Environmental Health

The Environment Health component aims to achieve safe sustainable and health-enhancing human environments protected from biological, chemical and physical hazards, and secured from the effects of environmental threats. This should ensure effective incorporation of “environmental health” into health policies and actions. Also should considering the political, scientific, legal and regulatory frameworks for the management of human environments.

The component will focus on delivering environmental sanitation and occupational health services on a sustainable basis.

Environmental Sanitation

Environmental sanitation can be understood to mean a group of actions that try to improve environmental health, through interventions in the following areas:

• The quantity and quality of water supply
• The collection, treatment, and adequate final disposal of the liquid, solid, and gaseous waste
• The drainage of rain waters
• The environmental control of vectors of communicable diseases and other actions and services with broad relation.

Water and Sanitation

Providing access to sufficient quantities of safe water, the provision of facilities for a sanitary disposal of excreta, and introducing sound hygiene behaviors are of capital importance to reduce the burden of disease caused by these risk factors.

Drinking-water quality

Contaminated drinking water contributes to disease in developing and developed countries worldwide. Water-borne infectious disease caused by viruses, bacteria, protozoa and other microorganisms is associated with outbreaks and background rates of disease in developed and developing countries worldwide.

Hygiene

The environmental hygiene is defined as prevention and control measures used to improve the basic environmental conditions affecting the communities. The range of environmental hygiene issues at the household level may include but not limited to: sludge and excreta disposal, food handling, water use, waste disposal, contamination of water sources, etc.

Solid Waste Management

The direct and indirect environmental and social costs that represent the production, handling and inadequate disposal of solid waste to the community are growing and are significant. The environmental impacts are mainly revealed in the contamination of surface and underground waters for public supply and the obstruction of drainage canals due to the uncontrolled dumping of solid wastes in bodies of water. Other important impacts that affect human health are the emission of air contaminants due to open air burning; the incineration of waste without adequate control equipment; the transmission of pathogen microorganisms through water; by food; the breeding of bovine and porcine livestock with contaminated organic waste; as well as vectors that transmit diseases. These are in addition to aesthetic and nuisance impacts due to noise and bad odors.

Occupational Safety & Health

Workplace fatalities, injuries and illnesses remain at unacceptably high levels and involve an enormous and unnecessary health burden, suffering, and economic loss amounting to 4–5% of GDP. According to the latest ILO estimates for the year 2000 there are 2.0 million work-related deaths per year. WHO estimates that there are only 10-15% of workers who have access to a basic standard of occupational health services.