Environmental Health
Environmental health (EH) is concerned with preventing disease, death and disability by reducing exposure to adverse environmental conditions and promoting behavioral change. It focuses on the direct and indirect causes of diseases and injuries, an...
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English |
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Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2003/06/12005673/environmental-health http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9734 |
| Summary: | Environmental health (EH) is concerned
with preventing disease, death and disability by reducing
exposure to adverse environmental conditions and promoting
behavioral change. It focuses on the direct and indirect
causes of diseases and injuries, and taps resources inside
and outside the health care system to help improve health
outcomes. Environmental health risks can be prevented or
significantly mitigated, by activities in various sectors in
addition to health especially infrastructure, energy, and
agriculture. The infrastructure sector has huge potential to
improve health outcomes and save lives: water, sanitation,
drainage, transportation, housing, and urban development.
Many EH interventions are very cost-effective. Although the
number of studies is limited, a review of available evidence
of the effectiveness of measures outside the health sector
in achieving health improvements found the estimated costs
per deaths and disability-adjusted life year (DALY) saved to
US$70,000 per DALY and more for some pollution control
measures, with most measures costing over US$1,000 per DALY.
Infrastructure, energy, and agriculture projects seldom try
to monitor EH impact or maximize EH benefits. |
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