World Environmental Health Day

September 26 is World Environmental Health Day.  It is a day to celebrate what we do to promote people's health and well-being by taking actions to ensure a healthy environment around the world. To many, the concept "environment" means protecting our planet.  As important as this is, environmental protection is only part of the needed actions.  We also need to ensure that the conditions in which people live provide the opportunities for good health and safety.

Some of our most critical global challenges include the following:

•  For a billion of us, each day is a struggle to obtain water, and often it is contaminated with microbes and chemicals.  Illnesses borne by contaminated drinking water kills a million children a year. 
• In many places, the lack of proper waste disposal systems and practices perputuate a cycle of disease-contamination of water and food- more disease.
• Air pollution kills millions of people each year and causes an even larger burden of disease and disability around the world from exposure to smoke, particles, and gases from unsafe home heating and cooking, cars and other vehicles, industry, and electrical production.
• We continue to introduce chemicals into the environment without adequate testing to fully understand the potential to harm people. Each of us carries a chemical burden in our bodies.
• Our food supply is subject to contamination at many points in the system.  We grow and harvest what is cheap, easy to distribute, and high in calories, but not necessarily what is best for nutrition.  Many question whether chemical and energy-intensive practices of industrial agriculture are sustainable.
• Beginning around 2007, more people in the world live in urban settings rather than the rural places that once predominated. As cities develop, safe and healthy housing and sanitation are not available to many.  The concentration of pollution created by large numbers of people and commerce must be managed.  Urban design principles must consider human health and needs in these burgeoning cities.
• We have yet to develop the will to address the human causes of global climate change or understanding of the profound implications for both the planet and the people.

In the U.S., we are more fortunate than many in the world to have environmental health conditions that promote people's health and safeguards for protection.  We have invested in safe water supplies, sound waste disposal practices, a food supply that protects against food borne illness, worker safety, and protection against illness like malaria and rabies.  Yet, we continue to face significant challenges like ensuring environmental benefits and protection for all Americans, controlling sources of air pollution, and designing communities that encourage people to pursue healthy lifestyles.  We need support in these areas from politicians, government leaders, industry, and most of all each citizen.  World Environmental Health Day is a chance to remind and encourage all to be part of the solution.

Learn more at www.ifeh.org.