Lifestyle and Diet
Chuong Pham-Huy, Bruno Pham Huy in Food and Lifestyle in Health and Disease, 2022
Water pollution is any contamination of water with chemicals or other foreign substances that are detrimental to human, plant, or animal health (211). Due to the rapid growth of the world’s population and the development of industries, industrial and household waste in the environment, particularly in water, is also increasing considerably. Hence, natural water is now polluted everywhere. The main pollutants infecting water include fertilizers and pesticides from agricultural runoff; chemical wastes from pharmaceutical discharges; domestic sewage and food processing waste; plastic items for individual and collective use; and lead, mercury, and other heavy metals from different industries (212). Among them, plastic items are the main concern for ecosystems worldwide (213–214).
The Meatification of Diets
Bill Pritchard, Rodomiro Ortiz, Meera Shekar in Routledge Handbook of Food and Nutrition Security, 2016
Industrial monoculture and livestock production greatly increase the pull of agriculture on freshwater ecosystems through expanded irrigation demands, the thirst of concentrated livestock populations, and the large volumes needed for washing animal enclosures and slaughter and packing lines (Hoekstra 2013; 2012). These systems are also leading sources of water pollution including: persistent toxins from pesticides; excess nitrates and phosphates from fertilizers and concentrated livestock operations; and residues from animal pharmaceuticals, all of which translates into complex risks for ecosystems and public health and increases the challenges and resources needed for water treatment. The complexity of risks stems from the fact that it is impossible to know precisely how a wide array of pharmaceuticals and toxins will persist, interact, and affect bodily and ecosystem health, and how pests and pathogens will mutate and develop resistance to pesticides and antibiotics over time (sometimes described in terms of the threat of so-called ‘superweeds’ and ‘superbugs’ emerging) (Kirby 2010; Silbergeld et al. 2008; Pew Commission 2008; Schindler and Vallentyne 2008; Mallin and Cahoon 2003; McKenney 2002; Moore 2002; Marks 2001; Hooda et al. 2000). Industrial livestock is also disproportionately tied to the many ecological risks associated with genetic modification (GM) (Drucker 2015; Altieri 2004), as feed crops constitute a large share of world GM crop production (a range of GM livestock innovations are also under way).
The Second Component: Understanding the Whole Person, Section 2 – Context
Moira Stewart, Judith Belle Brown, W Wayne Weston, Ian R McWhinney, Carol L McWilliam, Thomas R Freeman in Patient-Centered Medicine, 2013
Health promotion and disease prevention invite – indeed, demand – that the “whole person” be understood with a broader lens, encompassing “community” and the larger societal context. As knowledge of the broader social determinants of health has evolved, the paradigm of individualized responsibility for and focus on health, health promotion, and disease prevention no longer suffices. Thus, primary care professionals will question whether society at large, the health care system in general, and the local community provide individual patients with the options they need for optimal health. Practitioners must explore these larger contextual components with patients. For example, are the foods that constitute a healthy diet available and affordable? Does their community context enable them to exercise safely? Does air or water pollution place their health at risk? Do their living accommodations and work circumstances undermine their health?
Using benthic macroinvertebrates as indicators for assessment the water quality in River Nile, Egypt
Published in Egyptian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 2019
Nile River is the longest river in the world. It runs from the lakes of Central Africa toward the north to Mediterranean Sea. Nile plays an important role in the life of Egyptians, in the river’s valley about 97% of Egypt’s population lives, 98% of water in Egypt comes from the Nile [1] and it provides Egypt with 44.73% of its annual fish production (9.86% wild fisheries and 34.87% from fish farming) [2]. Water pollution in River Nile caused by sewage, agriculture and industries affect aquatic community biodiversity and the species composition. The species composition reflects water pollution because the nature species changes to tolerant species [3]. Cao et al. [4] and Abdel Gawad [5] reported that high levels of pollutants reduce biodiversity because of reducing the species to tolerant species. For determination anthropogenic and natural effects on water resources, biological methods are used because biota respond to any changes from multiple spatial or time scales integratively [6]. Also, they save time and costs if compared with physico-chemical estimation of water quality [7], which provide little prudence into the temporal variation of conditions.
Appraisal of surface water quality in vicinity of industrial areas and associated ecological and human health risks: a study on the Bangshi river in Bangladesh
Published in Toxin Reviews, 2022
Mahmuda Binte Latif, Md. Abul Kalam Khalifa, Mir Md. Mozammal Hoque, Md. Shakir Ahammed, Alisha Islam, Md. Humayun Kabir, Tanmoy Roy Tusher
Water quality index (WQI) is a modest procedure to describe the status of water quality, which is calculated from the point of aptness of surface water for human consumption (Atulegwu and Njoku 2004, Rahman et al. 2020, Aydin et al. 2021). It is a single number that expresses water quality by aggregating the measurements of water parameters i.e. dissolved oxygen, pH, nitrate and total hardness (Semiromi et al. 2011, Abtahi et al. 2015, Wu et al. 2017). This method is particularly useful in assessing the quality of river water as it helps to understand the overall water quality of individual sampling stations at a certain time (Gupta et al. 2017, Lkr et al. 2020). In addition, Pearson’s correlation analysis is a statistical tool to exhibit the degree of dependency and extent of association among different variables (Shil et al. 2019). Ecological risk index (ERI), hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI) are some other approaches used to assess the overall quality of water and evaluate the possibility of impacting environment and human body negatively (Boateng et al. 2015, Mukanyandwi et al. 2019). Considering these, the study aimed to determine the water quality based on WQI method in order to evaluate the pertinence of the river water, especially during the monsoon that is found to be the high-demand period for the utilization of Bangshi river water. Besides, this study aimed to identify the possible sources of water pollution as well as to ascertain the plausible human and ecological risks derived from consumption of river water.
Bioaccumulation of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in muscle Tilapia spp fish: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and non-carcinogenic risk assessment
Published in Toxin Reviews, 2021
Yadolah Fakhri, Ali Atamaleki, Anvar Asadi, Seyed Mehdi Ghasemi, Amin Mousavi Khaneghah
In recent decades, water pollution by PTEs due to industrial and agricultural development has become a global health concern due to several adverse effects on human health as well as aquatic biota (Fang et al.2016, Yi et al.2017, Atia et al.2018). These issues can be correlated with atmospheric deposition, sewage and industrial effluent discharge, runoff from lawns, chemical waste spills, and wastewater dispose of agricultural (Mishra et al.2007, Kumar et al.2011, Velusamy et al.2014, Pilehvarian et al.2015). In this context, the further evaluation of PTEs concentration in related organisms to aquatic environments such as fish became as a crucial approach for the monitoring the PTEs pollution in the aquatic environment and following to human health risk (Guerra-García et al.2010, Velusamy et al.2014).
Related Knowledge Centers
- Drinking Water
- Persistent Organic Pollutant
- Pesticide
- Sewage
- Wastewater Treatment
- Water Resources
- Waterborne Diseases
- Hypoxia
- Pollution
- Groundwater Pollution