Place and Well-Being (AQA A Level Geography)

Environmental Variables of Health

Environmental Variables of Health

• The environment can have a significant impact on health and the incidence of disease

  • An estimated 70-90% of disease risk comes from environmental factors; the rest comes from genetic factors

• Climate and topography are two notable factors 

Air Quality and Health

 Air Quality and Health

• World Health Organisation (WHO) provides safe guideline limits for air pollution 

  • Their data reveals 99% of global population breathe air that exceeds these limits

• Common sources of air pollution are:

  • Household combustion devices such as open fires for heating and cooking stoves

  • Motor vehicles

  • Industrial facilities burning fossil fuels

  • Forest fires 

• Pollutants include:

  • Particulate matter

  • Carbon monoxide

  • Ozone

  • Nitrogen dioxide 

  • Sulfur dioxide

• Outdoor and indoor air pollution cause respiratory and other diseases and are important sources of morbidity and mortality

• Pollution of the air can be both outdoor (ambient) and indoor (household)

  • Ambient air pollution in both cities and rural areas is causing fine particulate matter 

    • This increases the risk of strokes, heart diseases, lung cancer, acute and chronic respiratory diseases

  • Household air pollution, while using polluting open fires or ovens fuelled by kerosene, biomass (wood, animal dung and crop waste) and coal

  • Household pollutants result in approximately 2.4 billion people being exposed to dangerous levels

• Evidence also links air pollution to increased risk of:

  • Adverse pregnancy outcomes (low weight and small  size at birth)

  • Cancers

  • Diabetes

  • Cognitive impairment 

  • Neurological diseases

• Children, elderly and pregnant women are the most susceptible to air pollution-related diseases

• Diet and socio-economic factors also impact a person’s susceptibility to air pollution which means that low- and middle-income countries suffer from the highest exposures and greatest disease risks

• WHO data suggests the combined effects of ambient and household air pollution leads to 7 million premature deaths annually around the world

Water Quality & Health

Water Quality and Health

• Safe drinking water and clean water for hygiene and sanitation is essential to good health

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) collects data on water quality around the globe

  • Over 2 billion people live in regions suffering from water-stress. This is getting worse due to climate change and population growth.

  • More than 2 billion people use a drinking water source contaminated with faeces

  • Microbiologically contaminated drinking water is estimated to cause 485,000 deaths from diarrhoea each year

  • Diarrhoea is the second leading cause of death globally in children under 5

  • Other water borne diseases include cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio

• Industrial and agricultural waste discharges pollutants into water sources

  • This can lead to drinking water containing arsenic, fluoride or nitrate, as well as pesticides and microplastics

• Poor quality of water for drinking, sanitation and hygiene also makes it difficult to prevent and manage other diseases prevalent in developing countries 

  • Including malnutrition, cholera and other neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) 

Role of External Agencies

Role of External Agencies

• The leading global agency promoting good health is the World Health Organisation (WHO)

  • Some felt it was too bureaucratic and lacked leadership on the front-line

  • Failed to act decisively over China’s handling of the disease during the early days of the outbreak

  • Set up by the United Nations (UN)  in 1948

  • Original aims were to help combat malaria, women’s health, children’s health, tuberculosis (TB), venereal disease and sanitation conditions in the developing world

  • Other major diseases added to its agenda since, including Ebola and HIV/AIDS

  • 147 countries and their governments are members and WHO advises them on vaccines, research, instruction and assistance with clean water programmes, and treatment of communicable and non-communicable diseases

  • WHO works with other UN agencies and NGOs to manage international health issues and pandemics

  • Notable successes of WHO have been the complete eradication of smallpox in the 1970s and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative which, since 1988 has reduced cases of polio by 99%

  • WHO was criticised during the Covid-19 pandemic 

  • Other UN bodies also involved in supporting global health include UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), and UNAIDS (a joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS

• Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are non-profit bodies working separately and independently from any governments

  • Many are involved in the promotion of health and health care

  • NGOs sometimes lack the resources of larger international organisations and governments and they rely on donations and aid from richer countries

  • This can limit the impact they make on the global healthcare system

  • NGOs mostly have charitable status such as Oxfam and Médecins Sans Frontières

• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is an NGO founded by the co-founder of Microsoft and his wife in 2000

• Bill Gates started the foundation with $1 billion of his own money and he and his wife have since donated more than $36 billion

• Its focus is on increasing health and reducing extreme poverty across the world

• The foundation funds food security and healthcare programmes around the world

  • In 2010 it donated $19.9 million to the International Rice Research Institute to support the increasing world demand for rice

  • It has partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation, donating $100 million to enhance agricultural science and small-farm productivity in Africa to support the green revolution

  • In 2005 it launched the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene program which now focuses on sanitation and education around water hygiene in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

  • Amongst the hundreds of grants to healthcare programmes one of the biggest has been $1.75 billion to accelerate development and distribution of COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines since 2020

  • Deaths caused by AIDS, TB and malaria each year have been reduced by nearly 50% since 2002 in countries where the foundation invests