Rivera, Joanne G.

AM 250
MS Agricultural Economics I

Environmental Health for

COVID-19 Prevention

Humans interact with the environment constantly. These interactions

affect
quality of life, years of healthy life lived, and health disparities. The World
Health Organization (WHO) defines environment, as it relates to health, as “all
the physical, chemical, and biological factors external to a person, and all the
related behaviors.” Although the environment sustains human life, it can also
cause diseases. Lack of basic necessities is a significant cause of human
mortality. Furthermore, unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation and hygiene
are also responsible for a variety of infectious diseases.
Environmental health consists of preventing or controlling disease, injury,
and disability related to the interactions between people and their
environment. So how much can the burden of disease be reduced by
reducing environmental risks to health? If we can estimate the burden of
disease from environmental risks, we can also evaluate the most important
priorities for targeted environmental protection, while helping to promote the
idea that sound environmental management plays a key role in protecting
people’s health.
However, in just a short span of moment, the world is greatly affected by
the occurence of a pandemic disease called “COVID-19” and thousands of
people have already died, and hundreds of thousands more have fallen ill,
from this coronavirus disease. COVID-19 spreads by droplets shed of the
respiratory system by someone with the virus, which means that it would
spread with higher proximity of people, larger contact networks and lower
levels of hygiene. Most of death cases of coronavirus outbreak are happening
largely in old people possibly due to a weak immune system that permits rapid
growth of viral infections.
The COVID-19 crisis has clearly demonstrated that societies need to
strengthen their resilience to pandemics and other emergencies. Enhancing
environmental health through better air quality, water and sanitation, waste
management, along with efforts to safeguard biodiversity, will reduce the
vulnerability of communities to pandemics and thus improve overall societal
well-being and resilience. Exposure to ambient and indoor air pollution
increases the risk of cardiovascular, respiratory and developmental diseases,
as well as premature death, and makes individuals more vulnerable to
COVID-19. Water access and quality and biodiversity protection are key to
battling the spread of pandemics, while effective waste management is
essential to minimise possible secondary impacts upon health and the
environment.
The true extent of the global impact of the COVID-19 crisis has yet to be
fully determined, but that it will be immense is uncontested (Helm, 2020). At
the meantime, it is every individual's duty to follow the regulations while
discarding of their face masks and other medical wastes (Luan and Ching,
2020). We’ve been using up a lot of natural resources and now the bill is
coming due. We’re going to lurch from disaster to disaster to disaster until we
start to really change the fundamental relationship between us and nature.To
the end, it is possible only by mutual understanding and willingness of every
individual to follow health protocols and the world will emerge stronger than
this epidemic.

References:
Helm, D. (2020). The environmental impacts of the coronavirus.
Environmental and Resource Economics 76, 21-38.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-020-
00426-z

Luan, P.T., Ching, C.T. & S., (2020). A reusable mask for coronavirus disease
2019 (COVID-19). Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arcmed.2020.
04.001.

World Health Organization. (2020). Coronavirus disease (COVID-2019)

situation reports. Geneva: World Health Organization. Retrieved from
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situati
on-reports/