PUBH6002 Global And Environmental Health Issues: Environmental Risk Report Assessment 1 Answer

Question :

ASSESSMENT BRIEF
Subject Code and Title	PUBH6002: Global and Environmental Health Issues
Assessment	Assessment 1: Report - Environmental Risk Assessment
Individual/Group	Individual
Length	1,500 words (+/- 10%)
Learning Outcomes	Understand the concept of environmental factors influencing health, and the relevance to public health from the global to the local levels. Describe key agencies, institutional structures, political processes, influences on and challenges for environmental health. Understand the way in which globalisation and the social, economic and political determinants of health influence disease, including identification of vulnerable groups. Understand the concept of sustainable development. Identify and critique ethical elements relevant to environmental health protections, policies, and industry practices, from global to local scale. Critically analyse the relationships between environmental risk factors and social, economic and political determinants of illness and injury from global to local scale.
Weighting	30%
Total Marks	100 marks

Instructions:

Choose a specific geographic region and one of the following environmental health issues:

Water (safe drinking water or ambient/environmental water)
Sanitation (wastewatercontrol)
Air quality (indoor oroutdoor)
Solid wastemanagement
Hazardous/toxic substances
Noise
Disasters
Food safety
Traffic accidents
Vector-borne disease
Climate and geography
Housing and the builtenvironment Please address thefollowing:

Part 1:

Using the WHO (1999) DPSEEA framework: http://www.who.int/wssd/resources/indicators/en/ - Chapter 7

describe the driving forces, pressures, state changes, exposures and effects relevant to your chosen region and environmental health issue.
Are there any social, political or economic influences on the issue that aren’t captured by the DPSEEA framework?

Part 2:

How is the environmental health issue currently being managed? What is the role of existing health agencies and other agencies, key stakeholders including community groups, critical infrastructure and legislative and regulatory measures at the federal and state level?
What suggestions do you propose to address gaps in current policy, regulation and management for this environmental health issue?

Assessment Criteria:

Assignments will be assessed in terms of the extent to which students demonstrate:

Knowledge and understanding of evidence-based approaches to environmental risk assessment and management(25%)
Critical analysis (30% intotal)
- Critical analysis of the driving forces (economic, social, political, institutional, developmental) behind the environmental determinants (10%)
- Critical analysis of the impact of the environmental risk upon the geographic population (10%)
- Critical analysis of the impact of the environmental risk upon equity issues (10%)
Analysis of evidence to recommend changes in current policy, regulation and management (25%)
General Assessment Criteria (20%)
- Provides a lucidintroduction
- Shows a sophisticated understanding of the key issues
- Shows ability to interpret relevant information and literature in relation to chosen topic
- Demonstrates a capacity to explain and apply relevant concepts
- Shows evidence of reading beyond the required readings
- Justifies any conclusions reached with well-formed arguments and not merely assertions
- Provides a conclusion or summary
- Correctly uses academic writing, presentation and grammar:
  - Complies with academic standards of legibility, referencing and bibliographical details (including reference list)
  - Writes clearly, with accurate spelling and grammar as well as proper sentence and paragraph construction
  - Uses appropriate APA style for citing and referencing research

Answer :

ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ASSESSMENT

1. Introduction

The New South Wales are one of the largest cities in Australia, which is rapidly growing day by day. The quality of air is relatively good rather than other major cities in the country. The air pollution from burning fuels keeps a huge negative impact on the climate in Australia (Business, 2018). It causes s approximately 3000 deaths per year in new south ales. The overall climate change affects air pollution and causes global warming (ABC, 2017). The environmental variables including temperate, wind speed and direction of wind has been affected directly by this warming of the climate system (Business, 2018). The development, transport, chemical transformation and the disposition of the pollutants are influenced by these variables (ABC, 2017). Ozone and other particular factors regarding the warming of climate systems play an important role in climate change (IOP, 2018).

2. Key issues

The quality of air regarding the health impacts plays a vital role to increase the variables of climate changing as well as the growth of the population in future aspects. The climate and geography issues keep impacts on several factors in the environment.

Impacts of climate change on the New South Wales environment

The nitrogen, methane and other organic compounds are produced by the photochemical reaction in the ozone layer. This reaction has been occurred between the sunlight’s and the environmental pollutants (Business, 2018). It is the main reason behind the increasing of the global temperature as well as the health risk (PHRP, 2018). The New South Wales is highly polluted region in the Australia where the exposure of ozone increases the risk of mortality within the environment. It depends on different factors including the region and the climate scenario (IOP, 2018). The increase of cloudiness indicates the decreasing of ozone layer in the future aspects (Business, 2018). It helps to reduce the radiation regarding the ultra violate ray to reduce the affect of the ozone layer (EHA, 2019).

Impacts of climate change in specific matter

The different specific and particular matters of various components have been influenced by the meteorically changes (EHA, 2019). The main components of this are sulphate aerosols, nitrate aerosols and the organic carbon, which affected the environment negatively (EDO, 2017). Several air pollutants have changed the balance of the climate, which is the main reason behind the climate changing as well as increasing the health related issues (EDO, 2017).

3. Critical analysis

a. Driving factor analysis

The important driving factors that influenced the climate and geographic health issues in New South Wales are

Hot weather: It keeps a huge impact on the death of people in New South Wales. Maximum number of people in this area is affected with the several diseases including the exhaustion of heat as well as the heat stress (ABC, 2017). Global warming is the main reason behind the hot weather, which creates huge health related problem whereas; some of people even die by the extreme level of heat (IOP, 2018). The heat waves are generally created with this factor, which is the main reason behind the admitted of the people in the hospital (IOP, 2018).

