What type of environmental factors that affect health

See the latest Coronavirus Information including visitation guidelines , appointments and scheduling, location hours , virtual classes , patient FAQs and more. Whether it's at the beach or listening to music, humans are constantly interacting with the environment. From the air you breathe to the noise you hear, everything outside of your body is considered part of the environment. In many ways, our surrounding provides humans with important resources to stay alive, such as oxygen and sunlight.

However, there are ways it can be a little less friendly to your health. If you frequently work or exercise outdoors or live near a busy highway, you may also have a risk of developing pollution-related health complications.

How to Protect Yourself Pollution levels are constantly changing. One day, the levels in your area may be unhealthy, but the next, they may be perfectly fine. Your first line of defense against pollution is to check the daily air pollution forecasts, which can be found on radio and TV weather reports or at AirNow. If levels are particularly high one day, try to limit how much time you spend outdoors. This is especially important when it comes to exercising, which puts more demand on your lungs.

In addition, you can:. Remember — much of the pollution comes from cars and electricity. By limiting your own energy-use as much as possible, you can do your part in reducing pollution and keeping everyone healthy. From bone-strengthening vitamin D to its relaxing, warm feeling, the sun provides a number of benefits. But a sunshine filled day can do more harm than good — especially without the right protection. Why is the environment important for health?

Health effects related to the environment. Environmental burden of disease worldwide. We use the following definitions: Environmental health refers to aspects of human health including quality of life that are determined by physical, chemical, biological, social and psychosocial factors in the environment.

Environmen t broadly includes everything external to ourselves, including the physical, natural, social and behavioral environments. Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, and is not merely the absence of disease or illness. We depend on the environment for energy and the materials needed to sustain life, such as: clean air safe drinking water nutritious food safe places to live.

Table 1 gives examples of how different aspects of the environment can affect our health. Even in developed countries, environmental factors play a large role in the burden of disease. References 1. The notion of equity and justice in relation to environmental exposures and related health burdens born by groups defined on the basis of such factors as socio-economic status, ethnicity and gender.

Last Dictionary of Epidemiology, OUP [1] defines the environment as ' all that is external to the human host '. It can be taken to include anything except genetic factors, but is usually thought of as including physico-chemical, biological, social and cultural factors, which individually and in combination influence human health and well-being. The following notes concentrate on the physical, chemical and biological environment, and give less emphasis to broader socio-economic influences.

It is important to note however that socio-economic factors lie behind many of the large differentials in health within populations and between them. In relation to the environment, socio-economic deprivation is important as a frequent determinant of environmental exposures on average poorer people tend to live in more polluted, less healthy areas and are more vulnerable to the effects of such exposures by virtue of their health status and poorer access to services.

At the same time, people in more deprived areas, who tend to consume fewer resources, are typically responsible for fewer of the emissions that cause environmental contamination. This is often labelled the issue of environmental justice or injustice. Examples of inequities in exposure and health effects can be found in relation to many environmental factors. Examples include:. Until the s, environment and health concerns were often focused on the adverse consequences for health of the increasing release of chemical contaminants into local environments, and on exposures related to industrialisation and urbanisation.

Particular concerns arose in relation to outdoor air pollution, contamination of water bodies and the land, and radiation risks. These concerns often received prominence with serious pollution episodes, some examples of which are:. The occurrence of key environmental incidents and accidents raise public concern and often lead to new trends in research and interest on the effect of the environment on health.

Industrial development and urbanisation has been a major and continuing global trend. Half of all people now live in urban environments, and urban life is often polluted and unhealthy, especially in low income countries. Large cities in poorer countries typically combine the environmental problems of poverty with those of uncontrolled urban expansion, squatter settlements and unregulated industrialisation.

Residents therefore often face the combined hazards of poor sanitation, unsafe drinking water, precarious housing, dangerous roadways, polluted ambient and indoor air, and toxic wastes. Some potential sources of environmental health problems include:. For example, obesity is related to genes and exposure to certain chemicals.

But how much activity a person gets every day can be a bigger predictor of whether or not someone is a healthy weight. That means availability of parks, affordable healthy food and even sidewalks are important environmental factors in helping people keep their BMI in check.