5 Ways the Environment Impacts Your Health

The environment directly influences our health in a manner unnoticeable to us. Often, your habitat, what you consume, and how you interact with your surroundings influence your health.

1- Air Quality

Air is a priceless commodity necessary for human survival, but people put minimal effort into keeping it clean and safe. Terrible air quality is a causative agent for various health complications such as lung cancer, cot death, and COPD. Radon, a gas common indoors, is a leading causative agent of lung cancer. Moreover, you should ensure you breathe good air quality indoors as we spend most of our time indoors. Reports from WHO suggest that air pollution is responsible for 29% of worldwide deaths from lung illness. Pregnant women who breathe polluted air from thirteen weeks tend to give birth to underweight babies. Similarly, mothers who smoke while pregnant give birth to underweight babies.

2- Quality of Drinking Water and Sanitation

According to Very well, an estimated 780 million people globally are deprived of clean water for drinking. A further 2.5 billion people lack proper sanitation amenities such as hygienic bathrooms. Poor quality of drinking water and improper sanitation causes diseases such as typhoid, which can be preventable by treating the water systems. Unsafe drinking water is accountable for a shocking 2200 child mortalities daily.

3- Harmful Substances and Unsafe Litter

Exposure to toxic chemical substances and dangerous litter compromises your health. Harmful substances such as lead and plastics are used in developing industries and enhance technology. Consumption of lead is devastating to children’s health as it causes health issues such as brain damage. Occasionally, there have been incidents of drinking water containing heavy metals such as lead due to improper waste disposal. Reports from WHO indicate that toxic chemical substances were responsible for more than 1.6 million demises in 2016. Often, poisonous pesticides might get released into the soil, thus contaminating our food.

4- Home Safety and Access to Food

There is no place like home, and thus homes should be safe because we spend most of our time there. For instance, you might not go outside for a jog in an estate where crime is prevalent. Accidents are more likely to occur in estates with poor roads full of potholes. Lack of access to food stores forces people to depend on convenience stores that supply poor-quality food. People living in such estates are limited to choice concerning healthy eating due to the poor quality of groceries.

5- Ease of Access to Health Care

Poor health care services contribute to many illnesses and general poor health in people living in the affected areas. Often, areas with poor health services are also economically unstable, have poor access to hospitals, and have an ignorant population on preventive measures. People living in such areas are more likely to suffer from asthma, cancer, diabetes, and heart ailments.

It would help if you strived to breathe good quality air, drink clean water and maintain hygienic sanitation. Therefore, you need to be more conscious of your environment by examining your home for radon or traces of lead. You can prevent air pollution by opting to ride a bike or taking public transport to work.