Check your environment and prevent diseases

                         

We need to maintain best practices to manage environmental issues. Little things matter, little things like keeping our environment clean, clearing our drainage and avoiding bad car emissions. Everybody should be involved both the government and citizens alike.

An estimated 12.6 million people dies as a result of living or working in an unhealthy environment in 2012. Nearly 1 in 4 of total global deaths, according to WHO.

Environmental risk factors, like air, water, soil pollution, chemical exposures, climate change and ultraviolet radiations, contribute to more than 100 diseases and injuries.

The main message emerging from this new comprehensive global assessment is that premature death and disease can be prevented through healthier environments – and to a significant degree. Analysing the latest data on the environment-disease nexus and the devastating impact of environmental hazards and risks on global health, backed up by expert opinion, this report covers more than 100 diseases and injuries.

The WHO analysis shows that 23% of global deaths (and 26% of deaths among children under five) are due to modifiable environmental factors. Sixty-eight percent of these attributable deaths and 56% of attributable DALYs could be estimated with evidence-based comparative risk assessment methods, the assessments of other environmental exposures were completed through expert opinion. Stroke, ischaemic heart disease, diarrhoea and cancers head the list. People in low-income countries bear the greatest disease burden, with the exception of noncommunicable diseases.

These assessments should add impetus to coordinating global efforts to promote healthy environments – often through well-established, cost-effective interventions.

We really need to do something to help make our environment safe.