Environmental health
"Health-Environment" is a term coined in the late twentieth century. It means speaking for the common field assumptions, knowledge and theories concerning the prospective relationship possible between:
* Firstly environmental variables (biogeographic factors, pollution and environmental nuisances ..) but also factors concerning the quality of food, the indoor environment (air, noise, electromagnetic fields, radioactivity ...) and (job exposure to toxins, abnormal fatigue or stress-specific factors)
* And other: health,
* And monitoring them.
This area is changing, thanks to advances in modeling, software tools and the Internet (databases increasingly rich and interconnected) and statistical information more easily collected and less available (cf. problems caused by data rights and / or confidentiality of private data) showed the importance of a more comprehensive approach, integrating heuristics and better psycho-social aspects, and landscape epidemiology. These advances make it possible to compare statistically the description of the evolution of the health status of a population to different environmental indicators and / or demographics.
Recent studies, passing the data to environmental and health worldwide, based on statistics accumulated since 1940 show that emerging diseases are rising for a century (almost fourfold in 50 years).
Viruses highly pathogenic and potentially pandemic high HIV / AIDS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus, West Nile fever, Ebola, H5N1, etc.. appear recently emerged in humans, from the Animal.
History of the concept
During the twentieth century, with the emergence of environmental medicine, environmental conditions have become increasingly important as an explanatory factor of health, including the development of ecotoxicology and landscape epidemiology.
Agenda 21 established at the Earth Summit in Rio (June 1992) for sustainable development considered in one chapter entitled "Protection and promotion of human health" that public health was dependent on the quality of the biophysical environment and it was therefore necessary to link Health and Human Environment.
At the WHO conference in Frankfurt in 1989, "Environmental Health" was defined as including "those aspects of human health and disease are determined by the environment. This refers to the theory and practice of monitoring and evaluation in environmental factors that can potentially affect health ".
The notion of black spots appeared recently in the PRSE II for example, better cross and take into account the environmental and health inequalities.
Factors and issues
Environmental health is determined by many factors. These factors are related both to the natural environment (ecosystems) and the built environment (housing, cars ..) including the conditions and places of work and mobility. These include:
* Air quality (including indoor air, including tobacco smoke), micro-and nanoparticles, pesticides and other pollutants;
* Water quality (see water management, access to drinking water for all, prevention of waterborne diseases, including through the pools and bathing water;
* Soil quality (pathogens and parasites content, pesticide residues, radioactivity, organic pollutants and metal or metalloid contaminants are persistent), particularly in cities, in and around industrial areas around transport infrastructure
* Housing (including schools, prisons, campsites, hotels, retirement homes, etc..
* Personal hygiene and exposure of the body (possibly in utero) to different sources of stress (and other pathogenic microbes, consequences of trauma (hitting, tattooing, piercing) ... and some cosmetics);
* Climate change and its health effects (heat waves, emerging diseases);
* Increased exposure to UV, following the hole in the ozone layer, compounded with sunburn and increased risk of cancer;
* Natural disasters (see Occurrence and severity, but also degree of preparation and coping with disasters);
* Quality Food (agriculture, transport / storage, manufacturing, distribution ...);
* Management of health risk (outbreaks, nosocomial infections ...);
* Management of hazardous (including toxic waste and / or hazardous, radioactive, contaminated sites and soils, effects of war, pollution caused by unexploded munitions dumped ... including remediation, waste management and excreta (especially in case of epidemic);
* Lead Poisoning and Prevention childhood lead poisoning;
* Planning, Sustainable Development, QEH
* Nuisance caused by light pollution (including light trespass);
* Noise pollution;
* Light pollution (which is a factor of endocrine disruption;
* Environmental impact studies or not taking into account the impacts on health (theoretically compulsory since the Air Act (Act Barnier) in France);
* Occupational Health;
* Radiological Health (⇒ reduce exposure to UV radiation or X radiation and / or radionuclides);
* Exposure to vectors of microbes or parasites (mosquitoes, ticks, rodents, etc.).
* Location of war, civil war, political refugee or refugee climate ..
* And maybe some electromagnetic fields
In Europe
The Sixth Action Programme of the European Union for the environment includes a section on "Environment and Health" to "attain a quality environment that does not jeopardize or adversely affect human health" . It proposes:
- Identify the risks to health (including children and elderly) to "legislate accordingly";
- Introduce environmental and health priorities into other policies, and legislation on water, air, waste and soil;
- Develop research in the field of environmental health;
- Better assess the risks of chemicals (see REACH Directive);
- Prohibit or restrict the most dangerous pesticides and use of best practices
- Implement legislation on water (Water Framework Directive ...);
- Produce standards on air quality and a strategy on air pollution;
- Produce and implement a directive on noise.
The cost of diseases with certain environmental origin has been evaluated for the EU to about 50 billion € over 30 years.
In Belgium
In Belgium, the federal plan Health-environment called NEHAP (NAP Belgian healthcare environment).
There is a second Scientific Institute of Public Health (IPH) involving the federal and community levels Belgian (Flemish, French, germanophone) which includes a cell of environmental health.
Insofar as the health environment is part of preventive health, the three Belgian Communities are competent. For the French Community of Belgium, it is the Directorate General for Health. The Walloon Region is in theory not responsible for the health-environment, but for the environment, however the materials are related. In this context it is the Directorate General for the Environment.
There are other community or regional institutions involved in environmental health such as SPAQuE or the IBGE (Brussels Institute for Environmental Management).
Finally, in the field of Public Health, University of lessons specific environmental health are offered (School of Public Health at the Free University of Brussels).
In Switzerland
A Plan of Action and Environmental Health (AGE), established following the Earth Summit in Rio, has lasted ten years and ends in late 2007 without any result seems planned. This plan coordinated by the Division of Environmental Health and BAG had three priorities:
"Nature and well-being"
"Mobility and well-being"
"Housing and welfare.
In September 2004, the Swiss Romande relayed this work with an "Action Plan on Environment and Health ASPP encourage local projects Romand.
See also wine and health
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