Contamination of Food and Water: Public Health Challenges, UNCC300

This essay addresses the critical global health issue of food and water contamination. It defines the problem, highlighting the presence of harmful microorganisms, viruses, and chemicals that lead to various diseases like vomiting, cholera, and hepatitis. The essay emphasizes the need to curb contamination to improve public health. It analyzes the major causes of water pollution, including untreated sewage, non-biodegradable waste, chemical runoff, and human activities, and suggests solutions like sewage treatment plants, improved water treatment techniques, and public awareness. The essay also explores food contamination, attributing it to excessive chemical use in agriculture, unethical food handling practices, and the presence of harmful microbes in meat. It proposes solutions such as using natural preservatives, enforcing quality standards, and promoting hygienic practices. The essay concludes by stressing the importance of combined efforts from the public, government, and regulatory authorities to achieve better global health, including initiatives like rainwater harvesting and education about safe water practices.

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Contamination of food and water: A global issue for public
health

CONTAMINATION OF FOOD AND WATER
Contamination of food and water: The global issue
Introduction:
Contamination of food and water refers to generation and involvement of harmful bacteria,
viruses and other micro-organism inside the food and water which make it contaminated. The
consumption of contaminated food and water results in development of various diseases like:
Vomiting, stomach-ache, Cholera, Jaundice, Hepatises and other intestinal diseases. The
major issue for the world is to curb the increasing contamination of food and water and make
it edible in order to improve a satisfactory public health.
Analysis of the global health issue: generated because of the consumption of
contaminated food and water
The major cause of water pollution is mixing untreated sewage water directly into the water
bodies like rivers, lakes and oceans. This leads towards the generation of very harmful
microbes inside the water and make it not suitable for drinking. Unbridled growth of viruses
also takes place inside this contaminated water and results in severe diseases like
tuberculosis, hepatises and cholera (Mehtab Haseena, 2017). These diseases are responsible
for the deaths of millions of people and a large number of people are struggling with these
diseases (Geng X, 2019).
Other main causes of water pollution are to improper disposal of non-biodegradable wastage
inside the water. Excessive use of pesticides and chemicals mixed with rain water and reach
towards the water bodies like groundwater and rivers. Oil spillage over water and various
human activities like washing clothes and discharging faeces directly into the water bodies
make it very polluted (HeatherPricea, et al., 2019).
In order to curb the increasing water pollution, people need to aware about the harmful effect
of contaminated water. Governments of different countries should cease the mixing of
untreated sewage directly into the water bodies. Establishment of sewage treatment plants is
highly recommended. This can be reduced the water pollution up-to a great extent. New
techniques should be adopted in order to make the water good for drinking like boiling the
water and using RO at homes (Powell, et al., 2019).
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CONTAMINATION OF FOOD AND WATER
More efforts are needed by the people of society in order to stop the water pollution in their
areas. Government should made plans to stop the water pollution. Use of chemical bases
fertilizers and pesticides should be banned. Use of natural and home-made fertilizers and
pesticides should be promoted by government for the farmers and other people. People
should be aware and educated about the use of harmful chemicals. Only with the combined
effort of public and government, the world would be able to control the problem of water
pollution which becomes a giant problem for the world’s public health (M Mukherjee, 2019).
Major causes of food contamination are excessive use of chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides and
insecticides for getting a high yield through crops. Chemicals make the crop contaminated
up-to a certain level. Using unethical practices while selling the food like selling rotten fruit
and meat leads towards the consumption of contaminated food, which result in severe
intestinal and liver diseases. People have to face poor health conditions because of it and
sometimes it results in the death of the people (Randazzo, 2019).
Sometimes the fruits and vegetable sellers use harmful chemicals to make them fresh and
stop the process of rotting the fruits and vegetables. These chemicals are detrimental for the
people and make them prone to diseases. Farmers and sellers should stop these practices and
start to use natural preservatives like oil and other herbs in order to preserve the fruits and
vegetables (Spence, 2019).
Meat of various animals which are available in the market in the form of chicken, mutton,
fish and other forms are highly at the risk of being contaminated and rotten by the growth of
harmful microbes inside them. Consumption of this type of poisonous meat may leads
towards the life taking diseases like Trichinosis, Salmonella and scrapie (G.Newell, et al.,
2010). Shopkeepers and restaurant owners should be aware about offering the spoiled food to
their customers. Strict actions should be taken against the sellers and restaurant owners if
found guilty in order to selling spoiled food (Jhalka Kadariya, 2014). Government and
regulatory authorities set high standard of quality of food (Thompson & Darwish, 2019).
Moreover, it is very clear that only by the efforts of government the problem cannot be
eliminated properly. If we want to attain a good health conditions, the people have to take
initiatives in order to stop the consumption of contaminated food and water. People should
maintain a proper hygienic system over their homes and workplaces in order to stop
contamination of food. Washing dishcloths, utensils, chopping board and kitchen platform
will help the people by stopping the generation of microbes inside the food. People should
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CONTAMINATION OF FOOD AND WATER
not consume the product after expiry date and leftover food should be taken by the people
(Tacconelli & Pizzani, 2019).
For stopping the water pollution, people should minimize or even stop the use of plastic. Oil
and grease should not be thrown directly into the sink of the kitchen because it may block the
drainage system. People should not use chemical based fertilizers in their gardens. More
biodegradable products should be used in order to avoid the generation of wastage
(Thompson & Darwish, 2019).
People should use water filters, RO’s and other techniques in order to make the water safe for
drinking. Chlorination and boiling may be used for getting germ free water. Children and
students should be taught about the consequences of drinking contaminated water. People
should be aware about the process of making water safe for drinking. Rainwater is the purest
form of water. Rain water harvesting techniques should be used globally in order to have a
safe drinking water for the whole year. In this technique rainwater is collected and stored at
the terraces of the homes in large tanks to make it available for the people for a long time
period (environment, 2019).
By adapting appropriate techniques for making the water safe for drinking, world may get rid
of this major health issue which becomes a serious factor of global health. By making the
people aware about the contamination of food, the diseases could be minimized. For
achieving a better and healthy health conditions globally, the people, government and
regulatory authorities have to do a lot of efforts. The healthy environment can be attained
only with a combined effort of public and government.
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CONTAMINATION OF FOOD AND WATER
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