Unit 38 - Environmental Health

Unit 38 - Environmental Health

Table of content
Table of content...............................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
How human activity can damage the environment......................................................................3
Effects of a damaged environment on human health...................................................................4
Relationship between damage to the environment and human health.........................................5
Section 1......................................................................................................................................6
Describe the role of pressure groups such as Green Peace, Extinction Rebellion in achieving
desired standards in the reduction of harmful effects of one human activity..............................6
SECTION 2....................................................................................................................................8
Role of legislation and regulation in reducing impacts of environmental change on human
health............................................................................................................................................8
Impacts of legislation and policies in reducing impacts of one human activity on the
environment.................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9

Introduction
Environmental Health is considered as the science as well as practice that can prevents
human illness and injury as well as promoting well being through analysing and evaluating
environmental sources as well as hazardous agents. It also focuses on limiting exposures to
chemical, physical and biological agents within air, soil, water as well as other environmental
media that can impacts adversely on the human’s health. Report also focuses on How human
activity can damage the environment, Effects of a damaged environment on human health,
Relationship between damage to the environment and human health, Describe the role of pressure
groups such as Green Peace, Extinction Rebellion in achieving desired standards in the reduction of
harmful effects of one human activity.
Task 1
How human activity can damage the environment
Urbanisation refers to population shifting from rural areas to urban areas. This causes decrease in
population living in rural areas and the ways in which societies adapt the change. Urbanization
affect rural and urban density and because of this urban density increases and along with increase
in density in urban areas it also shows environment degradation. This includes land insecurity
negative effect on water quality excessive air pollution. Urbanization also causes increasing
utilisation of resources available in urban areas which effect environment and balance of natural
resources.
Increasing population density also has negative impact on Environment because increasing
population requires excessive resources and because of this natural resources are being utilised
more than their capacity (Khalatbari and et.al., 2016). However as Natural Resources are
available in Limited quantity excessive utilisation of them cause imbalance of environment.
Increasing population density also increases use of different production activities and which
requires additional resources and impact of production activities on environment is also negative.

Intensification of agriculture can be defined as an increase in agriculture production per unit of
input. This means that earlier agriculture production per unit of input that is seeds land time
fertilizer was less. Intensification of agriculture has increased this production and for this
agricultural land produces more products and its impact on environment includes Rapid erosion
of fertile topsoil and contamination of drinking water supplies because of chemicals used for
agriculture intensification.
In addition to this different types of environment pollution that are water pollution air pollution
noise pollution have also caused negative impact on environment.
These are certain human activities that have and can damage environment.
Effects of a damaged environment on human health
Damaged environment have several negative impacts on human health as environment
damage increases risk of cancer heart disease asthma and several other illnesses (Thrasher,
2016). This mainly occurs because of pollution which effect quality of air causing several
breathing diseases in addition to this noise pollution cause hearing problems and several other
diseases are caused because of water pollution and Chemicals that are supplied to human body
through contaminated water. Along with different types of pollution human health also gets
affected by climate change. Climate change includes global warming that is driven by emission
of greenhouse gases and because of this large scale shift in weather patterns is known as climate
change. This has a significant impact on human health as this increases respiratory and
cardiovascular diseases. Injuries and premature deaths also ok because of extreme weather
conditions and events. This means that different natural calamities has significant impact on
human health which can affect human health for short to long time varying on the basis of
impact that it has made on human health. In addition to this damaged environment also cause
food and water borne illnesses and several other types of infectious diseases. Impacts of
damaged environment on human health are also visible in form of negatively affecting mental
health. Climate change cause global warming because of which heat has significantly increased
and human health get affected by it and set sensitive population has several negative impacts on
their health because of climate change (Sankhla and et.al., 2016). This is because extreme
weather changes cannot be accepted by human health which results in several types of diseases.
In addition to this climate change increases length of transmission season and expand

