Preventing Disease Through Healthy Environments: Towards an Estimate of the Environmental Burden of Disease
Year: 2006
Type: article
Abstract: ENVIRONMENTS?his question lies at the heart of our global efforts to address the root causes of ill health through improved preventive health strategiesusing the full range of policies, interventions and technologies in our arsenal of knowledge.Previous World Health Organization studies have examined the aggregate disease burden attributed to key environmental risks globally and regionally, quantifying the amount of death and disease caused by factors such as unsafe drinking-water and sanitation, and indoor and outdoor air pollution.Building from that experience, this present study examines how specific diseases and injuries are impacted by environmental risks, and which regions and populations are most vulnerable to environmentally-mediated diseases and injuries.This report confirms that approximately one-quarter of the global disease burden, and more than one-third of the burden among children, is due to modifiable environmental factors.The analysis here also goes a step further, and systematically analyzes how different diseases are impacted by environmental risks… and by 'how much.' Heading that list are diarrhoea, lower respiratory infections, various forms of unintentional injuries, and malaria.This 'environmentally-mediated' disease burden is much higher in the developing world than in developed countries -although in the case of certain non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and cancers, the per capita disease burden is larger in developed countries.Children bear the highest death toll with more than 4 million environmentally-caused deaths yearly, mostly in developing countries.The infant death rate from environmental causes is 12 times higher in developing than in developed countries, reflecting the human health gain that could be achieved by supporting healthy environments.This analysis details the health impacts of environmental risks across more than 80 diseases and injuries.Findings are particularly relevant to health care policymakers and practitioners.Our evolving knowledge about environment-health interactions can support the design of more effective preventive and public health strategies that reduce corresponding risks to health.These estimates involved not only a systematic literature review in all of the disease categories addressed, but also a survey of more than 100 experts worldwide.As such, this analysis represents the result of a systematic process for estimating environmental burden of disease that is T
Authors: Annette Prüss‐Üstün, Carlos Corvalán
Language: English
Subfield: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: World Health Organization, San Diego State University, Texas A and M University, University of Ottawa, McGill University, Saint Louis University, Aberystwyth University, King's College London, University of Oxford, University of New South Wales, Fudan University, Universiteit Gent, Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Pan American Health Organization, Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King's College London, University of London
OpenAlex ID: W1820611702