Interrelation and Differences of Hygiene and Ecology

Common features of these sciences are the following: they study factors of environmental effect on organisms, maintain the environment (habitat) from degradation due to pollution. Changes in ecosystem sooner or later have a negative effect on conditions of life or health of a person.

Differencesare as follows:

· Different objects of research — a person (in hygiene) or living organisms (in ecology)

· Different methods of research in these sciences in connection with different objects of research

· Differences in principles of normalization of harmful factors (in hygiene — maintaining health of each person, in ecology — preservation of basic parameters of ecosystem with possible partial destruction of organisms).

Recommendations for Practical Classes on the Theme

Key Questions:

1. History of development of hygiene and ecology. Common features and differences of hygiene and ecology. Tasks of medical ecology.

2. Basic tasks and sections of hygiene. Basic laws of hygiene.

3. Basic methods of hygienic researches and examples of their realization.

4. Structure of the environment and biosphere, kinds of monitoring of their pollution.

5. Classification of factors of environment in hygiene and ecology.

6. The basic concepts of ecology: ecological factors, ecosystem, biocenosis, trophic chain.

7. Parameters of health of population and factors influencing the health of population.

8. Types of state sanitary supervision, the structure of sanitary-epidemiologic service of Ukraine, the structure of sanitary-epidemiologic station (SES).

 

Self-control Test

1. Identify the major factors determining health of the population.

А. Climatic features, geographical position, degree of urbanization of territory

* В. Socio-economic, genetic, ecological, medical

С. Quality of nutrition, lifestyle, conditions of habitation, occupational factors

D. Lifestyle, national features, religious factors, social system

Е. Age, sexual, individual, hereditary factors.

 

2. Among the majority of factors determining health of the population, the following group is greatest influence on parameters of population health:

А. Level of development of public health services and quality of medical aid to the population

В. Level of a hereditary pathology

С. Educational and cultural level of the population

* D. Lifestyle and socioeconomic conditions

Е. Degree of the environment pollution

 

3. Identify the proportion of influence of the environment quality on the health of population:

А. 45-53 %

* В. 17-20 %

С. 8-10 %

D. 24-25 %

Е. 15-17 %

 

4. What components are included into the concept "environment"?

А. Air, plants, animals, water, ground

В. Abiotic and biotic factors of the environment

* С. Water, air, ground, foodstuffs

D. Plants, buildings, ground, air

Е. Water of reservoirs, air, ground

 

5. What components does biosphere consist of?

А. Exosphere, ionosphere, mesosphere, troposphere

* В. Lithosphere, hydrosphere, troposphere

С. Air, water, ground, ecosystems

D. Autotrophic and heterotrophic organisms

Е. Space, globe

 

6. What parameters of population health are the most sensitive to pollution of the environment?

А. Demographic

* В. Sickness rate

С. Sickness rate with temporary loss of work capacity

D. Disability

* Е. Physical development

 

7. What diseases refer to ecologically caused (ecopathology)?

А. Diseases which worst yield to treatment in the given district

* В. Most frequently encountered diseases in the given district

С. Diseases, for which the role of the environmental factors is proved

D. Diseases among the most sensitive groups of population (children, elderly people)

Е. Diseases considerably differing in frequency in various regions

 

8. What parameters are studied at application of epidemiological method of research in hygiene?

А. Parameters of pollution levels of the environmental objects

В. Frequency and incidence of infectious diseases among the population

* С. Parameters and indexes of population health

D. Incidence of endemic diseases in the given district

Е. Parameters of ecosystems condition on the investigated territory

9. What does the method of sanitary inspection consist in?

* А. The study of object with drawing up the act of hygienic inspection

В. Sanitary inspection of object with the purpose of its closing

С. Selection of tests of the environmental objects and their comparison with standards

D. The study of object quality as to conformity to the requirements

Е. Carrying out experimental researches on animals

10. What does the method of sanitary examination consist in?

А. The study of object with drawing up the act of hygienic inspection

В. Sanitary inspection of object with the purpose of its closing

С. Selection of tests of the environmental objects and their comparison with standards

* D. The study of object quality as to conformity to the requirements

Е. Carrying out experimental researches on animals

11. Identify the classification of the environment factors in hygiene.

А. Biotic, abiotic, anthropogenic

В. Air, water, ground, foodstuff

* С. Chemical, physical, biological, informative

D. Dangerous, harmful, indifferent

Е. Of natural and anthropogenic origin

12. Identify the classification of the environment factors in ecology.

* А. Biotic, abiotic, anthropogenic

В. Air, water, ground, foodstuff

С. Chemical, physical, biological, informative

D. Dangerous, harmful, indifferent

Е. Of natural and anthropogenic origin

 

Theme No 2.

Hygiene of the Environment.

Hygiene of the environment is a section of hygiene studying medical aspects of the environment protection as a scientific basis of prevention of unfavorable influences of the environment factors on a person at individual and population levels.

