Environmental health and safety policy? This is an aspect of human health determined by environmental factors such as physical, chemical, biological logical, social, and psychosocial factors.
It involves accessing, erecting, controlling, and preventing those environmental factors that can potentially affect adversely the health of present and future generation,
Type of environment
There are two types of environment natural and created environment.
The natural environment health and safety policy may cause problems for human health especially, temperature fluctuations, forest fire, erosions, tidal waves, and landslides.
The human-created environment health and safety policy such as slum areas in many cities also presents sore health hazards such as;
- Poor housing
- lack of power supply
- poor availability of water
- improper sewage disposal
- poor environmental sanitation.
The ultimate aim of environmental health is to protect people from hazardous environments and to promote a healthy environment.
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Environmental health can discourse under the following:
- Water supply
- Excreta disposal
- Waste management
- Vector control
- Shelter/Housing and planning
- Hygiene education
- Food safety and hygiene
- Protection from radiation
- Air quality/control of pollution
WATER SUPPLY
Water is a basic and essential human need, which means without water humans can not live a longer life, so take water daily if you want to see a longer life.
Types of water
- Surface water such as stream, river, lake and pon’s
- Groundwater such as springs and wells, Rainwater
Each source should be adequately protected and the water stored properly to avoid contamination.
Water must be treated before use. Some treatment modalities are flocculation and sedimentation filtration and also disinfection.
Disinfection by chlorination is the last stage of treatment. It is aimed at killing pathogenic organisms in the water.
Uses of water:
- Domestic uses include
- drinking
- personal hygiene
- cleaning
- cooking utensils
- gardening
- Irrigation of crops
- Generation of electricity
- Transportation such as canals
EXCRETA DISPOSAL
Human excreta is an important source of pathogenic organisms, especially the causative agents of diarrhea diseases. It attracts flies which not only spread pathogenic organisms contained in the excreta but also breed in them.
Therefore the disposal of excreta is of major public health significance.
In the tropics, there are two basic choices of excreting disposal
- Pit latrine
- Pour flush toilet
– The objective of any disposal method should be to dispose of potentially dangerous excreta
– To prevent the proliferation of vectors that might breed in such waste.
The principle of excreta disposal structures are;
They should be safe. For example, it should not be possible for small children to fall into a latrine pit.
They are designed to minimize the proliferation and harbourage of disease vectors such as flies and mosquitoes.
– To provide a degree of privacy to the users
They are located to avoid the potential of contaminating water sources.
In the civilized society and now in most cities in the tropics, excreta may be disposed of by sewerage.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
tropics include:
- Waste from bathing and other domestic washing.
- Medical waste such as needles, syringes, drip, and drip given vessel, swabs, and others.
- Industrial waste
- Adequate storage of domestic waste is necessary as They accumulate continuously.
- Organic waste may be composted with storage while inorganic wastes like paper, tins, and glass may be recycled.
The disposal method is seen in the
topics are:
- Landfill
- Burning
- composting
A standard method of medical waste management include:
- Waste segregation
- Waste reuse
- Treatment and disposal
- Intermediate storage
CURRENT MEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT IN LAGOS STATE ACCORDING TO LAGOS WASTE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY (LAWMA)
- Open-pit burning
- Dropping in uncovered bins
- Burying without treatment
- Use of cart pushers to transport waste
- Use of unaccredited waste collectors
- Burning in furnace
- Use of cellophane bags for collection of waste
- Face mask
- Headgear
- Hand gloves
- Rubber apron
- Boot.
DEFINITION OF VECTOR CONTROL
TYPES OF VECTOR
- Flies
- Mosquitoes
- Rats
- Flees
- Mite
- Lice
- Fever
- Tick
OTHER LIST OF VECTOR
- Associated disease
- Diarrhea disease
- Malaria and Yellow fever
- Leptospirosis and salmonellosis
- Typhus and Plague
- Scabies
- Epidermic typhus and Relapsing
- Relapsing fever
HOW TO CONTROL VECTOR
ENVIRONMENT SHELTER/HOUSING
The following factors are taken into consideration when constructing a house
- Accessibility to the site
- Spacing and ventilation
- Security
- Availability of water
- Drainage
- Excreta and other forms of waste disposal.
