Dr. Vivak M Arya & Gourav Sudan
World Environmental Health Day was established in the year 2011 by the International Federation of Environmental Health (IFEH). World Environmental Health Day refers to the significance of caring for environmental health. The day supports not just about safeguarding ecological health but also realizing the effects of anthropogenic activities on environment health and also the relation between the environmental health and the health of humans. The central idea behind celebrating this day is that the health of the human race is interrelated with the health of the environment. It is a day chosen to make people aware about the health of environment. If our environment stays healthy, eventually health of mankind also remains good. So, it is our duty to ensure better environmental health for the protection of mankind. To achieve this goal, the IFEH works with full power and dedication and observes World Environmental Health Day every year with new themes and programs. The theme of World Environmental Health Day Global environmental public health: standing up to protect everyone’s health each and every day.
Environment health means physical, chemical and biological environment of specific region. The environmental health of an area is now days being affected by climate change which causes poor quality of air, loss of diversity in the environment and chemical disparities. These are the factors that we can say disturb the health of environmental region. Hence, to promote the protection or fortification of environmental health, IFEH advocates the observance of World Environmental Health Day on September 26thevery year. Environmental health is one of the largest fields within public health because of its impact on people’s life like how people eat, live, and grow. According to World Health Organisation, more than 12.6 million deaths occur each year due to environment issues. These issues are soil pollution, ultraviolet radiation, and biodiversity loss. Data reveals that more than 100 illnesses and injuries can be directly linked to environmental health concerns. These issues have the greatest impact on communities that are poor and already have significant health care vulnerabilities. So we have to work on these issues related to the public health, and eventually this is the right way through which we will work on our theme of this year. According to the report by Very well Health it indicates that more than 780 million people don’t have access to clean drinking water worldwide and as a result, more than 2,200 children die due to diseases caused by poor water quality each day. Harmful microbes, which are more commonly called pathogens or germs, can infect humans and cause illness. Eating is one of the primary ways in which humans can contact diseases caused by microbes. Climate change plays a significant role in changing environment’s health by playing a significant through wildfires, floods and hurricanes which are becoming regular events that threaten lives, livelihoods and food security. Climate change also affects the survival of microbes and plays a major role in spreading of viruses. If no action is taken, pandemics are likely to occur more frequently, spread more rapidly, have greater economic impact and kill more people.
Significance of World Environmental Health Day:
It is important because it creates an opportunity for people to enhance their consciousness about their surroundings. There are various things that makes this day significant like viz: the day supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the celebration also encourages world leaders to support the conservation of the environment and also takes strong steps towards controlling climate change, it helps people to realize that their future and also the future of the planet earth depends upon our today’s attitude towards environmental health, it also helps the world in understanding the point that there is a integral connection between environment, health and economy. Therefore, it is important to invest in and green energy which is good for environment. So we can summarize that environmental health is closely related to the health of human beings. A safe and protected environment is one which has clean air, clean drinking water, hygiene, and ecological diversity support humans living in a protected environment. Hence, it is important to ensure the safety of environmental health, because it will ensure the safety of human health in the long run. The environment that we live in has a lot of impact on us and our health. The healthier our environment is, the healthier our health becomes. Overall, we owe our health to the environment to a great extent. Hence, it is our prime responsibility to keep our surroundings neat and clean. By understanding what are the risks on, Environmental Health Professionals can do better by deploying resources to protect everyone’s health each and every day. There are many things that public and private institutions including NGOs can do to protect environmental health and safety of the community throughout this planet.
(The authors are working in the field of climate change, NRM at SKUAST-Jammu).
