What is Environmental Health?
Environmental Health is the intersection of the impact of health factors on health outcomes. It is when our environment causes and exacerbates health outcomes and lived inequities. Our physical environment, social and economic factors, access to care, and the quality of care influence health outcomes and the quality and length of life individuals and communities experience. The landscape of environmental health varies across the state, with rural and urban communities experiencing differences in the cumulative health impacts from their lived environments on their well-being. The absence or presence of things such as environmental contaminants, access to healthy foods, affordable and safe housing, availability of healthcare providers and services, and income and economic resources that shape our choices about housing, food, and medical care create and impact our lived environments.
Quick Points
- CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) are predominantly concentrated in low-income areas in southeastern North Carolina. The odor produced by CAFOs affects air quality and water quality, which directly impacts respiratory health and contaminates local water supply. The contamination of local water supply is particularly hazardous for communities that use private wells to supply their water. CAFOs also affect the mental and physical health of those who live nearby in the form of depression and anxiety, sleep disorders, and higher stress levels.
- Coal Ash is an environmental toxin often stored by impoundment or landfill, both with harmful impacts on communities’ health. Impoundments are typically located near waterways and become exposed to groundwater, contaminating our rivers and streams. Landfill storage allows for the dust from dry coal ash to be blown into neighboring communities, contaminating their air with a known carcinogen, harming their lungs.
- PFAS are thousands of human-made chemicals used in everyday consumer products. They are labeled as “forever chemicals” because they cannot be boiled or removed, and they break down very slowly in the environment. PFAS can be found in food and food packaging, household items like carpets, some firefighting foams, and drinking water. Some PFAS have been linked to many serious health effects, such as cancer, liver and kidney damage, hormone disruption, and developmental and reproductive harm. This means that PFAS can be found in the blood of newborn babies and passed down through breast milk. Parents who are pregnant or breastfeeding are at greater risk of exposure to PFAS because their water intake is greater than non-pregnant individuals.
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