Environmental Health (Essay Sample)

Environmental Studies
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Environmental Health
Substandard housing is a housing type that fails to meet the set living standards for the people. The governments set the living standards, and they focus on the safety of residential places for the people. The substandard houses in the Appalachian region has characteristics such as poor supply of safe drinking water, inadequate waste disposal systems, lack of hot water that is usable in washing, and the houses experience intrusion by disease vectors. These conditions expose the residents of the houses to health issues that results to deaths if not treated in early stages. The potential health risks call for implementation of a public health program that will improve the health of the residents of Appalachian region.
The Appalachian region of the United States of America is a culturally rich stretch that borders New York State to the north and to the south; it borders Northern Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. The region has a unique terrain due to the continuous mountain ranges. The region accommodates people with different origins, but the majority of the residents are the Non-Hispanic whites who make up 83.9% of the total population, Black-Americans are second interns of numbers, as they constitute 8%, and followed by the Hispanics who make up 4% of the total population. A mixture of the races present in the region forms 3%. Most of the residents are descendants of the early settlers who dealt in coal mining and logging activities. The region has male and female inhabitants in about equal numbers, and distributed in various age cohorts with the youth under the age of eighteen years forming 22.6%. The youth between 18-24 years old form 9.7% while adults aged between 25-64 years makes up 52.8%, and the last lot is t he elderly who are above 64 years old who make up 15% of the total population. The total number of residents is about 25 million according to the population census of 2010 and forms 37% of the American population (Pollard, K., & Jacobsen, 2013).
The literacy level in the region is low considering that the there are developments in the education sector in the country. The low-level of literacy relates to the poor education system in the region that faces the shortage of funding from the federal government, this is because of the failure to meet the demands of the government that requires all the children to be in school. Historical lack of appreciation for the formal education by the residents of this region leads to low enrollment of students into various schools. Attempts to improve the education in this region have seen the development of both the mission and settlement schools. Conflict between formal education system and the cultural beliefs also lead to low school enrollment in the region. The region is rich in natural resources including coal, forests, fertile agricultural land and other mineral deposits that earn the residents income. Some of the major economical activities include coal mining, agriculture, manufacturing and tourism. The coal mining industry thrived in the early days due to large deposits of Bituminous coal and significant amounts of anthracite coal deposits, but faced challenges from the great depression, environmental regulations on the low-sulfur fuels as well as enactment of laws that promote environmental friendly mining methods. Competition from oil and natural gas fuels also affects the coal mining industry.
The agricultural in the region is majorly subsistence due to limited farm sizes in the mountain terrains. The crops cultivated include corns and squashes that are the favorites of the residents. Tobacco is also cultivated in the region for commercial purposes, despite the fertile land in the mountain ranges; the agricultural potential is declining due to soil erosion. The region has manufacturing industries on the iron, textile and steelworks, which use the available natural resources. Finally, the region earns income from tourism. The existence of many national parks, nature trails and hiking points as well as the beautiful scenery in the region attract tourists who engage in many recreational and outdoor activities.
Substandard housing in the region has negative impacts on the health of the residents of the region. A number of health problems arise from these conditions, and these include Infectious diseases such as Tuberculosis and other respiratory (Krieger & Higgins, 2002). Poor ventilation in the houses and the dump conditions create medium for bacterial growth that leads to complications in the breathing system, and this leads to respiratory complications and illnesses that spread speedily among people in highly overcrowded housing setups. Similarly, the chronic diseases like asthma arise from damp, cold and moldy conditions in the substandard housing, and these diseases can lead to massive deaths in the conditions that their detection delays.
Apart from infectious and chronic illnesses, substandard housing subjects the occupants to injuries. These buildings have slippery surfa...