Impacts of Natural Disasters on Public Health and the Environment

Impacts of Natural Disasters on Public Health and the Envrionment

Environmental Science

Introduction

The occurrences of natural disasters have been increasing over the years (Laframboise, M. N., & Loko, M. B., 2012). The impacts of natural disasters can vary widely with the type and severity of the disaster as well as with the preparedness of the affected populations. According to Laframboise, M. N., and Loko, M. B. (2012), “Disasters are classified as geophysical (earthquakes), meteorological (storms), hydrological (floods), climatological (droughts), or biological (epidemics) (p.6).” Disasters affect communities in various ways and can include short and long term effects. There may be physical impacts, public health and environmental impacts, social and psychosocial impacts, demographic impacts, economic impacts, and political impacts (Lindell and Prater, 2003). Natural disasters have been shown to disproportionately affect low income communities and countries more heavily than wealthier areas (Lindell and Prater, 2003). Noji, Eric K. (1996) states that, “from 1965 to 1992, more than 90% of all natural-disaster victims lived in Asia and Africa (np.).” Lindell and Prater (2003) provide further statistics and explain that low-income countries suffer approximately 3,000 deaths per disaster while high-income countries suffer approximately 500 deaths per disaster. According to the book; The Impacts of Natural Disasters: A Framework for Loss Estimation (1999), the environmental impacts of natural disasters are relatively short and many natural disasters in the long term can even be beneficial (Appendix A: Environmental Impacts of Natural Disasters, 1999). Laframboise, M. N., and Loko, M. B. (2012) explain that natural di...

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