geographical range of several diseases and malaria and dengue are examples of this. Several
diseases have already borne and affected human health and many of them are expected to emerge
in future. This includes diseases caused because of heatwaves and other extreme events of
environment.
Relationship between damage to the environment and human health
Environment damage and human health has a significant relationship because
environment damage has cost several types of diseases and this has negative impact on human
health which causes short and long-term diseases along with fatal diseases. This relationship
between damage to environment and human health also exist to not only damage environment
because of causes that damage environment. Agricultural intensification can be an example of
that in which Chemicals that are used for agricultural intensification not only cause damage to
environment but also has a negative impact on human health and causes several types of
diseases. Other than this diseases that are caused by damaged environment and climate change as
well as global warming are also has a relationship with human health. Majority of the elements
of damaged environment and causes that damage environment has negative impact on human
health (Boningari and Smirniotis, 2016). This includes pollution which has its visible negative
impact on human health in form of diseases related to breathing and diseases that are caused by
water.
Describe strategies that have been developed to reduce the impact human activity such as,
urbanisation, agriculture, pollution on the environment.
It has been analyzed that there are various human activities which highly impact on environment such as
deforestation, urbanization, etc.These activities are resulting in impacting environment adversely.
therefore it is necessary to develop strategies so that the impact on environment can be reduced. so the
various strategies on human activities are defined as below
Agriculture- In this strategy developed is organic farming which has resulted in reducing impact on
environment. here farmers are given training about doing organic farming without use of chemicals and
pesticides. There is use of natural pesticides fertilizers etc which has led to reducing impact on
agricultural land. For maintaining fertility of land, mixed cropping is being done. It has led to maintain
nutrients of soil and making it suitable for farming.
Urbanization- this activity is rapidly rising. Thus, to minimize impact of environment the strategies
developed in it are water treatment plant system, waste collection facility, park and ride service, etc. are

being implemented. This has resulted in proper disposing of waste, reducing water pollution, etc. With
these new concept new homes and park are developed.
Pollution- in order to reduce the pollution there are various strategies which is developed. Here,
environment health officer is appointed that looks after all the activities of organisation related to
environment. Besides that, pollution level is analysed and then necessary steps is taken to minimise it.
Alongside, monthly report is prepared on it as well. Along with that, inspection of factories is done by
government regularly to ensure that they do not emitt too much pollution. Thus, strict measure are taken
to minimise pollution level. Also, company have to contribute huge amount in CSR as well.
Section 1
Describe the role of pressure groups such as Green Peace, Extinction Rebellion in achieving
desired standards in the reduction of harmful effects of one human activity.
There are various pressure groups which also contribute in reducing harmful impacts of human activity on
environment. these groups set some standards which needs to be followed. Therefore, role of pressure
group in reducing impact of pollution is defined as below
Greenpeace play vital role in minimising impact of pollution. It is a non profit organization work at global
level and ensure that biodiversity is maintained and the ability of the earth to nurture life in all its
diversity (Boningari, and Smirniotis, 2016). Alongside, they solve issues related to protecting
oceans and ancient forests, phasing out fossil fuels and promoting renewable energy in order to
stop climate change, eliminating toxic chemicals, preventing genetically modified organisms to
be released into nature, to end the nuclear threat and contamination, and to ensure sustainability.
However, extinction rebellion is movement against climate protection to force government to take strict
action in climate system. So, immediate action are taken to solve climate issue. Similarly, in pollution as
well these both play significant role as they are engaged in reducing pollution level and addressing issue.
Assesse the effectiveness of organisations in improving the environment
Every organization play a vital role in improving environment. This can be evaluated by fact that
they all practices various types of CSR policy and other practice such as producing renewable
products, utilising solar energy, etc. Moreover it is being found that the organization uses
resources an effective way so that there is less harm to the environment. Furthermore the

businesses help in creating awareness about protecting environment and ecosystem by
organizing various campaigns and programs. So it enable in making people aware about what
they can do in order to prevent environment. Besides that there are various organization which is
working to produce products that is less harmful to environment. For example, auto mobile
companies are manufacturing electric vehicles which will lead to reducing the pollution and
saving the environment. so it will lead to creating positive impact on environment.
In addition, organization also works with government on how to protect environment by taking of various
projects. They use energy efficient technology which helps in conserving resources. Moreover,
environment management system has been implemented by organization in various function such as
supply chain, procurement, manufacturing, etc. so in this various initiatives are being taken to minimize
the impact on environment. Hence it has also benefited in economic and social way. Besides that,
continuous improvement is being made in operations which are increasing efficiency of business and they
are able to reduce impact an ecosystem.
Besides that the company is able to measure their performance in regards to impact on environment as
well. So on basis of that, goals and objectives asset and accordingly strategy is developed to reduce the
impact. The businesses are also updating their technology and operation process so that there is less
impact on environment. it is found that different green initiatives such as green technology, green SCM,
etc are being taken by then. Answer it has overall resulted in creating a positive impact on environment.
Evaluate the impact of organisations in improving human health.
It has been analyzed that apart from reducing the impact one environment organization has also
enabled in improving human health. they are highly contributing in enhancing the social life of
people by providing them high quality products and services. Also there are several training
programs that is being run by organization which is providing free health check ups services etc
to people that they are following in their routine life. Besides that, there are many companies
which is doing organic farming and providing organic fruit and vegetables to people. Thus, it has
impacted on human health in positive way. In addition, at workplace there are effective health
and safety equipment installed that protect people from any harm or injury.
The pest infection is being controlled by with the help of chemicals that is resulting in improving
surroundings. With the help of technology, business are developing new green products that
contains less chemicals and pesticides. also the organization is contributing in health sector as
well by developing vaccines and medicines of various disease such as malaria, dengue, that has
improved people live (Boningari. and Smirniotis, 2016).

