Different chemicals can affect human health in different ways and, often, exposure to hazardous or foreign substances creates health vulnerabilities.
The field of chemical safety is concerned with minimizing the effects of natural and synthetic chemicals. More specifically, chemical safety seeks to protect human and environmental health from exposure to potential toxins; it focuses on chemicals that exist in the environmental world, as well as on synthetic chemicals that are used in industrial processes or are by-products of manufacturing activity. Public health officials working in chemical safety often focus on toxicology, which is the study of substances that have a toxic effect on the human body, whether ingested or absorbed in a natural environment. Another important aspect of public health is chemical risk assessment, which involves scientists and doctors working to determine all the biological effects of a substance.
More resources on chemical safety Studies have shown that the effects of air pollution on humans are a major public health problem, not only because of their role in climate change, but also because exposure to air pollution can increase morbidity and mortality. More resources on the effects of air pollution on humans More resources on climate change and natural disasters Diseases caused by microbes, also known as microorganisms, represent another area of public health concern. There are trillions of microbes in the human body and they also live in water, soil and air. Most of them have no negative health effects and many microbes perform important biological functions, such as supporting digestive and immune health, according to the National Institute for Human Genome Research.
Bacteria, viruses, and fungi are types of microbes. Harmful microbes, more commonly referred to as pathogens or germs, can infect humans and cause illness. Eating is one of the main ways in which humans can contract diseases caused by microbes. An example is food poisoning by E.
Coli, a type of bacteria that can be found in the environment and in food, and can cause respiratory diseases, urinary tract infections and other adverse health effects. More resources on diseases caused by microbes Another environmental factor that contributes to diseases and poor health outcomes in general is living in an area with a lack of access to health services. According to Healthy People, “many people face barriers that prevent or limit access to necessary health care services, which can increase the risk of poor health outcomes and health disparities. Some factors that contribute to the lack of access to health care include economic instability, unreliable transportation to clinical facilities, and a simple lack of education about the importance of preventive care.
An environmental factor, an ecological factor or an ecological factor is any factor, abiotic or biotic, that influences living organisms. Abiotic factors include ambient temperature, the amount of sunlight and the pH of water, the soil in which an organism lives. Biotic factors would include the availability of food organisms and the presence of biological specificity, competitors, predators and parasites. Environmental factors that affect plant growth include light, temperature, water, humidity and.
It's important to understand how these factors affect plant growth and development. With a basic knowledge of these factors, you may be able to manipulate plants to meet your needs, whether to increase leaf, flower, or fruit production. By recognizing the functions of these factors, you'll also be able to better diagnose plant problems caused by environmental stress. In addition to true monogenic genetic disorders, environmental factors can determine the development of the disease in people genetically predisposed to a particular condition.
This reinforcement creates a vicious circle in which the environment contributes to the development of social norms (such as dependence on automobile transport) and the behavior resulting from the standard reinforces the environmental characteristics (such as the absence of bicycle lanes or public transport) that sustain it. For example, the distribution of environments in which you can walk may be more variable in the United States than in other countries, creating “impassable” islands, where walking is not a viable transportation alternative to driving. For example, in addition to their direct relationship with mortality from injuries (see chapter), violence and drug use may be indirect markers of socio-environmental characteristics that affect other health outcomes. The identification of causal effects using these aggregated summaries poses a series of methodological challenges and does not allow the identification of specific environmental attributes that may be relevant.
Another environmental factor that contributes to diseases and poor health outcomes in general is living in an area with a lack of access to health services. If it is concluded that a pathological process is the result of a combination of genetic and environmental factors, it can be said that its etiological origin has a multifactorial pattern. Health disadvantage, existing evidence on the health effects of environmental factors and on differences in levels and distributions of environmental factors between the United States and other high-income countries suggests that environmental factors could contribute significantly to the U. In the case of complex disorders, specific genetic causes appear to represent only 10 to 30% of the incidence of the disease, but there is no standard or systematic way to measure the influence of environmental exposure.
This chapter focuses on the physical and social environment of the United States as potential factors contributing to its health disadvantage relative to other high-income countries. Residential environments are heavily dominated by Americans' reliance on private automotive transportation. By optimizing environmental health, communities can reduce exposure to diseases, as well as to contaminants that have a toxic effect on the body. Consider a instructive statistic from Healthy People, which points out that 23% of all deaths (and 26% of deaths among children age 5 and younger) are due to fully preventable environmental health problems.
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