The following concepts of the environment exist:

· The internal environmentof the organismis the internal content, the nervous and humoral mechanisms of regulation and maintenance of homeostasis.

· The external environment is everything that is outside the organism and acts on its membranes and receptors. From the point of view of physiology, the internal and external environments are very individual and dynamic for each person.

· The environment is everything that surrounds and affects the life and development of an organism. It is not individual but common for the population. In hygiene the basic objects of the environment are atmospheric air, water of reservoirs, ground and foodstuffs.

Depending on degree of influence of anthropogenic factors the following conditions of the environment are distinguished:

· unchangeable (natural ) — part of the environment not subjected to anthropogenic influence (reservations, etc.)

· changed (polluted) — as a result of human’s activity, it can render negative influence on people’s health.

· artificial — the environment specially created by human (a spaceship, submarine, etc.)

The Basic Sources of the Environmental Pollution

Natural and anthropogenic sources of the environmental pollution are distinguished.

Natural sources include volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, forest fires, typhoons, and other natural cataclysms. The dimensions of the environmental pollution in this case may be significant, cover great territories, and levels of pollution may exceed anthropogenic pollution.

Anthropogenic sources are caused by human activity: industry, atomic power stations, transport, agriculture, municipal services, etc.

Major factors of the environmental pollution are:

· chemical (pesticides, oil products, heavy metals, etc.)

· physical (noise, ionizing radiation, electromagnetic fields)

· biological (microorganisms, biological preparations, etc.)

Concept of the Environmental Pollutant

A pollutant is any natural or anthropogenic factor, being in the environment in amounts exceeding the limits of natural fluctuations or natural background, or exceeding the permissible standards for the given object of the environment. Not any presence of pollutant in the environment is pollution.

Pollution is the presence of pollutant in the environment above the maximal permissible concentration, which may produce an unfavorable effect on a human health.

Criteria of Danger of the Environment Pollution and Types of Its Monitoring

To estimate the danger of the environmental pollution is possible by the following criteria:

· According to the degree of excess of maximum permissible concentration of pollutants in the environment — analytical monitoring;

· By integrated parameter — the health state of the population — medical-hygienic monitoring;

· By changes in ecosystems — ecological monitoring (on a regional scale), biospheric monitoring (on a global scale).

 

 

The Basic Directions of the Environment Protection from Pollution

· Administrative-legislative measuresof theenvironment protection on the international, national or regional scale. These are priority measures, as they create a legal basis for all nature-protective activity. Now there is a special direction in jurisprudence — the nature protection law.

· Hygienic actions — realization of preventive and current sanitary inspection. The preventive sanitary inspection is examination of projects of enterprises, capable to pollute the environment, regulation of pollutants in objects of the environment. The current sanitary inspection is the control of pollution levels of the environment, revealing sources of pollution and acceptance of measures to decrease pollution.

· Architecture-planning measures — a proper location of pollution sources for decrease of influence on especially important objects (for example, zones of sanitary protection of water sources, functional zoning in cities, sanitary-protective zones near enterprises, etc.).

· Medico-hygienic measures — studying the parameters of population health, revealing, treatment and health improvement of persons having disturbances of health due to the environmental pollution. These measures allow revealing the most dangerous sources and factors of the environmental pollution and the most sensitive to pollution parameters of population health.

· Ecological monitoring — studying the condition of ecosystems and separate species of living organisms under the influence of the environmental pollution with the purpose of prevention of irreversible disorders of ecosystems.

· Technological measures: transfer of enterprises into the closed cycle (without emissions into the environment), change of technology for decrease of emissions into the environment (for example, transfer of motor transport into electricity), development of sanitary engineering (cleaning constructions for purification of emissions into atmosphere, for reservoir burial, construction of areas and storages of waste products, etc.)

Hygienic Regulation of Harmful Factors in the Environment

Regulation of harmful factors in the objects of environment is an important element of preventive sanitary inspection as it establishes the criteria of the permissible content of pollutants in objects of the environment.

In hygiene there are 2 approaches to regulationof factors of the environment affecting the man:

v In respect to natural factors (parameters of microclimate, lighting, ventilation of air, requirements to nutrition), regulationis substantiation of optimal levels of factor values for maintaining and improvement of human health or providing comfortable conditions for his life and work.

v In respect to harmful factors in the environment there are 2 concepts:

Ø Concept of exception — absolute prevention of entering harmful factors in the environment, but it is unreal because it means stopping industry, transport, power stations, etc.

Ø Concept of restriction — when it is impossible to eliminate the presence of a harmful factor in the environment, it is necessary to confine its content up to safe for the man levels — hygienic regulations.

The Concept of Hygienic Regulation of Harmful Factors in the Environment

It is such concentration, dose or level of the harmful factor in object of the environment which neither cause any pathological changes in the organism of man and subsequent generations (which can be found out on a modern level of development of science) during the whole time of contact with this factor (during life or work experience), nor worsen the sanitary conditions of life of population.