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HUMAN HEALTH AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

Human health and Natural environment are interrelated aspects.
The natural environment is the thin layer of life and life supports , called the biosphere,that contains the Earth's air,soil,water and living organisms.The connection between protecting the natural environment and safeguarding human health has been identifying and regulating environmental toxins to reduce harmful human exposures,such as toxic chemicals, air pollution and biological agents on the human body is commonly perceived as the central problem in environmental health.However, maintaining a healthy environment extends beyond controlling these hazards.

A state of complete physical,mental and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity is human health. Better health is central to human happiness and well-being. It also makes an important contribution to economic progress,as healthy populations live longer,are more productive, and save more. Many factors influence health status and a country's ability to provide quality health services for its people.
Preserving the variety of life on earth is also essential to human health.The natural world continually offers compounds that are useful to the pharmacopoeia. Animal and plant products are vital for research and diagnostic tools and they can be used as indicators of pollution related disease. Research suggests that biodiversity may hold a key to the prevention and treatment of many diseases.

An even more direct connection between the environment and health is the potential enhancement of our physical, mental,and social well-being through our daily exposure to the natural environment. People's nearly universal preference for contact with the natural world. Plants animals natural landscape,the sea, and the wilderness- suggests that we as a species may find tranquility in certain natural environment and may derive health benefits from them.

A panel of speakers and respondents discussed strategies for ensuring human health through the maintenance of a healthy natural environment. John Sibley, the Georgia conservancy,noted that in environmental circles the three legged stools is often used as a metaphor for sustainability. The three 'legs' represent the natural world (the environment) the physically built world(the economy) and social world (equity). Sustainability requires that all three areas be taken in account. Representatives from the three areas must engage in conversation and form partnership with each other.

Many environmental problems stem from our failure for value the natural environment as we should. Current market economics deal largely with human made goods and services and very little with nature's goods and services. The market forces that regulate human made goods and services in our free market economy are not applied to nature's goods and services because these resources are considered ''economic externalizes'' and are perceived a free. For example, we view clear air and clean waterways as free,even domestic water is so cheap that market forces rarely influence demand. By taking this perspective however,we fail to appreciate the true costs of these resources. In the past the externalizes,air water and cost of waste treatment have held little economic concern because the environment seemed large enough to absorb the costs. As the human population continues to burgeon and our demands on the environment skyrocket, this assumption will no longer be valid.

The question of how to eliminate pollution has plagued humans for the last century. Industrial byproducts are often difficult to manage in large quantities and solutions for eliminating waste have often been prohibitively expensive to implement. As a result, the present ''solution'' is no solution at all. Continually dumping waste until there is no place left on put it, except in ''someone else's'' backyard. In contrast to industrial systems natural ecosystem eliminated because it is reused in some productive manner. Source reduction, evident in natural ecosystem is the ultimate solution to pollution.

Lessons learned from examining the dynamics of ecosystem will better equip environmental agencies to work with industries, business and institutions to reduce their impact on the environment and simultaneously increases profit. The ultimate result will be to minimize public health risks through cost effective preventive solutions to current waste generation practices.


Athira Santhosh, Netaji Higher Secondary School, Pramadam

April 30
12:53 2020

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