Top 3 Environmental Hazards And the Effects on Human Health

Introduction

Pollution is the biggest environmental hazard. The types of pollution are air, water, soil, radiation and noise.

The term pollution refers to any change in the natural quality of the environment brought about by chemical, physical and biological factors. Thus environmental pollution refers to any unfavorable alteration of our surroundings, wholly or largely because of man’s actions. These changes may cause environmental hazards and human health gets affected.

Step 1

Let us now understand how pollution becomes environmental hazards and human health suffers.

1] Air pollution
Gaseous pollutants adversely affect the human respiratory system depending on the following factors.

a] Concentration of the gaseous pollutants
b] Period of exposure to them
c] Solubility of the gaseous pollutants

The air pollutants on entering the human body slow down and gradually prevent the transfer of oxygen to blood. In particular the pollutants affect the human beings in the following manner:
• Increase in acute respiratory diseases
• Increase in acute bronchitis in children
• Malfunctioning of human olfactory (smell) faculty
• They cause headache, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, convulsions, breathing problems etc.
• Slurring of speech and tendency to collapse
• Cardiovascular diseases and coma

2] Water pollution
Water pollution affects man, aquatic animals as well as the environment

• Pathogens – most of the wastewaters especially sewage contains pathogenic (disease causing) and non-pathogenic micro-organisms and many viruses. Polluted water is responsible for several water-borne diseases like cholera, typhoid, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis, polio and jaundice.
• Toxic Compounds: pollutants such as heavy metals, pesticides, cyanides and many other organic and inorganic compounds are harmful to all organisms. Toxic substances polluting the water ultimately become environmental hazards and human health gets affected. Some heavy metals like lead, mercury and cadmium cause various types of diseases. Mercury dumped into the water is transformed in water soluble methyl mercury by bacterial action. Methyl mercury accumulates in fish.

In 1953, people in Japan suffered from numbness of body parts, vision and hearing problems and abnormal mental behavior. The disease called Minamata disease occurred due to consumption of methyl mercury contaminated fish caught from Minamata Bay in Japan. Pollution by the heavy metal, cadmium, caused the disease called Itai-itai in the people of Japan.

3] Soil pollution
Soil is the upper layer of the earth’s crust which is formed by weathering of rocks. Organic matter in the soil makes it suitable for living organisms.

Soil pollution differs from water and air pollution in the sense that the pollutants remain in the soil for relatively longer periods. Let us now see how soil pollution becomes environmental hazards and human health crashes
• Sewage sludge contains many pathogenic bacteria, viruses and intestinal worms which cause various types of diseases.
• Radioactive fallout on vegetation is the source of radio-isotopes which enter the food chain through the grazing animals. Some of these radio-isotopes cause abnormalities.
• Use of human and animal excreta as manure pollutes the soil. Excreta contain pathogens that contaminate the soil and vegetable crops and affect the health and human beings.

 

Tips

Environmental hazards and human health are inter-connected. It is high time human beings realize this, as the implication of human action boomerang on human beings more than anybody else.

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