Tài liệu Air and Water Pollution: Burden and Strategies for Control doc

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Environmental pollution has many facets, and the resultant

health risks include diseases in almost all organ systems. Thus,

a chapter on air and water pollution control links with chapters

on, for instance, diarrheal diseases (chapter 19), respiratory

diseases in children and adults (chapters 25 and 35), cancers

(chapter 29), neurological disorders (chapter 32), and cardio￾vascular disease (chapter 33), as well as with a number of chap￾ters dealing with health care issues.

NATURE, CAUSES, AND BURDEN OF AIR

AND WATER POLLUTION

Each pollutant has its own health risk profile, which makes

summarizing all relevant information into a short chapter dif￾ficult. Nevertheless, public health practitioners and decision

makers in developing countries need to be aware of the poten￾tial health risks caused by air and water pollution and to know

where to find the more detailed information required to handle

a specific situation. This chapter will not repeat the discussion

about indoor air pollution caused by biomass burning

(chapter 42) and water pollution caused by poor sanitation at

the household level (chapter 41), but it will focus on the prob￾lems caused by air and water pollution at the community,

country, and global levels.

Estimates indicate that the proportion of the global burden

of disease associated with environmental pollution hazards

ranges from 23 percent (WHO 1997) to 30 percent (Smith,

Corvalan, and Kjellstrom 1999). These estimates include

infectious diseases related to drinking water, sanitation, and

food hygiene; respiratory diseases related to severe indoor air

pollution from biomass burning; and vectorborne diseases

with a major environmental component, such as malaria.

These three types of diseases each contribute approximately

6 percent to the updated estimate of the global burden of dis￾ease (WHO 2002).

As the World Health Organization (WHO) points out, out￾door air pollution contributes as much as 0.6 to 1.4 percent of

the burden of disease in developing regions, and other pollu￾tion, such as lead in water, air, and soil, may contribute 0.9 per￾cent (WHO 2002). These numbers may look small, but the

contribution from most risk factors other than the “top 10” is

within the 0.5 to 1.0 percent range (WHO 2002).

Because of space limitations, this chapter can give only

selected examples of air and water pollution health concerns.

Other information sources on environmental health include

Yassi and others (2001) and the Web sites of or major reference

works by WHO, the United Nations Environment Programme

(UNEP), Division of Technology, Industry, and Economics

(http://www.uneptie.org/); the International Labour Organi￾zation (ILO), the United Nations Industrial Development

Organization (UNIDO; http://www.unido.org/), and other rel￾evant agencies.

Table 43.1 indicates some of the industrial sectors that can

pose significant environmental and occupational health risks

to populations in developing countries. Clearly, disease control

measures for people working in or living around a smelter may

be quite different from those for people living near a tannery or

a brewery. For detailed information about industry-specific

Chapter 43

Air and Water Pollution: Burden

and Strategies for Control

Tord Kjellstrom, Madhumita Lodh, Tony McMichael, Geetha

Ranmuthugala, Rupendra Shrestha, and Sally Kingsland