Natural disaster: This factor plays a vital role in change of climates or environment of the New South Wales (ABC, 2017). It is mainly lead with more tropical cyclones and the frequent storms. It is the main reason behind the illness and injuries of the people (ABC, 2017). The several types of mental health are affected by the natural disasters including the post-traumatic stress (IOP, 2018).

Air pollutants: The air pollutants play a major role in increasing the global temperature in the environment (ABC, 2017). These air pollutants are the main reason of several diseases and it reduces the lung capacity of people (PHRP, 2018). The air pollutants and the emission of the ozone layer have occurred the increasing of global warming as well as the green house effect in the environment (Sydney, 2018). The radiation of ultra violate ray coming from the sunlight are easily impact on the human body which causes several type of health issues regarding cancer and many chronically disease (EDO, 2017).

Quality and quantity of food: The high temperature in the environment reduce the quality of foods and the quantity of foods which increase the price rise in all over the country and people can live with lower nutrition (PHRP, 2018). It affects the social and economic communities of the New South Wales (PHRP, 2018).

b. Impact of environmental risk upon the geographic population

The degradation of the environment has a significant impact on the Australian population that has crucially affected the population of NSW. It has been observed through the analysis that damage in the environment has deteriorated the standard of life in NWS population (ABC, 2017). The respiratory issues in people are increasing gradually among the population of NSW due to toxic gases of the environment (WHO, 2019). The population of NWS is blamed for environmental degradation and harmful chemicals have accelerated the probability of asthma and other diseases. Apart from this, it has been identified through the analysis of NWS environment that chances (EDO, 2017) of skin cancer have elevated among the population due to a massive amount of UV rays in the air (Environment & Heritage, 2019). The Ozone layer gap can be blamed as a significant factor behind this quality deterioration of the environment. Nevertheless, the increasing rate of natural disasters can be identified due to environmental issues in NWS (Environment and Heritage, 2019).

Increase in average temparature

Figure 1: Increase in average temparature

(Source: Environment & Heritage, 2019)

It has been identified that the gradual reduction of environment quality can impact the health of the environment in an adverse manner (IOP, 2018). As observed in PHRP (2018), the climate in Australia has increased its temperature by 9^oF within 5 years. Due to this reason, people in NWS are experiencing warmer compared to previous years (Sydney, 2018). Similarly, human well being has been affected in a negative manner due to the drastic enhancement of temperature (Sydney, 2018). People are losing their skin moisture and thereby skin dryness can be considered as a threat to the population in NSW. Likewise, due to the warmer ambiance, glaciers are melting rapidly and thereby chances of the flood have increased within the NSW context (IOP, 2018). The heat waves can be considered as a concerning phenomenon that impacts the health of people in NSW.

c. Impact of environmental risk upon equity issues

The climate in NSW has changed its nature massively within the last few years and thereby temperature has been increased rapidly. It has been projected through the study of the environment in NSW that the elevation of temperature can be resulted in 0.7^oC by 2039 from 2020 (EHA, 2019). The massive change in the environment can damage the equity level in NSW and thereby healthy environment cannot be protected for future generations (EHA, 2019). It has been identified through the analysis of environment issue that communities are impacted significantly due to rapid change in the environment (EHA, 2019). The policies regarding environmental protection are emerging as vague and thereby adequate preservation of the environment has emerged difficult. Due to this reason, it is mandatory to commence cleanliness program among the society members to encourage the healthy development of the NSW environment (Business, 2018). Likewise, resource planning needs to be improved for the further improvement of the NSW environment (Business, 2018).

In order to prevent the gradual destruction of the environment, it is must to restrict the deforestation. It is important to understand the role of stakeholders during the business for the effective development of environment (EDO, 2017). Hence, it is mandatory for the people in NSW to maintain an ethical framework of business for the further improvement of the NSW environment (WHO, 2019). Similarly, unequal distribution among the population can be considered as another main result that may cause due to change in environment (WHO, 2019). Hence, imbalance in resources have created significant threats for the people and increasing rate of poverty can be observed within the NSW context due to this reason (Sydney, 2018). Most importantly, different hazards along with the resource ability can be affected due to the increasing rate of environmental changes (IOP, 2018). Hence, it is necessary to develop an effective framework against the changes for the improvement of the environment.

4. Recommendations

Based on the analysis of the current environmental situation and its driving factors, recommendations can be provided for improvement as follows:

Enhancement of awareness

It is mandatory to increase awareness regarding climate change and its impact on livelihood. Therefore, program needs to be scheduled for knowledge enhancement and thereby desired objectives can be fulfilled.

Application of D-P-S-E-E-A framework

The application of the selected framework can be considered as an important solution in order to support the environment. Insights into the driving forces can be grabbed through the analysis. Similarly, factors that are increasing pressure can be identified and state of the environment can be evaluated. Moreover, exposure, effect and necessary action can be planned through the incorporation of this framework.

Promoting environment sustainability

The promotion for environmental sustainability can be observed as another important solution for the current situation. The promotion can convey among the population about the benefits of environmental sustainability. Similarly, improved legislations can mitigate the gaps in environmental health. Hence, a sustainable framework can be developed through this technique.

5. Conclusion

From the above study, it can be concluded that the main reason of temperature increasing in the environment of New South Wales is the natural green house effect. The green house effect in the environment allows the sunlight to pass through and increase the heat level in the earth surface. The geographical and climate changes play an important role in the environmental pollution. The different types of health issues have been generated by this reason, which directly affects the social and economic conditions of the New South Wales.