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environment health problem essay
environment and public health essay
public health and environmental conditions essay
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Public Responsibility to Ensure Environmental Health
What aspects of the environment can the public control to protect themselves?
The public has a certain responsibility to protect their environment in order to avoid a possible decline in public health. When the environment surrounding the place an individual resides is unhealthy or polluted, there is a risk of sickness or disease. I will explore the causes and repercussions of certain environmental disasters such as Love Canal, and understand what steps the public took to resolve the issue and what else could have been done to remedy the predicament faster. The public has certain responsibilities to guarantee the safety and protection of future generations by caring for their environment
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This topic is significant and is in need of attention since a decline in environmental health will impact all life on earth, whether it is rising sea levels, pollution, or global warming. From a consequentialist or utilitarian perspective, there is a focus on the consequences of ignoring the environment and the repercussions on public health; the public must ensure safety of citizens because it benefits the greatest amount of people. From a deontological perspective, public health organizations focus perspectives on the principle of prevention and a duty to the public.
A direct example of how the mistreatment of the environment has an effect on the health of the public is seen in the incident at Love Canal. “Love Canal was a rectangular 16-acre, 10-ft-deep chemical waste landfill situated in a residential neighborhood in the city of Niagara Falls…
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I investigated what the ethical responsibilities of the public are to ensure the health of their environment. I sought out a local environmental organization in Lancaster County to understand the steps the public can take to improve environmental health, and the ethical implications that will arise if not addressed. Unfortunately there were no public meeting that I could attend at this time of the year so I went online to the Lancaster County Watershed website and found valuable information. I also found the phone number of the Education Coordinator, Sallie Gregory for any questions I may have about the health of our local environment. I found out that a watershed is an area of land that drains to a body of water, for example, a pond, stream, river, lake, or ocean and that pretty much everyone lives in a watershed. The Lancaster County Conservation District focuses on the stewardship of land, water, and other natural resources. The Conservation District oversees and partakes in programs to promote the sensible use of natural resources. According to the Education Coordinator, the programs they offer are for students and residents of Lancaster County and the goal of the programs is to address the Pennsylvania Department of Education Environment and Ecology Standards. Most of their programs focus on soil and water conservation issues. The Water Quality Volunteer Coalition (WQVC) is a group of
The first Earth Day had the largest demonstration by having twenty million people attend, creating the next big wave of environmentalists. The neighborhood of Love Canal was a toxic waste dump. It had twenty thousand tons of poisonous chemicals buried beneath the ground that was leaking into the homes and schools of its residences. Lois Gibbs led the movement against Love Canal when she read an article by Michael Brown exposing the problem. Gibbs discovered that the majority of the neighborhood’s elementary school children were sick from chemical residue in the school’s basement. The chemical leakage was also causing birth defects and miscarriages. Lois Gibbs vigorously fought and protested for two years until the state was forced by the federal government to evacuate and relocate Love Canal’s
"The Cost to Human Health." How We Save the Bay. N.p., 2012. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
Love Canal was a small town in Niagara Falls, New York, located between two bodies of water: the Bergholtz Creek to the North and the Niagara River to the South. Seems innocent enough right? Wrong. This town was built on top of 21,000 tons of toxic waste (Verhovek). In the early 1890’s, William T. Love wanted to build a canal which would connect the Niagara River to Lake Ontario to generate hydroelectric power for his would be city. However, due to a severe drop in investors and laws passed by Congress, he was not able to bring his idea to life. By the time his funds were completely depleted in 1910, he had dug one mile of the canal, about 50 feet wide, and 10 to 40 feet deep and he had constructed a few streets and homes (Blum). In the 1920’s, the giant hole was used as a dumpsite for the nearby city of Niagara Falls, which lead the way into one of the most appalling environmental tragedies in American history (Beck). A small handful of people who decided they would not leave are all that remains of the town today; 90% of the buildings were demolished or boarded up (Verhovek).
In 1979, the situation at a town called Love Canal was declared a state of emergency. How did such an isolated place in New York become a national devastation? In the 1890s, William T. Love started a project of digging a canal from Niagara River to Lake Ontario, but the canal was never completed. Hooker Chemical Company bought it, and used the land as a landfill for their chemical waste. They later sold it to the Niagara Falls School District, which was looking for more land to build an elementary school, but only after 21,000 tons of harmful chemicals were dumped and buried under a clay cap. They built many homes near the dump, and broke the clay cap. Soon, the people living near the canal started to complain about strange diseases, miscarriages, and residue seeping into their basements. A local resident, Lois Gibbs, started the Love Canal's Homeowners Association and led rallies to persuade the government to inspect their area. Soon, Love Canal started gaining national attention and in 1978, Love Canal was named a state of emergency. The residents were soon told to
...ell. We should care about the health and well-being of the plant and animal life around us because the majority of us also depend on these animals and their life cycles for nourishment. The water from thiswatershed, as well as others, is where we get our drinking water, irrigation and other industrial water usage, which means that the animals depend on this water as well. If they ingest harmful chemicals, we in turn ingest these chemicals with our daily food intake. The James River Association accepts volunteers to assist with the care of the Chesapeake River watershed and its sub-watersheds. There are lots of other ways to get involved in the prevention of further pollution to our precious natural resources. The first step is to not become part of the problem. Do not liter, don’t dump your oils in the gutters and think that you are not part of the problem.
