Environmental Health Concept

CONCEPT 9

CONCEPT OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

9.0 INTRODUCTION/IDENTIFICATION OF CONCEPT

Environmental health focuses on aspects of natural and built environment that may impact human health. It is that part of health that is concerned with assessing, understanding and controlling the impacts of people on their environment and the effects of their environment on them. O’Malley, Loveridge, and commings (1989) state that the changing health care environment challenge nurses to redesign nursing care delivery systems.

Maintaining a healthy environment is central to increasing quality of life and years of healthy life. Environmental health and pollution accounts for 25% of all deaths globally and disease burden which includes exposure to hazardous

These conditions can be shaped by distribution of power, capital and resources at local, national and global levels. These determinants are chiefly responsible for health inequities, unfair and avoidable differences in health status seen within and between countries. The post-2015 sustainable development global agenda acknowledged health equity and social determinants as a critical component and must be tackled in other to push towards progressive achievement of universal health coverage (UHC). They opined that if health inequities are to be reduced, both UHC and SDH need to be addressed in an integrated and systematic

We conduct drills to educate workers on what to do in emergency situation.

Of course, the importance of balanced diet is encouraged; we create menu to guide and address this. Areas where there are on-going high risk jobs are barricaded to prevent people going to such places and workers who work at height are encouraged and supervised on the usage of helmets and safety harness. Health Safety & Environment guidelines specifically address the following: water supply, excreta disposal, drainage, health care waste management, cleaning and laundry, food storage and preparation, control of vector borne disease, building design including ventilation, construction and management and hygiene promotion.

Application measures are taken to protect hospital and medical workers from being infected with diseases such as AIDS and SARS. Environmental health in health care settings can significantly decrease the transmission of health care associated infections. Health care settings also provide an educational opportunity to promote safe environment that are relevant to the population at large and thereby also contribute to safe environments at home and in community settings

9.5 USEFULNESS OF CONCEPT TO THE