Introduction
The environment, due to various anthropogenic influences, can be a threat or damage to a modern human being. The hazard represents the substance, state, or event that can impact people’s health. Some activities of individuals lead to natural disasters and contamination of surrounding water, air, soil, food, and places. After the period of industrialization at the end of the XVIII-middle of the XIX century, humanity started noticing the negative effect of human interference on the environment. Currently, it is a substantial part of people’s lifestyle to care about nature and prevent potential harm. However, the environmental hazards can be not only anthropogenic but also non-human made. In general, the hazards can be of various origins: physical, chemical, and biological (CDC 3). This assignment will disclose all the types of environmental hazards that human beings can face.
Anthropogenic Hazards
The most substantial impact is, of course, done by a human as he uses natural resources to meet his requirements. As a result, air and water pollution, radiation, heavy metals, and indirectly some extreme temperatures and weather events occur. Poor air content can worsen the condition of asthma patients, lead to lung diseases, and can cause pneumoconiosis among people working with polluted air constantly (Iderawumi 78). Radiation leads to alopecia, skin cancer, and immunosuppression in general. Water pollution causes various storage diseases and spreads infections such as cholera which is a big issue in India. The temperature of the weather is also changing due to human activity. The greenhouse effect occurs because of the increased CO2 emissions and other gases impacting the protective ozone layer. With this layer becoming thinner, the ultraviolet manages to reach the surface of the earth easier, especially through the thinnest parts of the ozone layer.
Non-Human-Made Hazards
Biological hazards represent pathogenic microorganisms, plants, insects, and animals that can cause various diseases or be a transporter of the pathogen. For instance, the plague managed to spread so rapidly and involve almost all the population of the words because of the infection spreader, rats. These animals were spread in cities, towns, and people’s homes back then, and their contamination with Yersinia pestis led to a higher number of infected during each wave of the pandemics (Dean 1307). Some agents initiate diseases under various circumstances or in accordance with other infections. Human immunodeficiency virus and the latest stage of the disorder it causes, AIDS, triggers opportunistic infections that in normal conditions with a strong immune system never become a threat.
Physical hazards such as flooding, earthquake, or volcanic eruption most of the time are not controlled or caused by a human. Still, one that lives in high seismic activity zones, learns the rules of proper acting in a spontaneous volcanic eruption, as in Hawaii. In Australia, people learn about insects more thoroughly as they have to know how to distinguish a poisonous spider from an innocent one.
Health Practices
To avoid the negative effect of environmental hazards on humans, the population has to investigate each of them and develop strategies to help reduce the human negative impact on the environment. People’s health can significantly suffer because of the various pollutants and microorganisms causing various issues. It is possible to identify the most dangerous effects on the organism of individuals and find the ways that prevent them from happening.
Conclusion
Humans face various environmental hazards, and since they live in symbiosis with nature, they have to find solutions that could prevent pollution initiated by them. Prophylaxis and treatment investigation on diseases that significantly impact the modern population is also essential for the safe, protected, and healthy future of both nature and people. With respect for each other and their surroundings, humans can reach a higher level of self-control, development, and success.
Works Cited
Dean, Katharine R., et al. “Human Ectoparasites and the Spread of Plague in Europe During the Second Pandemic.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 115, no. 6, 2018, pp. 1304-1309.
Iderawumi, Muhtart Abdulraheem. “Sources of Environmental Hazards Effects and Control.” Asia Pacific Journal of Energy and Environment, vol. 6, 2019, pp. 77 – 82. Web.
“Introduction to Environmental Public Health Tracking.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2019.