Cyber Gear UAE Today
Guest Posts
 

Air Quality, Hazardous Waste And Environmental Risks To Human Health Highlighted In Environmental Health Conference











The International Conference on Environmental Health 2009, organized by the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) and the World Health Organization’s Regional Centre for Environmental Health Activities (WHO/CEHA), continued in its 2nd day with a special focus on air quality and health, hazardous waste, environmental risks to human health and the global emerging environmental health challenges. The 2nd day’s first session highlighted Air Quality and Health Impacts by Douglas Dockery of School of Public Health, Harvard University. “In the past 20 years, there has been a revolution in our understanding of the health effects of air pollution. Particulate air pollution levels which were thought to be only nuisances, have been shown in epidemiologic studies to be toxically associated with health effects ranging from decreased lung function and respiratory symptoms, to asthma attacks, heart attacks, and sudden death,” said Dockery. “In response, health and environmental agencies called upon to reduce air pollution emissions with costly controls. Estimates of the benefits of these regulations have shown to outweigh the costs. Empirical evidence shows that reductions in particulate air pollution concentrations are leading to measurable reductions in deaths and hospitalizations,” he added. Professor Patrick Breysse, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health delivered a presentation on Assessment of Health Effects from Indoor Agents at the Household Level. “Indoor air pollution is known to be significant contributor to global disease burden. Children, the elderly, and women are the most vulnerable with respect to potential indoor air pollution health effects because they spend more time in the home environment. Time activity studies have estimated that children and the elderly can spend as much as 90% of their time in the home environment,” said Prof. Breysse. “While we have developed internationally accepted norms for ambient air pollution, less attention paid to developing standards and guidelines for indoor air pollution in homes”. “The impact of indoor air quality on health spans the developing as well as the developed world. Studying indoor air quality in homes is important because in many cases activities that generate elevated levels are readily modifiable and provide important opportunities for environmental interventions that can result in significant improvement in health,” Prof. Breysse stressed. On the subject of hazardous waste and environmental risks to human health session, Dr. Sven Rodenbeck, of US Public Health Service, said that since the 1960s environmental awakening, great strides have been made in understanding the health impact of hazardous substances in the environment and the need to better manage and eliminate those hazards. Developing better management techniques to eliminate the environmental hazards that currently exist as well as emergent hazards is critical to public health. Employing a holistic approach to hazard evaluation will better enable the management and mitigation of chemical hazards, as they are not restricted to waste materials. Elizabeth Wade Dorn, specializing in recycling and solid waste management, highlighted in her presentation Community Participation in Municipal Solid Waste Management, Including Recycling” that Abu Dhabi has embarked upon a major overhaul of its solid waste management system. The proposed approach to managing waste, as described in the Abu Dhabi Waste Management Strategy reflects best practices in solid waste management and portrays a sound vision for the future of waste management in the Emirate. However, Abu Dhabi faces immense challenges in taking this new strategy from a vision on paper to practical reality throughout the Emirate. “Abu Dhabi will need to enable, equip, and enroll everyone in society to manage solid waste in accordance with desired practices, and enforce desired behaviors when voluntary measures are not sufficient,” Dorn added. Global emerging environmental challenges and health was the theme of the last session of the 2nd day. Anthony McMichael, of the Australian National University presented on Climate Change and Human Health: Extending our Research and Public Health Agenda and said that the consensus among the great majority of the world’s climate scientists is that humans have caused 80-90% of the warming since 1950. “Climate Change belongs to a wider set of human-induced global environmental changes, all symptomatic of the unprecedented human pressures that continue to weaken Earth’s life-support systems. These environmental changes, often acting via disruption of natural and social systems, pose unfamiliar scales and types of risks to health,” McMichael added. :Our societies have been slow to recognize the full import of climate change – a process that threatens more than environmental amenity, iconic species and our economy. If not constrained, climate change threatens healthy life on Earth – as evidenced by the impact it is already having on plants, animals, insects and whole ecosystems. These include changes in risks of infectious disease transmission, in food yields, and – via even more extended pathways – the mental and physical health risks arising from social and economic disruption,” he added. Annette Pruss-Ustan, WHO/HQ highlighted the Global Environmental Burden of Disease - Regional and National Experiences. She said that the environmental burden of disease is the quantitative estimation of health impacts caused by the environment. Together with information on the costs, effectiveness, and feasibility of interventions aiming at creating healthier environments, as well as socio-economic considerations, those estimates can prove very useful for policy makers. Healthy settings: Homes and Communities, and Institutional Capacity in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment will be highlighted on the Conference’s 3rd day, while on the last day of the Conference, panelists will discuss the draft document “Developing a National Strategy and Action Plan for Environmental Health for the United Arab Emirates.”

View News Headlines



We accept guest posts, contact us now  
Another Cyber Gear site