Environmental risks and hazards provide the world with some of the most important issue pressing obstacles. Being able to manage risks and hazards on an environmental level can save many lives and create economic benefits in the process. The Flint, Michigan water crisis is such an example of this. When the water supply of a small urban Michigan town became tainted with lead, the pressure was put on the officials in order to manage the dangers surrounding that problem. Some of the ways at which reducing the risk and hazard would be to understand them better. One way to do this is to put prejudices aside and to understand the human condition. In other words, perceiving risk appropriately and being able to take risk out of the equation in order to protect the lives of humans.
In this case, the following tests are the most relevant for this disaster: harm test, colleague test, and publicity test. The harm test consists on analyzing if the options perform less harm than the alternatives (Davis, 1999). In other words, this test implies that the benefits need to prevail over the harm, which will minimize the harm and maximizing the benefits. In the Love Canal case, this test failed since it was clear that the well-being of the public was affected due to the birth defects, miscarriages, and health issues that the community exhibited. Similarly, the colleague test consists on asking yourself what your colleagues would say when suggesting this option as the solution (Davis, 1999). When making decisions, engineers and companies should take actions on activities that would look appropriate for the general population to accept and for a panel of peers. With this in mind, Hooker’s engineers and the company itself did not care about how chemically polluting the environment will be judged or looked like in front of publics eyes and the community; therefore, the Hooker’s engineers and the company failed this test due their lack of public awareness. Additionally, when considering the publicity test, everyone should ask themselves if they want their “choice of this option published in the newspaper” (Davis, 1999). In this country, journalism plays a crucial role in our society, so when engineers and companies ends up in the news, it means that their actions had a social or environmental repercussion; consequently, because of Hooker’s lack of professionalism, an entire community was exposed to carcinogens that ended up affecting the locals and the unborn; as a result, by 1978, many newspapers and TV news reported
Over the past year, a major contamination event shocked the nation. The Flint Michigan water crisis opened my eyes to the issues of contamination throughout the country. I soon realized that I did not know much about my neighborhood or potential hazards. I grew up in an apartment complex in North Brunswick, NJ. Nine years ago my family and I moved into our new home, which is located on the border of North Brunswick and New Brunswick. My current neighborhood is different in many ways, but I have learned to appreciate its flaws. The Residential Survey allowed me to investigate my home, which sometimes still feels very unfamiliar.
The health effects due to the toxic waste dump are numerous and fatal. There was a high incidence of miscarriages and birth defects in children in the 239 families that lived here. The incident rate was so high that in 1978 New York State of Health issued a “recommended temporary relocation of ALL pregnant women and children under two” (Gibbs 22). In May of 1980 President Carter declared a health emergency because of the abnormal amounts of chromosomal breakage in the Love Canal residents. In October of the same year the President signed a bill to evacuate all families permanently from Love Canal.
The school board agreed and Hooker Chemical Company sold the land for one dollar. This marked the beginning of what would be considered one of the worst environment disaster in history. Health problems arouse in the residents that lived on this land, due to ruptured canisters that leached into the water supply. Love Canal was very close to Lake Erie. This meant that the water table was close to the surface. During heavy rains, the water table would rise, thus pushing the toxic waste to the surface. This resulted in the toxic water leaching into basements, evaporating and releasing toxic gases and contaminating the soil. In some cases, the toxic water would rise to the surface and there would be puddles of toxic waste. The results of this exposure were a high amount of illnesses and medical issues. The rate of miscarriages and birth defects increased and there was an apparent Cancer clusters. A cancer cluster is an area where there is a significantly higher level of cancer diagnoses in one residential area. After multiple complaints from the residents of Love Canal, a study was preformed and it was determined that the area was not safe to inhabit. This lead to then president, Jimmy Carter to promise funding that would allow all affected residents to move and
Public health may be defined as “a social and political concept aimed at the improving the quality of life among the whole population through health promotion, disease prevention and other forms of health intervention”.(1) The purpose of public health practice is to improve the health of society rather than individuals and reduce health disparities between individuals, groups, and communities through organized effort of the communities, individuals and organizations. As Marmot points out: “creating a fairer society is fundamental to improving the health of the population and ensuring a fairer distribution of good health”.(2) Besides this, the public health field is expanding to tackling new and contemporary risks: obesity, sexually transmitted
Americans have developed a sense of vulnerability, risk and awareness of toxins in their daily social and environmental interactions. This feeling, however, did not compel the millions of Americans to generate political action aimed at reducing the possibility of that risk. Instead, it lead to individualized acts of self-protection, isolating themselves individually from these threats. Andrew
The poisons that we are introducing into our environment is causing us a new slew of health problems. We once had to worry about things such as the bubonic plague, but now, we have to worry about what Rachel refers to as “environmental disease” (p.169).
The objectives of this essay is to identify and address the global health issues as whole including causes of these issues and impact of these issues. Also it is aim to address the preventive measures to reduce the global issues and report the methods for global health issues identified and understand the global health priorities with regards to major health issues throughout the world.
There are numerous public health problems that can be addressed in my Southside of Chicago community. Among the several public health problems facing my Southside of Chicago community there are two that are more urgent. Health education or one might say lack thereof is a problem that needs to be addressed. My community is plagued with many of the residents suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes, and the killer virus known as HIV. In most cases these conditions can be prevented with healthier lifestyles and access to nutritious organic foods. In addition, environmental health is another urgent problem my community is facing. Access to clean, safe water and air is supposed to be a fundamental human right aimed at a healthy environment. Yet, my community consists a waste contaminated beach, numerous deteriorated building that are still occupied, and a countless number of restaurant and stores supplying our residents with services that are endangering their health.