WHICH POPULATIONS SUFFER THE MOST FROM ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS TO HEALTH?

Children suffer a disproportionate share of the environmental health burden.

Globally, the per capita number of healthy life years lost to environmental risk factors was about 5-times greater in children under five years of age than in the total population. Diarrhoea, malaria and respiratory infections all have very large fractions of disease attributable to environment, and also are among the biggest killers of children under five years old. In developing countries, the environmental fraction of these three diseases accounted for an average of 26% of all deaths in children under five years old. Perinatal conditions (e.g. prematurity and low birth weight); protein-energy malnutrition and unintentional injuries – other major childhood killers – also have a significant environmental component, particularly in developing countries.
On average, children in developing countries lose 8-times more healthy life years, per capita, than their counterparts in developed countries from environmentally-caused diseases. In certain very poor regions of the world, however, the disparity is far greater; the number of healthy life years lost as a result of childhood lower respiratory infections is 800-times greater, per capita; 25-times greater for road traffic injuries; and 140-times greater for diarrhoeal diseases. Even these statistics fail to capture the longer term effects of exposures that occur at a young age, but do not manifest themselves as disease until years later.

HOW SIGNIFICANT IS THE IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENT ON HEALTH?

An estimated 24% of the global disease burden and 23% of all deaths can be attributed to environmental factors.

Of the 102 major diseases, disease groupings and injuries covered by the World Health Report in
2004, environmental risk factors contributed to disease burden in 85 categories. The specific fraction of disease attributable to the environment varied widely across different disease conditions.
Globally, an estimated 24% of the disease burden (healthy life years lost) and an estimated 23% of all deaths (premature mortality) was attributable to environmental factors. Among children 0–14 years of age, the proportion of deaths attributed to the environment was as high as 36%. There were large regional differences in the environmental contribution to various disease conditions – due to differences in environmental exposures and access to health care across the regions. For example, although 25% of all deaths in developing regions were attributable to environmental causes, only 17% of deaths were attributed to such causes in developed regions. Although this represents a significant contribution to the overall disease burden, it is a conservative estimate because there is as yet no evidence for many diseases. Also, in many cases, the causal pathway between environmental hazard and disease outcome is complex. Where possible, attempts were made to capture such indirect health effects. For instance, malnutrition associated with waterborne diseases was quantified, as was disease burden related to aspects of physical inactivity attributable to environmental factors (e.g. urban design). But in other cases, disease burden was not quantifiable even though the health impacts are readily apparent. For instance, the disease burden associated with changed, damaged or depleted ecosystems in general was not quantified.
Diseases with the largest absolute burden attributable to modifiable environmental factors included: diarrhoea; lower respiratory infections; 'other' unintentional injuries; and malaria.

Practice Detachment

Worry, anxiety, behaving compulsively, and being in an unhealthy relationship with a friend, significant other, or coworker are all forms of attachment that cause stress.

It is not easy to stop worrying about the present and the future, to cease feeling obligated to those to whom we really aren’t obligated, and to separate yourself from tasks and responsibilities that really belong to others. The first step toward detachment is to identify the things in your life that do not belong there. This can be done by sitting down and making a list with two headings: “My Life and Responsibilities” and “Other People’s Lives and Responsibilities.” Once you have identified which things in life you are not responsible for, you can start consciously disassociating yourself from them one by one.
Many of us do not realize how addicted we have become to solving other people’s problems and helping them to see how much easier, less stressed, and efficient their lives would be if only they would do things our way. In his book Growing Yourself Back Up: Understanding Emotional Regression, psychotherapist and workshop leader John Lee shows readers that it is arrogant and self-defeating for us to assume that we can solve other people’s problems for them. It uses up our energy reserves, causes us stress, and usually doesn’t help anyone anyway.
One of the most constructive things we can do for others—be they friends, family, or coworkers—is to allow them to make their own decisions, their own choices, their own mistakes, and to experience their own victories. How else can we expect them to learn except by doing for themselves? We can’t control the amount of stress in other people’s lives, but we can surely greatly reduce our own by not assuming responsibility for the stress of others.