A Review of Effects of Environmental Change on Human Health

Abstract

Current knowledge production on the effects of environmental exposures on human health reflects technological, social and economic development broadly; theoretical and methodological advancements in social science and medicine more specifically. Human health and the welfare mainly rely on refurbishing and protecting the integrity of the natural systems such as fresh air, safe water, biodiversity, toxic waste management and proper land reform which upkeep life in the natural environment and abating the human impact that has a negative impact on ecologically sustainable development. A massive number of scientific evidence are available in the enlightenment of environmental health issues, however, scanty literatures are found covering economically valued effects of environmental change on communicable and non-communicable diseases. Ergo, this review paper has reviewed selected papers from 1990 to 2018 and tried to identify the research gaps in effect within some components of environmental health economic issues in South Asia and Nepal. More importantly, nationally representative economic evaluation of environmental effects (air pollution, water resource management, toxic pollutants and biodiversity loss) on human infectious and non-infectious diseases are the lack for the policymakers and economic evaluation of effects of climate change on health is the unreached area of researchers in Nepal. Moreover, none of the Nepal based scientific papers are found published regarding the association of climate change with malnutrition, rate of chemical exposure to dare human health and human stress including psychosocial factors Obtaining these unreached literatures are worthy of climate policy development and implementation in developing countries associating with universal health coverage.

Beyond Smoking: Environmental Determinants of Asthma Prevalence in Western Nepal

“…As reported in previous international studies, asthma is also caused by environmental variables and other determinants, however, there have been few studies looking broadly at all possible factors potentially influencing the prevalence of asthma in Nepal or South Asia in general. 22 Therefore, the present study aims to explore the environmental, socioeconomic and household behavioral determinants of asthma prevalence through a communitybased survey in western Nepal.…”

Comprehending the Environmental and Household Determinants of Jaundice Prevalence in Western Nepal

“…Similarly, an empirical study concerning environment-disease relationship claimed that disease prevalence in western Nepal is directly associated with environmental changes . A recent review paper (Paudel, 2018a) based on the literature stated that water communicable disease including Jaundice are directly related with environmental attributes. An increasing trend of Jaundice occurrence is stated by annual report of Ministry of Health and Population (unpublished), in Nepal since 2005, however the Jaundice appearance among the children less than 2 months is almost constant.…”

“…A handful international set of literature are available for the representation of developing countries. From the review of all available national and international literature, none of the papers has established the relationship between the environmental factors and Jaundice occurrence in Nepal (Paudel, 2018a). Therefore, this paper explores possible environmental factors and household characteristics that are mainly responsible to influence the Jaundice occurrence at household level in western Nepal.…”

Effects of Environmental Change on Human Health: A Descriptive Economic Analysis

“…Environmental threats to the health of children in South Asia and the Western Pacific are myriad and include hazards of classic infectious diseases like pneumonia, dengue, malaria, dysentery, measles, AIDS and tuberculosis (Bonjour et al, 2013;Zuckerman, 2012). However, most of the studies innocuously using data from household surveys to analyze the health impacts of environmental conditions are found with four problems: biased estimate, improper sample size, sample selection bias and errors in measuring environmental conditions (Paudel, 2018a).…”

“…If this concealed future daring information relics overlooked at this time, the economic consequences of effects of climate change on disease will be gargantuan due to its downbeat externalities. With the inclusion of economic cost and benefit, a descriptive analysis of effects of environmental change on the diseases, a concern of not addressed by any literature till the date in Nepal (Paudel, 2018a), is found timely and apposite research at this moment as a tool for motivating towards health consequences and environmental protection through an economic perspective. This paper mainly aims to investigate descriptively the impact of environmental change on the household economy of Nepal.…”