A Human Rights Approach to Environmental Health
Stefania Negri in Environmental Health in International and EU Law, 2019
Therefore, in order to bring a claim under article 8 ECHR, it is necessary that the denounced breach of the Convention directly affects the applicant’s home, family or private life, and that the adverse effects on his/her physical or mental health attain a minimum degree of severity, which depends on the circumstances of the case. Nonetheless, it is remarkable that the Court has also recognised victim status to potential victims having submitted reasonable and convincing evidence of the likelihood of a violation bringing about determined and serious consequences (serious, specific and imminent danger requirement88). This recognition is extremely important in cases alleging environmental hazards impacting on public health, where potential victims can act preventively and bring satisfactory arguments that a particular dangerous activity, or failure to adopt precautionary measures aimed to avoid environmental pollution or degradation, will have adverse effects on their health or well-being.
Environmental Toxins
Gia Merlo, Kathy Berra in Lifestyle Nursing, 2023
People in low-income areas disproportionately face deteriorating housing conditions and corroded plumbing, which puts them at risk of lead poisoning—as such homes are more likely to have lead in paint and plumbing (Sadler et al., 2017). These same individuals are likely to be from communities and households that are facing complex challenges of inadequate housing, unemployment, lack of access to quality health care, improper nutrition, and other issues that pose risk factors for exposure to environmental toxins (Whitehead & Buchanan, 2019). Individuals in more affluent areas may be better equipped to shield against exposure to environmental hazards through improved nutrition, home improvements of lead in paint and the elimination of radon, decreased exposure to environmental toxins in air and soil, or the ability to afford water alternatives to avoid drinking contaminated water (Sadler, et al., 2017).
Vital Signs
Lenore Manderson, Elizabeth Cartwright, Anita Hardon in The Routledge Handbook of Medical Anthropology, 2016
As we take our new found biological knowledges with us and move further into the Anthropocene, we see the effects of pollution and overpopulation putting pressure on water, food and even, ultimately, air supplies. There is a risk of an increase in human-caused environmental disasters, despite that we are more aware of these than ever before. The increased incidence of environmental hazards will continue to pit citizens against governments and big industry, precipitating health litigation and strife around environmentally caused illnesses. Medical anthropology has a critical role to play in giving voice to those negatively affected by these circumstances, in documenting illnesses associated with them, and in maintaining a critique of the exercise of power involved in their resolution, as Vincanne Adams (2013) illustrated in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (see also her case study, Chapters 11).
Latent trait models for perceived risk assessment using a Covid-19 data survey
Published in Journal of Applied Statistics, 2023
S. Bacci, R. Fabbricatore, Maria Iannario
In the first section of the questionnaire, participants were asked to judge both the personal and social riskiness of Covid-19 and other 13 hazards (listed in Table 2) on a 10-point Likert response scale, from 1 = not at all risky to 10 = very risky. As shown in Table 2, the hazards we considered belong to the health, environmental, behavioral, and technological domains. The goal in selecting these hazards was to provide an appropriate context to understand the Covid-19 perceived risk. The selection criteria included prevalence, popularity, and importance of the hazards. For example, diseases of the circulatory system and cancer represent the main causes of death in Italy, as well as the prevalence of diabetes has almost doubled in 30 years (https://www.istat.it/en/https://www.istat.it/en/). Another example regards environmental hazards such as climate change, which have increasingly worried experts worldwide and also in Italy [70].
Investigating the role of internal layout of magnetic field-generating equipment on workers’ exposure at power substations
Published in International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 2021
Monireh Hosseini, Laleh Farhang Matin, Mohammad Reza Monazzam, Hossein Khosroabadi
In order to reduce workers’ exposure to magnetic fields, various protection methods such as maintaining proper distance from generating sources, the use of mu-metal, phase change, education and training have been proposed. Unfortunately, their implementation in workplaces is impractical, time consuming and costly in most cases [6,7]. Hence, companies and industrial plants should take preventive measures against environmental hazards. Paying enough attention to proper interior design and layout design is one of the preventive measures to control exposure to magnetic fields and prevent possible problems and accidents caused by their exposure. Unfortunately, lack of attention from consulting engineers to the issue has put many people at unwanted exposure to this occupational hazardous agent and caused a decrease in their work efficiency and threatened their health status [8]. One of the workplaces where the layout pattern of equipment and placement of workers have a significant role on occupational exposure level is power substations. Improper deployment of equipment in this workplace increases the area of magnetic field-contaminated places and makes the work environment of the workers an unsafe place for them.
Exosomal small RNA sequencing uncovers the microRNA dose markers for power frequency electromagnetic field exposure
Published in Biomarkers, 2018
Hualiang Li, Lin Lin, Li Li, Liang Zhou, Ying Zhang, Shuai Hao, Zhenhua Ding
Historically, precautionary and preventive measures followed by early warnings about potential health effects from environmental hazards have been delivered to protect the public health and contributed to our extended life expectancy (Sage and Carpenter 2012, World Health Organization 2014). Disease, like cancers and mental disorders, are always the central foci among the public concerns, which like “black holes” devouring large amount of money from our taxpayer and seriously threaten the public health. To avoid the risk of those miserable diseases, scientists have developed many technologies for the prediagnosis and prognosis, like biomarkers. Detectable biomarkers, including peptides/proteins, miRNAs and even long noncoding RNAs, indicate treatment or exposure to adverse circumstances for prognostic diagnosis are of distinct public interests and advantages compared with other techniques, especially for exposures causing chronic effects (Kelloff and Sigman 2012). They are not only used as indicators for disease, but also functionally take part in the pathogenesis and disease development. Disease-related exosomes may help to establish an pathogenic niche systemically via delivery of a cohort of bioactive molecular cargos including miRNAs (Lee et al.2011).
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