Healthy Neighborhoods and Disaster Prevention

How safe is your living area? Does it unsettle you that your neighbors are polluting the environment? Many residents do not worry about the quality of air and water that they have in the neighborhoods. In well-planned settings, residential areas should be free from noise, air and water pollution. Areas designated as industrial should not be used as residential simultaneously. With poor planning and rapid industrialization in many cities, many citizens reside in locations that are polluted. Some situations are very serious such that the derived health impacts remain uncharacterized due to multiple confounding causes. The consequences of such exposure do not only affect man but also impact livestock and wild animals.

Impacts on human health may result in chronic outcomes. However, under extreme weather conditions, there is an increased likelihood of acute exposure with concomitant health outcomes. The health impacts of polluted neighborhoods may manifest as intestinal, respiratory and skin conditions. These are the most evident primary characteristic features of air and water pollution. However, there may be more subtle and long-term effects that require more diagnosis. In the cities, many health facilities and qualified personnel can handle such emergencies and health needs. This may not be the case in a rural setting where there may be no health staff and limited access to quality diagnostic facilities and services. These highlighted perspectives apply to chronic exposure assuming that there is no emergency. However, in the event that there is an industrial accident, there are several considerations to make, importantly, the type and magnitude of chemical exposure must be characterized. At the same time, the age of the affected individuals will determine how the rescue operations are configured.

The subtle hazards associated with industrial accidents may be ignored but should be factored in disaster management planning and designs. Studies have shown that people get used to chemical exposure through adaptation, however, this does not reduce the damage arising due to the. The interaction of the rodents and pests with the environmental toxicants may modulate their genetics and several generations of more virulent strains may arise, which may cause epidemics. Studies on the co-evolution of hosts and parasites should investigate the impacts of global climate change on the pestilence, virulence, and resistance. The three parameters can be measured by examining and comparing the evolution of host and parasite in several diverse geographical locations. Disease outcomes can be used as an indicator of the level of pollution and environmental degradation. As such this requires the right gamut of tools to permit elucidation of the biological processes that underlie the changes. Today molecular biology has designed techniques that can be deployed to assess hypotheses linked to the aforementioned scientific labyrinth.

Some activities that are not classified as industrial may also cause harm in residential areas. In most cases there is weak or lack of legislation that allows such activities to continue without abatement and regulation. For instance, entertainment, alcohol use, and consumption in neighborhoods pose a serious health threat to children and the elderly as well as long-term health effects to the wider population segment. In entertainment facilities that are found within residential areas, there is an increased risk of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke as well as other chemical substances that are used as well as their waste progeny. The legacy associated with such exposure has been shown to trigger deleterious health outcomes. Studies have reported that amongst children, the health impacts of exposure to such toxicants may interfere with physical and cognitive development. Furthermore, some of the industrial chemicals have been linked to teratogenicity and trans-placentally acquired health problems. Indeed, studies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan; Seveso, Italy and Owino Uhuru in Kenya have reported irreparable health outcomes associated with prenatal exposure to chemical toxicants in human populations. The full picture of impacts associated with industrial accidents remain largely idiopathic due to legislative and structural limitations. The Seveso Disaster of 1976 was an industrial accident in which a chemical manufacturing facility in northern Italy overheated, releasing toxic gases into a residential community. It joins the ranks of Fukushima, Bhopal, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island as one of the worst industrial accidents in the past century in terms of its effects on workers and residents.The resulting environmental impacts led to the creation of tougher, more uniform environmental regulations and health protections throughout Europe.

 

Many individuals view environmental problems as distant, however, extreme weather events can expose any part of the planet to environmental poisons. Manmade pollutants can travel faster and cause significant impacts on human health and environment in distal locations. It is important to take precaution when dealing with rain water and vegetables if you are residing near a plant such as chemical factory or cement producing plant. Studies have shown for instance that effluent from paper mills can exterminate subpopulations of amphibians and reptiles. As such, the magnitude of species loss that may arise is not known since there are many species that are yet to be discovered. Accordingly, harvesting vegetables and using rain water in the neighborhood of chemical using industries can lead to accelerated carcinogenesis and acute exposure. The cost and benefit tradeoffs should be assessed to establish the net benefits of having industries within residential zones, and if the industry must stay, then there may be need to relocate the residents to safer areas to avert exposure to toxicants.

Recommendations for further reading

 

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