Historical Decisions & their affects on environment health
- Fact sheet -

How do we make decisions that result in healthy environments?

Some people look at modern disasters and suggest technology is the problem. If that is true, what should we get rid of or limit? What modern conveniences: medicine, food production, shelter with climate control, education, entertainment, transportation, or other?

If we think it might be a good idea to turn back the clock on technology, or accept a previous era of technology we might consider what happened on Easter Island.

Easter Island had no human inhabitants until around 1000 years ago when people beached their boats on the 66 square mile island that had palm trees and grasslands. People were able to fish and farm and their numbers increased into the thousands. However, in 1722 when Europeans arrived there were less than a thousand. What caused the human population to decline along with the extinction of several species of birds and sea mammals? The decline is a mystery. Was it years of drought, slash and burn farming, increased population demands, rats, or combinations of these or other factors? Read the article - What Happened On Easter Island — A New (Even Scarier) Scenario. by Robert Krulwich; NPR; December 10, 2013, for more information about this mystery.

It seems a limited use of technology can cause unhealthy environments just as a lot of technology use can cause disastrous situations.

So can we learn to use technology in a way that supports a health environment?

To investigate this question, consider innovations and decisions and their impact on environmental health.

Some significant innovations. Fire, domestication of animals, agriculture, wheel, money, metal/nail/steel, printing press, lens, compass, gun powder, vaccination, steam engine, light bulb, telegraph, combustion engine, electricity, antibiotics, airplane, rocket, nuclear fission, birth control, computer, Internet.

Some decisions related to innovation.

• Lens, telescope, ... Decision to investigate space. Understood the Earth as round with the Sun at the center of the Solar System. Helped understand the causes of seasons to make better weather and astronomical predictions.
• Lens, sanitation, microscopic, vaccination, ... Decision to develop procedures for better sanitation, develop food preservation processes (pasteurization, canning), use a germ theory for medicine, develop and test vaccines and antibiotics.
• Steam engine. Decision to use steam engines in place of people and animals for work. Luddites (English workers) who destroyed textile machines and steam engines because they believed the machines and engines threatened their jobs. Proclaiming cloth should be made in a more natural way with human hand labor.
• Electricity, steam engine, fire, generator, coal, oil, nuclear fission, Decision to build power plants to generate and deliver electrical power.
• Decision to shun modern technology such as electricity, telephones ... and live without modern technology. Amish and other groups
• Decision to remove human involvement in certain environments. Theodore Roosevelt created the National Park system.
• Nuclear fission. Decision to develop nuclear weapons to use in war F.D. Roosevelt. Harry Truman okayed the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• Chemistry, Decision to use of DDT killed insects and didn't seem to harm humans and other animals in the short term, however, its storage in organisms adds up and harms organisms up a food chain. First time ideas of long term effects becomes understood and accepted by many people.
• Decision to continue as usual and assume there is one cause for bee decline. Bees
• Decision to continue to develop and use robotic devices with little consideration of ...
  • Driver less cars. Advantages & disadvantages
  • Drones for farming - sowing seeds; spreading fertilizers; spraying hericides, pesticides, and fungicides; counting livestock; monitoring and mapping fields; assessing crop health and yields.
• Decision to continue to develop and use artificial intelligence with little consideration of ... and advantages & disadvantages ...

To determine positive and negative effects on environmental health is not always possible. However, we can and must consider possible effects and consequences based on evidence and reasoning to try to make and implement good decisions. At times this may be frustrating as evidence can be limited and even when it isn't, collecting it requires time and effort.

Civilization Failures and Environmental disasters
- Fact sheet -

Now and through history humans seek and build healthy environments to provide necessary resources to survive and thrive. At times it has been a struggle for individuals and groups of families, tribes, communities, cities, states, nations, leagues of nations, trade organizations, global treaties, and many other organizations in different combinations to insure their survival, good health, and better living.

While humans have survived and thrived (as determined by the 7+ billion humans on Earth) there have been setbacks: wars, natural disasters, crop failures, exterminations, extinctions, desertification, environmental disasters, and other catastrophes. We need to recognize peoples' demands sometimes exceed what the environment is capable of producing to sustain people in those environments. This can result in the fall of a civilization or the necessity to migrate from an unhealthy environment, for those able to leave, and seek resources elsewhere.

Some civilizations we know failed:

• Akkadian Empire,
• Hittite Empire,
• Minoan settlements on Crete 2700-1450 B.C.E. Weakened by earthquake and maybe conquered by outside forces Source
• A massive settlement that is today submerged beneath the Aegean Sea. Structures found date to around 2600-2500 B.C.E. Rising sea levels or earthquake. Source
• Egypt, pyramids of Giza built between 2600-2500 B.C.E.
• Mycenaean Greece, 2700-1200 B.C.E.
• Assyrian Empire in the Indus Valley,
• Angkor/Khmer Empire in Cambodia,
• Han and Tang Dynasty of China,
• Western Roman Empire,
• Maya,
• Olmec,
• Mount Vesuvius volcano eruption 79 AD destroyed Pompeii and many of its inhabitants. Source
• Extinct animals: White Rhinoceros, Passenger Pigeon, Aurochs, Elephant Bird, Great Auk, Imperial Woodpecker, Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Heath Hen, Labrodor duck, Dusky Seaside Sparrow, Dodo, Carolina Parakeet, Cuban Macaw, Quagga, Pyrenean ibux, Mastodon, Woolly mammoth, Mammoth, European bison, Saber-tooth tiger, Neanderthal, Tasmanian devil,

Modern environmental disasters

• 1755, An earth quake and tsunami almost completely destroyed Lisbon and adjoining areas. Thirty to forty thousand are killed in the city and another ten thousand in surrounding areas. Damage is reported through out the Iberian Peninsula, and Northwest Africa. Search images and other sources
  Two examples:
  • Wikipedia
  • Portugal.com
• 1889, Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood. Caused by a weakened dam. It was the largest man made disaster, killing more than 2,200 people, in the United States before the September 11th attacks. Source
• 1902 Mt. Pelee on the Caribbean island of Martinique erupted and killed around 30,000 islanders within minutes, leaving two survivors. A citizen group met a few days before the eruption and decided the smoke and ash did not require an evacuation.
• Great fire of 1910 Idaho (The Big Burn) