301 Environmental Health and Disaster Management

Unit: 1 Environmental Health Q: Explain the Basic principle of Environmental Health. HEALTH: HEALTH IS A STATE OF COMPLETE PHYSICAL, MENTAL, SOCIAL, AND SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING AND NOT MERELY THE PRESENCE OF DISEASE OR INFIRMITY. In recent years the statement has been amplified to include, “THE ABILITY TO LEAD A SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY PRODUCTIVE LIFE.” HOLISTIC CONCEPT OF HEALTH: This concept recognizes the strength of social, economic, political, and environmental influences on health DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH: Heredity Environment Socio-economic conditions Health and Family Welfare services Lifestyle Others ENVIRONMENT All that is external to man is the environment broadly speaking. The concept of environment is complex. The external environment or the Macroenvironment is said to be responsible for millions of preventable diseases originating in it. Micro-environment is the Domestic environment in which man lives. The term Internal environment is sometimes used for the environment inside the body EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT: “All that is external to the individual human host, living and non-living, and with which he is in constant interaction. COMPONENTS OF ENVIRONMENT PHYSICAL: air, water, soil, housing, climate, geography, heat, light, noise, debris, radiation, etc. BIOLOGICAL: man, viruses, microbial agents, insects, rodents, animals and plants, etc. 2 PSYCHOSOCIAL: cultural values, customs, beliefs, habits, attitudes, morals, religion, education, lifestyles, community life, health services, soc