SEC-S16 || W4 || "The Environment and Our Health"

Hello friends!
I welcome you all my friends to this entry of mine for this week's engagement and I will do well to have us amused with the stated topic being surveyed. Every creature has its habitat which constitutes the environment, fortunately, man being so distinct has always tried to improve his environment as it plays a vital role in his daily existence.

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What Do You Understand By The Word "Environment"?

As said earlier, every creature has its habitat which constitutes the environment hence an environment refers to a habitable place suitable for a community of organisms. It comprises the dwelling place for both humans and other organisms such as animals, as well as the region where survival activities are carried out. Nevertheless, anytime we hear the word environment, what quickly comes to our mind is our immediate place of abode.

Although the environment goes beyond a place of habitation, it basically insinuates so. As humans, our work and business places even places for educational activities such as school is an environment. Any place under a structural restraint can be either be referred to as a business or office environment.

An environment can also imply a place in which an operating task is carried out, it can mean a digital space for a user's occupation. A computer work environment is a typical example of this.

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How Do Our Surroundings Impact Our Well-being?

Just as they say, "garbage in, garbage out", our environment can be friendly with us, or the reverse could be the case depending on what we give to it. Our homes are the most concerned environment in this context. We can have a direct positive or negative impact from our residential environment, all lies in how we handle it.

An environment that isn't kempt is most likely to attract pests and parasites that of course have nothing more or less than negative effects on us. An unkempt environment promotes breeding places for most insects and vectors that cause harm such as mosquitoes that transmit Plasmodium which causes malaria. The death rate caused by malaria isn't something to write home about. In addition to this, an unkempt environment attracts various dangerous and poisonous reptiles that can only allow us breadth for a short space of time when we are bitten.

I can recall sometime in the past in my previous neighborhood when our neighboring compound became so unkempt that we all lived in fear of reptiles. All efforts to call the occupants to order were abortive so everyone around became very vigilant. I happened to become one of the victims of such an environment as we encountered a black snake late in the night that came from the unkempt neighboring compound. Truth be told, I have a great phobia for snakes but that night, I cannot explain how I managed to kill it. This beyond doubt explains that our environment is explicitly parallel to our well-being.

Our work environment plays an important role as far as our existence is concerned. The occupational hazards that accompany our work are quite enough to hamper our state of well-being. People who work in asbestos and wood processing companies for instance are bound to inhale particles of these materials if the nose is unmasked and this is very detrimental to the health mostly the lungs and the respiratory system.

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What Are Some Ways Pollution, Like Air Or Water Pollution, Can Affect Our Health?

There are several pollutants and factors resulting resulting to environmental pollution. In this part of the world where we have an epileptic power supply, the generating set became our life wire and heartbeat. On the other hand, fumes (Carbons) emitted from these generating sets cause air pollution and are toxic to the respiratory system.

Typhoid (a common ailment in sub-saharan zones) is caused by the bacterium serovar Salmonella Typhi which is transmitted from polluted or contaminated water. This is one of the ailments known to have a high mortality rate. Polluted water is harmful to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems as well as human health. It impairs aquatic life, the terrestrial ecosystem is affected via biomagnification and it also results in different health issues like respiratory problems, skin irritation, diarrhea, and death in humans.

It is therefore important we know that a healthy and suitable environment will invariably positively influence our health and ameliorate the number of ailments our system may have to combat.

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What Are Some Simple Actions You Take Every Day To Promote Environmental Health?

Without mincing words, I would say that our regular environmental cleanups are the utmost thing. By observing this, we tend to keep away every rodent and bacteria from our environment. As they say " cleanliness is next to godliness", we cannot stand the chance of playing with this particular act.

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Tree planting is another way of enhancing our environment and making it more healthier. Vegetations and flowers have a way of handling carbon dioxide found in the atmosphere of our environment and replacing it with clean and neat oxygen. Therefore, having these things around is a positive addition to our environment.

Since we are in the part of the world where the use of generator sets is the order of the day, extreme measures should be taken to repair or replace any of these generating set that becomes faulty and emits excessive carbon which is one the major air pollutants.

As for our homes, we are bound to experience some infrastructural breakdown at some point. These breakdowns if not taken care of could result in further environmental pollution that would equally hamper our health. For instance, a wastewater or sewage breakage would lead to an enhanced breeding place for mosquitoes to undergo exponential growth. For the resultant effect of this, your guess is as good as mine.

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How Can Education And Awareness Play A Role In Promoting Environmental Health?

A saying says "health is wealth" and another saying says "knowledge is wealth". If health is wealth and knowledge is wealth it then means that knowledge is equally health. It is one thing to know what to do and another thing to know how to do it to have a problem solved. Since our environment has a direct impact on our very existence, a reasonable level of knowledge, from education - formal or informal, is needed to positively impact our environment so we can expect a reciprocal or reflexive.

From education we can acquire the knowledge of how an unkempt environment could inundated with and harbor rodents and reptiles. If the primary things are done properly there would be no need for carrying out fumigation which would result in economic conservation.

Awareness of environmental health recommendations enables us to get ready ahead of time against unpredictable situations. It also ensures safety measures to deal with our environment, particularly in the time of catastrophe.

The bottom line is that we need to improve our knowledge via quality and quantitative education on how to be friendly with and deal with our environment. This knowledge is not exclusive to school though education is like an extra stratum to our natural knowledge. Human existence is dependent on the environment hence the environment ought not to be taken lightly but should be dealt with in such a way that it will enhance or increase our life span.

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A big thanks to you, my adorable friends...
Let me invite @ruthjoe, @chilaw, and @onyiluvdan to join in the contest.

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I remain @hisgeneral