Environmental Health Promotion Assignment

Indoor air pollution in developing
countries: an initiative in a developing
country.

Table of Contents
The principle characteristics of Environmental health promotion: The ‘generic’ strategy.......2
Environmental health promotion initiative: An example of the strategy in action....................3
Best practice I: Planning, evaluation, context............................................................................4
Best Practice II: Ottawa Charter in action..................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................7

The principle characteristics of Environmental health promotion: The
‘generic’ strategy
Health promotion is giving individuals power to have control over their own health. The
Ottawa Charter for health promotion states that there are five ways of promoting health. It
includes devising healthy public policy, building appropriate environment for promoting
health, strengthening the power of the community in fostering well-being, refining personal
skills of the individuals and remodelling the health services. Environmental health refers to
the practice of identifying and controlling the environmental factors that have the potential of
impacting the health of generations in a negative way. It focuses on the causal effects of the
environment on human health. The approach of environmental health promotion is to protect
human beings by limiting their exposure to the environmental hazards such as toxic
substances or microbiological contamination. ‘Germ theory’ of environmental health
postulates the cause and effect approach (Parkes et. al., 2003). This approach had been
embraced by John Snow who was instrumental in eradicating the 19th century cholera
epidemic in London. He discovered the handle in the Broad Street pump that was the source
of contamination of water. Certain social factors can also increase the susceptibility of human
beings of being exposed to environmental hazards. The social approach to environmental
health identifies factors such as social inequalities, psychosocial processes affecting health
(Schulz and Northridge, 2004). Furthermore, an important factor in promoting environmental
health is healthy and safe environment and resources such as water, food and air (BROWN
et. al., 1992). Health hazards originate from an alteration in the relationship between society
and environment (Parker et. al., 2004). The global environmental problems have contributed
to alarming health issues. Global ecological crises such as the depletion of the ozone layer,
uninhibited air and water pollution and global warming have resulted in serious health
problems. In most of the developing countries, individuals are dependent on coal and biomass
that appear in the form of wood, crop and dung (Fullerton et. al., 2008). They usually burn
these materials with insufficient combustion. As a result, women and young people in these
countries are exposed to indoor air pollution on a day-to-day basis. Consequently, they are
susceptible to developing chronic illnesses such as pulmonary disease and acute respiratory
infections, asthma, pulmonary tuberculosis, lung cancer, nasopharyngeal and laryngeal
cancer (Duflo et. al., 2008). Poverty is an essential barrier that hinders people in the
developing countries from using cleaner fuels (Poverty, 2001). The particles in the biomass