How pollution threatens human health in environmental health

Environmental health is the part of public health concerned with how the natural and built environment affects human health, and with identifying and controlling factors that affect health. What kinds of pollution threaten human health, and how can understanding these threats help clarify what a healthy environment requires? The lessons connect pollution with health through themes of exposure, unequal risks, and environmental conditions.

3 articles, 1 video, 1 book · about 56 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   

   environmental health · Wikipedia · 32 min read

   For environmental health, air pollution is globally responsible for over 6.5 million deaths each year, as of 2022. It is often a risk factor for diseases like lung cancer, respiratory infections, asthma, heart disease, and other forms of respiratory-related illnesses. Over 2 billion people globally drink feces-contaminated water, the greatest threat to drinking water safety. Contaminated drinking water could transmit cholera, dysentery, typhoid, diarrhea and polio. Environmental health is affected when marginalized groups live near pollution sources such as major roadways, toxic waste sites, landfills, and chemical plants. A 2021 study found that racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States are exposed to disproportionately high levels of particulate air pollution.

2. Read
   

   Impact of climate change on health is 'the major threat of 21st century' - Carbon Brief · Carbon Brief · 9 min read

   During the 2003 European heatwave, there were 75,000 extra premature deaths in Europe, including 2,000 in the UK, Prof Peter Cox says. He says this was mainly because people could not recover, and suspects hot nights correlate with ill health.

3. Read
   

   Pollution Is Changing the Smells of Nature, With Risks for Wildlife · Yale Environment 360 · 9 min read

   For environmental health, ozone and nitrogen oxides, which are harmful to human health, have been falling slowly but steadily in the U.S. since 1980. Even so, many places in the U.S. and Europe still regularly experience unhealthy levels, and ozone exposure is estimated to be increasing globally.

4. Watch
   

   Pollution and human health| Aquatic and Terrestrial Pollution| Khan Academy · YouTube · 6 min watch

   Cause and effect between pollutants and health problems is hard to establish, because people are exposed to many chemicals at once. Mesothelioma, a type of cancer, is caused mainly by exposure to asbestos.

5. Book
   

   Silent Spring · Bookshop.org

   Silent Spring by Rachel Carson focuses on the powerful, and often negative, effect humans have on the natural world, detailing cases of human pesticide poisoning, cancer, and other illnesses attributed to pesticides and calling for a biotic approach to pest control as an alternative to chemical pesticides.

Book links are Bookshop.org affiliate links. Curiate may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you — Bookshop.org also gives a share to independent bookshops.