Professionalism in Environmental Public Health - Essay Example

PROFESSIONALISM IN ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Environmental health deals with the relationship between human beings andtheir environment. It also shows how human activities make the environment produce toxins, which are harmful to their health. This paper discusses the professionalism in the field of environmental health and the need for further advancing the professionalism as a way of solving the ethical issues that come along with environmental studies aimed at improving environmental health. PROFESSIONALISM IN ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Environmental health is concerned with the features in the natural and artificial environment that can affect the wellbeing of humans. It addresses the chemical, biological, and the physical phenomena, which are related to human beings. The main concern of environmental health is the protection of the natural and physical surroundings to ensure that they have little or no effect on the health of human beings. In the past environmental health has deteriorated leading to adverse effects to human beings. As a result, therefore, there is a need to embrace professionalism in environmental health sector. With a view on environmental health, this paper discusses the professionalism in environmental health and the reason for its necessity. Professionalism in environmental health Professionalism in environmental health involves conducting research on the various hazards and threats to the environmental health that is positively related to human life. In the past, people practiced some environmental degradation activities that led to the pollution of the environment and destruction of the natural phenomenon as a way of creating way for human activities such as settlement and the creation of industries. As a result, the natural environment became thwarted and this led to some effects such as global warming and a fall in the productivity of agricultural land. In addition, aquatic life was adversely affected. These effects have had both direct and indirect relationship with human life (Levy, 2006). With professionalism, scholars have been able to find the effective methods of environmental reclamation while at the same time coming up with the solutions to the effects of environmental degradation on human beings. The main base upon which environmental health stands is the existence of harmony between human beings and their surroundings through the prevention and elimination of stress that may come from either of the two parties (Levy, 2006). Disciplines in environmental health Professionalism in environmental health is divided into various disciplines to ensure that all the environmental health aspects are given the required attention for the safety of the health of human beings. There exists three distinct fields in environmental health professionalism but as time goes by, there are chances of advancement of the disciplines that could lead to the creation of other disciplines (Aguirre & Gomez, 2009). The first discipline is the environmental epidemiology. This discipline studies how the human health is related to exposures in the environment such as the exposure to rays, chemicals, and bacteriological agents. This study mainly embraces observation of the past exposures of people to the environmental hazards (Aguirre & Gomez, 2009). The main reason for the use of observation is because humans are likely to flee away from things that cause health distress to them and such exposures cannot be explained ethically. The second category of environmental health profession is the toxicology, which is concerned how the exposure to environment leads to various health outcomes. This discipline uses animals as the key player and the outcomes are then used to predict the outcomes to human health. This field is advantageous because more varieties of animals can be used in the prediction of the outcomes. However, there are high chances of impracticality of the outcomes because there are variations between animal health and that of human beings. Chances of uncertainties during the interpretation stage are high due to this reason (Aguirre & Gomez, 2009). Exposure science is the third discipline in environmental health and it involves the study of the exposure that people have to environmental hazards through the identification and quantification of the risks posed by the contaminants. This discipline, besides standing on its own, is a supportive discipline to epidemiology because it gives a better description of how various environmental exposures lead to some health outcomes. It also seeks to establish the legibility of the levels of exposure or if they are at the risk of exceeding the recommended levels. This is field of environmental health is important when it comes to the quantification of the exposure to various chemicals but says nothing on health outcomes like the other two fields (Aguirre & Gomez, 2009). Concerns of environmental health Professionalism in environmental health is important because it addresses various issues with relation to human relationships with their environment. The quality of air is a major concern and its main aim is to ensure that there is sufficient air quality. It therefore calls for a need to control air pollution to ensure that there is sufficient air quality. Food security is also one of the concerns, it aims at ensuring the control of water pollution, and soil erosion to ensure that there is adequate aquatic life and sufficient land for agriculture respectively. Radiological health, as a concern of environmental health aims at addressing the exposures to x-rays and the isotopes that come from radioactivities (Doroudiani & Omidian, 2010). Other concerns of environmental health include waste disposals, the control of vectors, the safety of body art, and the effects of climate change. When these issues are addressed in a professional way, their effects would be reduced and this would facilitate human health. In addition, it helps in the prevention of disabilities that come because of environmental reactions to the negative things done to it by human beings (Doroudiani & Omidian, 2010). Ethical issues in Environmental health calling for the need of professionalism Environmental health has faces various ethical issues that cannot be actively addressed without professionalism. One of the issues is in the identification of materials which are considered as environmental toxicants. In this case, there always arises issues surrounding the interpretations of the results. This is because toxicant identification has a moral force coined with it because the mental perception of a toxicant is that it should be avoided at all times. Thus, these possess risks in identifying some environmental aspects as toxins. Giving information to people in a particular locality about toxins in their surrounding must always be in a professional way. Thus, with absence of professionalism, this would be hard and could make people living in that particular area to move out (Sharp, 2009). Ethical issues also arise when it comes to the assessment of the action mechanisms to be put in place. When using animals as specimen for observation, the researchers are required to adhere to some laws protecting the animals. The researchers are also required to be accountable for any social responsibility relating to the animal in use. Without professionalism, it would be difficult to establish the relationship between the threat posed by the environment to the animal and its relationship to human beings (Resnik, 2008). This is because the researchers are usually required to extrapolate the relationships after they are through with their observations. Evaluation of the environmental interventions is also a complexity in the field of environmental health. This is because the researchers must evaluate the effectiveness of a particular strategy in the mitigation of environmental toxins. They are always required to estimate costs, which would help in the elimination of such toxicant or come up with ways of limiting the exposure of human beings to such toxicants. The burden of such responsibilities is often left to the researchers (Resnik, 2008). Thus, professionalism is important in this case because it would help in the outlining the need of putting in place policy makers to come up with solutions to the problems of the findings. The other issue is the identification of the subpopulations that are susceptible to the various toxins within a particular locality. Research shows that there is a varying susceptibility of people to various environmental toxins. The susceptibility levels also vary based on the various stages of development (Sharp, 2009). Based on this, there is a need to put efforts in place that would help in the invention of machines for identifying such genes which are susceptible to environmental toxins and either coming up with medication or moving such people to localities that favor them. Conclusion Professionalism in environmental health is very important because it helps in the effective address of the issues surrounding the field of environmental health. As discussed, environmental health are categorized into three disciplines with each discipline having its own advantages and disadvantages. Professionalism could therefore be important in subdividing the broader branches and creating simple and manageable ones. In addition, there is also a need to redefine federal laws when it comes to analyzing some environmental toxins with animals. This is because such laws limit the use of the animal thereby limiting the study scope. References Aguirre, A. A., & Gómez, A. (2009). Essential veterinary education in conservation medicine and ecosystem health: a global perspective. Revue scientifique et technique (International Office of Epizootics), 28(2), 597-603 Doroudiani, S., & Omidian, H. (2010). Environmental, health and safety concerns of decorative mouldings made of expanded polystyrene in buildings.Building and Environment, 45(3), 647-654. Levy, B. S. (2006). Occupational and environmental health: Recognizing and preventing disease and injury. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Resnik, D. B. (2008). Randomized Controlled Trials in Environmental Health Research: Ethical Issues. Journal of Environmental Health, 70(6), 28-30 Sharp, R. R. (2009). Ethical issues in environmental health research.Environmental health perspectives, 111(14), 1786-1788. Read More