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 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).
The environment and the health of the surrounding population go hand in hand. The Environmental Protection Agency takes on this ever so important mission of protecting them both. The mission statement of the EPA states, “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Small Business Programs is to support the protection of human health and the environment by advocating and advancing the business, regulatory, and environmental compliance concerns of small and socio-economically disadvantaged businesses, and minority academic institutions (US Enviromental Protection Agency, 2010).” The impact of its mission can be defined clearly as it examines the impact of contamination in the air, the water, and the land on human health.
... William Keck. "Environmental Health in Public Health." Principles of public health practice. Albany: Delmar Publishers, 1997. 584-588. Print.
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.
Michigan has its fair share of environmental issues. Among the state’s biggest issue concerns water quality. Pollution is enormous within the Great Lakes, as can be seen in Lake Michigan and several rivers such as the Kalamazoo and Grand River. The contamination of water includes such things as sewage, dumping of toxic chemicals, garbage, and mercury emissions from power plants and factories. According to Brandon Howell of Mlive Michigan news, who discusses the issues of mercury, “Mercury is a dangerous neurotoxin that harms growing children and pollutes our environment” (2). Factors like toxins and sewage, pose a threat to the wildlife that depend on the lakes and rivers. Poor water quality could very well possibly be related to poor economic conditions that the state is currently suffering from right now. The quality of water is a major problem in Michigan that should be brought to attention so that citizens can understand the pollution risk factors if they want to contribute to the solution of cleaner water.
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 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).
In modern society, humans constantly pollute the environment by using cars, technology, food packaging, and a countless amount of other products. Despite understanding how causing mass amounts of pollution can harm, often there are minimal attempts to correct polluting behaviors, at least until it poses an immediate threat to humans. The idea that the environment is suffering due to our mass consumption through instances of climate change and pollution, is not nearly enough motivation to stop the use of things that may be harmful. In order to address pollution in any respect, there must be an immediate threat to the health and well-being of humanity. Rachel Carson highlights this idea in her
To begin with, we have to identify what exactly means for the words “public health”. In general, we usually divided into two different areas. Public health which refers to the health of the environment surrounding in public, such as public transport and public infrastructure. Another explanation of public health means to prevent disease produced by different channels and methods, which also is the most common meaning and what I will mainly working for this paper about public health. First of all, when people mentioned about public health, United States and Japan would be the first two countries to compare with. Because the United States and Japan are basically two of the countries that everybody thinks of the most robust public health system.
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.
...ffects on human health. These have high negative effects on low income areas, as a result of pollution, visual, oral and air, as well as high levels of overcrowding. The World Health Organisation predicts that in the next 30years most of the world’s population growth will occur in cities and towns of poor countries. This rapid, unplanned and unsustainable pattern of urbanisation, is creating cities into focal points for environmental and health hazards (World Medical Association, 2010).
The protection of the environment however has just recently become the major issue that it is in today’s society. People worldwide have slowly begun to realize and become aware of the blatant destruction and deterioration of the environment and ozone. As well as the consequences and side affects, that we, as a society have created. The majority of people are just becoming aware of the frightening reality of the situation. As society becomes more informed on the issue of the environment, they too become more impatient, and feel that in the snap of fingers, the damage can be reversed and future damage can be stopped instantaneously.
Wildavsky, A. (1995). But is it true? A citizen’s guide to environmental health and safety issues. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
There are lots of environmental issues going on globally. The earth faces problems such as pollution, global warming, waste disposal, and loss of biodiversity. These are just a small amount of issues out of the so many. These environmental problems pose an abundant amount of risk to the health of humans and animals. There needs to be a solution to all these problems and that is by informing others, so that way everyone can make the environment a better place.