Deterioration Of Human Health Research Articles

An operational heat/health warning system in Shanghai.

Previous research has noted that high surface temperatures within certain "offensive" air masses can lead to increased mortality. This study assesses the relationship between daily mortality rates and weather within the city of Shanghai, China, while introducing an operational heat/health warning system for the city. Using numerous meteorological observations, the spatial synoptic classification has been used to classify each summer day from 1989 to 1998 into one of eight air mass types for Shanghai. Through the comparative analysis of the daily air mass type and the corresponding Shanghai mortality rate, "moist tropical plus" (MT+), an extremely hot and humid air mass, was identified as an offensive air mass with the highest rates of mortality. Using stepwise regression, an algorithm was produced to help predict the number of excess deaths that will occur with each occurrence of the MT+ airmass. The heat/health warning system was run experimentally in the summer of 2001 and illustrated that the use of a warning system can alert the city's residents of potentially offensive weather situations that can lead to a deterioration in human health.

Invisible hazards: a social health analysis of endocrine disruptors

Humankind's innate fixation on technology has resulted in an infringement on one's right to live in a healthy environment. From this technology have emerged invisible contaminants - those contaminates whose presence is impossible for human beings to detect with any of their senses. They are covert and ambiguous and have potentially drastic chronic effects that can cause an indeterminate number of fatalities over an undisclosed period of time. This holds true for the endocrine disruptor issue in Canada. Hormones, chemical messengers that are produced by the endocrine system to perform physiological communication in the human body, act at very low levels. Because of its potency, any slight change to the concentration of a hormone can drastically affect physiological functions in the body. In the past decade, it has come to the public's attention that synthetic chemicals released in the environment can alter the function of the endocrine system by mimicking or blocking hormones. Furthermore, by directly acting on hormone production, they drastically affect human reproduction and developmental functions. This deterioration of human health has adverse health and social effects. From a sociological perspective, the impacts on communities include increased stress and paranoia, and the development of a climate of distrust and hostility between professionals and the public in the aftermath of a hazard. In the case of endocrine disruptors, these effects are perpetuated by a culture that holds economic and market trends above issues of environmental health. An important step to addressing these invisible contaminants is the popularizing of the issue by increasing public awareness of their affects and existence. Factors that affect the formation and popularization of endocrine disruptors as a major environmental issue will also be addressed. This summarization of my graduate work is an effort to address the diverse factors that make up the endocrine disruptor issue, and consequently make it a significant concern for environmental health.

Water resources deterioration and its impact on human health

The objective of the study is to analyse the actual availability of water resources and its impact on human health deterioration. The following aspects were studied: (a) human activities and environmental deterioration; (b) statistics on the availability and demand of water resources; (c) urban and industry wastes as sources of water resources contamination; and (d) deleterious effect of contaminated water on human health. Statistical data on the impact of contaminated water on human health and the increasing demand of water resources are alarming. It is paramount that modern generations develop an environmental awareness to avoid overstressing water systems, as predicted to come about in the very near future.

Environmental issues in the post-communist Ukraine

The Ukraine, which gained independence in 1991, faces serious problems related to environmental degradation. Environmental problems contribute to a deterioration in human health and a negative trend in population growth. Both form part of a raft of socio-economic problems encountered during the country’s transition to a free market economy. The most serious problems are found in cities and areas near the Black and Azov Seas, the Dnipro river basin and in the Polissya region. This paper provides an overview of the situation. Social and managerial implications of environmental management are considered alongside associated environmental and human health problems in the country. It is concluded that a desired change in the mindset of policy makers and, indeed, the population at large, is required in parallel with legal and technocratic instruments, while real improvements can only be achieved through economic development, which can be facilitated by Western assistance.

Continuing Progressive Deterioration of the Environment in the Aral Sea Region: Disastrous Effects on Mother and Child Health

Scientists, non-governmental experts (NGOs) and governmental officials from the Central Asian Republics and an international group of invited scientists and NGO representatives participated in a workshop on the disastrous health problems in the Aral Sea Region. Various serious problems were reported in more than 20 presentations. Particular emphasis was put on the way in which adverse environmental factors such as contaminated water and food have contributed to the deterioration of human health, particularly that of mothers and children. Conclusion: There is an urgent request that the international community assists local scientists to develop programmes to improve the health of the population in the Aral Sea Region.

Continuing Progressive Deterioration of the Environment in the Aral Sea Region: Disastrous Effects on Mother and Child Health

Scientists, non-governmental experts (NGOs) and governmental officials from the Central Asian Republics and an international group of invited scientists and NGO representatives participated in a workshop on the disastrous health problems in the Aral Sea Region. Various serious problems were reported in more than 20 presentations. Particular emphasis was put on the way in which adverse environmental factors such as contaminated water and food have contributed to the deterioration of human health, particularly that of mothers and children. There is an urgent request that the international community assists local scientists to develop programmes to improve the health of the population in the Aral Sea Region.

Identifying process conditions in an urban wastewater treatment plant

In treating both sewage and storm runoff, wastewater treatment plants are important to maintaining a healthy environment. If the plant operations managers do not respond correctly to plant conditions, environmental damage resulting in the deterioration of human health may be the result. Unfortunately, there are no formal models to help these managers; they rely upon their own intuition to manage the plants. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of various models, originally used for manufacturing, to detect process conditions in wastewater treatment facilities. We compare and contrast the performance of five statistical models and three neural network architectures. The data used in the research is 527 daily measurements of 38 sensor readings of the process state variables of an urban wastewater treatment plant.

Environmental pollution and child health in the Aral Sea region in Kazakhstan

The deterioration of human health with increasing infant mortality rate, declining life expectancy at birth and increasing prevalence of serious infectious diseases in Russia and other former Soviet Republics is thought to be due to a combination of sevral factors such as inadequate nutrition, poor sanitation, collapse of the health care system and pollution from Soviet agriculture and industries. In the Aral Sea region in Kazakhstan, the environmental problems are of near catastrophic proportions. As a result of the implementation of a massive irrigation scheme to support the cotton fields in the former desert land, the water flow to the Aral Sea was reduced to less than half. Industrial pollutants such as PCB-compounds and heavy metals, but also the use of large quantities of pesticides to control parasites and weeds have accumulated not only in water, but also in soil and have been deposited over large areas by atmospheric transport to enter the food chain leading to humans. In a study of 15 children and of an additional 12 children referred from the region of the Aral Sea to the National Children's Rehabilitation Center in Almaty with symptoms and signs of ‘ecological disease’, we have found that the concentration of PCB compounds in the blood lipids is elevated in relation to healthy Swedish children. In addition, the blood lipid concentration of the β-isomer of the hexachlorocyclohexanes was extremely high and of DDT-compounds was elevated up to 20 times. The concentrations of lead in red blood cells was moderately elevated and that of cadmium slightly elevated compared to the findings in Stockholm children. To study the role of these pollutants in the diseases found in children from the Aral Sea region accurate epidemiological studies have to be performed.