SECTION 2
Role of legislation and regulation in reducing impacts of environmental change on human health
It is stated from the above questions and studies that environmental changes by human
activities and natural calamities affect human health of people in negative manner. For
improving overall quality of health of people it is important to make use of some tools and
policies that can protect environment and people against negative acts and changes. There are
several environmental legislations and policies that have been developed for this purpose or for
reducing impacts of changes such as:
Pollution environmental law 1974: This law of the UK helps in reducing air, noise, water and
atmosphere pollution. It makes people bid to follow this act and under this act, they are required
having their vehicle licensed with pollution under control and do not make use of anything that
produces too much noise (List of Environmental Law, 2018).
Environmental protection act: This act also being developed for controlling waste and
emission into the environment. Companies are required implement8ing this law and focusing on
increasing sustainability and reducing waste (Morris and McGuinness, 2019).
Weeds act 1959: It is also being passed for preventing injurious weed species on private lands
on the UK. People are not allowed to hunt and make undue advantages of such species.
So, from the above discussed all acts and legislations it can be said that by following all
rules and regulations, people can protect environment and can also improve their health that may
be affected by pollution, wastes and others.
Impacts of legislation and policies in reducing impacts of one human activity on the environment
There are several human activities that are affecting environment in a negative manner to
the great extent and increasing pollution is one of the main causes of human activities (Barroso
and del Carmen, 2019). One of the main examples of it is increasing use of plastic as it is
affecting health of people and animals as well. UK government is making use of several
strategies and legislations for tackling this problem and it is leading several positive changes
such as:
Tax of disposal coffee cups: Government has imposed new law according to this;
consumers have to pay 25p on disposable coffee cups. It is found that around 5 billion coffee
cups are discarded each year and they are expensive to recycle because it contains mixed

materials. So, it is predicated that after this charge and new law, it can reduce disposable coffee
cups by around 30%.
Deposit return scheme on plastic bottles: It is stated that people of the UK consumes
around 14 billion plastic drink bottles, around 9 billion drink cans and 5 billion glass bottles each
year. Around half of them are being land filled or found in ocean that affect environment and
increase water pollution. For reducing this impact, government of the UK introduced deposit
return scheme and as per this scheme, consumers are required to get 5p back for every bottle that
they return to retailer for recycling (Plastic Pollution Solution, 2020).
CONCLUSION
From the above it had been concluded that Urbanisation in rural areas shows environment
degradation which effect balance of natural resources. Natural Resources available in Limited
quantity, Intensification of agriculture includes Rapid erosion of fertile topsoil. Every organization
help in creating awareness in order to prevent environment which will lead to reducing the pollution and
saving the environment. Report also focused in improving human health enhancing the social life of
people by providing them high quality products. Report also focused on Greenpeace play vital role
in minimising impact of pollution. It is a non profit organization work at global level and ensure that
biodiversity is maintained and the ability of the earth to nurture life in all its diversity.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Boningari, T. and Smirniotis, P.G., 2016. Impact of nitrogen oxides on the environment and
human health: Mn-based materials for the NOx abatement. Current Opinion in
Chemical Engineering. 13. pp.133-141.
Khalatbari, Y and et.al., 2016. Development of the concept of “Environmental Damage” in
International environmental law. Caspian Journal of Environmental Sciences. 14(4).
pp.339-350.
Sankhla, M.S and et.al., 2016. Heavy metals contamination in water and their hazardous effect
on human health-a review. Int. J. Curr. Microbiol. App. Sci (2016). 5(10). pp.759-766.
Thrasher, J.D., 2016. Fungi, Bacteria, Nano-particulates, Mycotoxins and Human Health in
Water-Damaged Indoor Environments. J Comm Pub Health Nurs. 2(115). pp.10-4172.
Barroso, C. and del Carmen, M., 2019. Disposable packaging waste and the polluter pays
principle: introduction of a charge for disposable coffee cups.
Morris, J. and McGuinness, M., 2019. Liberalisation of the English water industry: What
implications for consumer engagement, environmental protection, and water
security?. Utilities Policy. 60. p.100939.
Online
List of Environmental Laws. 2018. [Online]. Available through < http://www.field.org.uk/list-of-
environmental-laws/>
Plastic Pollution Solution. 2020. [Online]. Available through <
https://www.unisanuk.com/what-is-the-uk-government-doing-about-plastic-pollution/>