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Health is Wealth
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Health is Wealth - How living sustainably can improve our health
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Sustainable development aims to enable everyone to satisfy his or her
basic needs and enjoy a better quality of life, without compromising
the quality of life of future generations. This does not mean that
people in the developed world must reduce their quality of life in
order to allow improvements for those in the developing world. Living
sustainably can, in fact, enhance your quality of life.
Stress and obesity are two of the most significant health problems in
the developed world. Access to a clean, safe and attractive
environment encourages people to exercise outdoors and to lead healthy,
active lifestyles. Reducing car usage provides opportunities to walk
or cycle, to interact with your neighbours and leads to better
community spirit. You can get fit and make new friends at the same
time.
Air pollution (both outdoor and indoor) is a significant cause of ill
health in Europe leading to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases,
cancer, asthma and allergies. Very small particles (less than 2.5
microns) can reach our lungs and damage our health. It has been
estimated that such material causes 348,000 premature deaths in Europe
each year.
Poor water quality, inadequate sanitation and hazardous chemicals also impact negatively on our health.
Noise is an emerging environment and health issue at the European level
with about 20 % of EU’s population suffering from noise levels that
cause annoyance, sleep disturbance and adverse health effects.
Transport, especially in urban areas, is one of the main sources of air
pollution and noise.
Less is known about the health impacts of chemicals. There is growing
concern about the effects of exposure to mixtures of chemicals at low
levels and for long periods over our lifetime, in particular during
early childhood and pregnancy. Persistent chemicals with long-term
effects, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) may present risks
even after their production has been phased out. In the section on
Chemicals and Radiation we saw how PCBs contaminated Irish pork
products in 2008.
Natural hazards such as storms, floods, fires, landslides and droughts
have always posed a risk to human health. Climate change is likely to
bring more extreme weather events in the future leading to increased
risk to our health. A further health risk associated with climate
change is the spread of disease, such as malaria, as insects move
further north from tropical regions.
The interactions between the environment and human health are complex
and difficult to assess so we should exercise the precautionary
principle where possible. Living sustainably and using resources
wisely will lead to a better quality of life. When there is an
over-emphasis on economic issues at the expense of social or
environmental ones health suffers and people take to the streets in
protest as we saw recently in China. However when there is a proper
balance between work and social life in a clean environment, stress
levels are reduced. |
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