Introduction to Environmental health for second years students

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Introduction to Environmental Health
June, 2025
By Hirko O. (BSc, MPH)

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Outline
• Introduction
• Definition of terms
• Historical background of environmental health
• Determinants of health
• Role of Environmental health in community health
• Scopes of environmental health

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Learning Objectives
At the end of this class, the students will be able to:-
• Define Environmental health
• Explain historical background of environmental health
• Identify determinants of health
• Describe the role of Environmental health in community health
• Explain scopes of environmental health

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Introduction
• An environment is all that is external to the individual human host.
• Physical
• Chemical
• Biological
• Social
• Cultural etc… these may influence the health of population.
• Health is a state of complete physical, mental, social, emotional
and spiritual well being and not merely the absence of disease or
infirmity. (WHO).

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Cont’d
• Physical health: anatomical integrity and physiological functioning
of the body.
–The ability to perform routine tasks without any physical restriction.
• Mental health: is a state of well being in which an individual realize
own abilities and cope with stresses of life.
• Social health: the ability to make and maintain acceptable
interaction with other people.
• E.g. celebrate festivals; mourn when family member dies etc.

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Cont’d
• Emotional health: the ability of expressing emotions in an
appropriate way.
• For example to fear, to be happy, and to be angry.
• Spiritual Health : Some people relate health with religion; for
others it has to do with personal values, beliefs, principles and
ways of achieving mental satisfaction, in which all are related to
their spiritual wellbeing

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Definition of Terms
• Environmental health is a branch of public health that is concerned
with all aspects of the natural and built environment that may affect
human health.
• Environmental health addresses all the physical, chemical, and
biological factors external to a person, and all the related factors
impacting behaviors.

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Cont’d
• Environmental health: “is a control of all factors in man‟s
environment which exercise a deleterious effect on the physical
development, health and survival of human” (WHO).
• Sanitation is “the establishment of environmental conditions
favorable to health.
• It is the prevention of diseases by eliminating or controlling the
environmental factors which form links in the chain of disease
transmission” (WHO)

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Cont’d
• Ecology is the study of the interactions between living organisms
and their environment.
• Human ecology is the study of the interactions between humans
with one another, with other living things, and with their
environment in general.
• While the environment leads to a productive life, disturbance of a
healthful interaction may lead to unsafe environment and hostility.

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Cont’d
• Safe: Free from harm or risk
• Secure from threat or danger, harm, or loss
• Risk: Possibility of loss or injury
• The chance of loss
• the degree of probability of such loss
• Agents: chemical, biological, and physical
• Vectors: water, air, soil, and food

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Cont’d
• Hygiene: a science of preventive medicine, preservation and
promotion of health.
• Maintenance of healthful practice.
• Aspects of Hygiene
• Personal hygiene: proper living habit, cleanliness of body and
cloth.
• It involves those practices performed by an individual to care for
one's bodily health and well-being, through cleanliness.

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Cont’d
• Hand hygiene is defined as hand washing or washing hands
and nails with soap and water or using a waterless hand
sanitizer.
• Food hygiene is concerned with the hygiene practices that
prevent food poisoning

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Cont’d
• Domestic hygiene: sanitary preparation of food, cleanliness and
ventilation of home.
• Public hygiene: safe water and food supply, proper disposal of
garbage and sewage, control of air and water pollution.
• Industrial hygiene: measures minimum occupational disease and
accident

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Historical Background of Environmental Health
• Prehistoric times: Moses' law for human waste disposal;
• Spiritual/religion leaders: Prophet Mohammed his law of personal
hygiene;
• Sewage and water lines known in ancient Babylonia, Egypt, Athens,
and Rome civilization;
• Schistosomiasis in ancient Egypt;

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Cont’d
• Plague documented in the 3rd century, it is pandemic in 6th century
• Edwin Chadwick in 1842 and later Fredrich Engels in 1844 wrote a
historic report on “The sanitary conditions of the laboring population in
• Great Britain”.
• John Snow documented in 1954 that cholera is caused by the
drinking
• polluted water from the Broad Street pump in London

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Cont..
• Louis Pasteur in the 2nd half of 19 century developed the germ
• theory of disease transmission.
• Mid 19 century improvement of sanitation, housing, nutrition,
• etc, in some countries have contributed to the decline of
communicable diseases, decrease of mortality rates and increase
of life expectancy at birth.
• After 2nd world War new events like antibiotics, vaccines
development; and creation of WHO in April 7, 1948

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Determinants of Health
• Health is the result of a combination of different factors.
• There are four major determinants of health or ill health.
• 1. Human Biology (Hereditary factors)
• Every Human being is made of genes. In addition, there are factors,
• which are genetically transmitted from parents to offspring. As a
result,
• there is a chance of transferring defective trait.
• E.g. Leukemia

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2. Life style (Personal Behavior)
• Life style is an action that has a specific frequency, duration, and
• purpose, whether conscious or unconscious.
• It is what we do and how we act.
• For example: Cigarette smoking, Feeding habit, alcohol
• consumption, Unsafe sexual practice

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3. Health care organization (Medical Checkup)
• Availability of health service, accessibility and quality of care
• In terms of their resource in human resource, equipment„s
and money and so on determine the health of people.
• The early intervention will minimize the occurrence of
complication.
• For example: TB, Rheumatic arteritis, DM

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4. Environmental Factors
• Environment is all that which is external to the individual
human host.
• Those are factors outside the human body.
• It affect people„s health more strongly than any of the other
determinants.
• E.g. Safe water supply, food hygiene, waste management… etc

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Role of Environmental Health in Community Health
• Three basic strategies: Promotion, Prevention and Control
– Promotion: targeted to behavioral changes mainly through; housing
improvement, basic sanitary provisions.
– Prevention of communicable diseases before it happens: safe
water, safe food, latrine provisions, personal hygiene, proper solid
waste management, vector control, etc.
– Control of communicable diseases through various environmental
interventions

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Scope of Environmental Health
• Personal hygiene: Hygiene of body and clothing
• Water supply: Adequacy, safety (chemical, bacteriological,
physical) for domestic, drinking, and recreational use
• Human waste disposal: Proper excreta disposal & liquid waste
management
• Solid waste management: Proper application of storage,
collection, disposal: Waste recycling and generation analysis

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Cont’d
• Vector control : Control of disease transmitting and harmful
arthropods and animals
• Food hygiene: Food safety and wholesomeness in its production,
storage, preparation, distribution, sale, until consumption
• Occupational hygiene: Occupational health service, sanitation,
safety in working settings
• Housing sanitation: Physiological needs, protection against
disease and accidents, psychological, and social comforts in
residential areas.

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THANK YOU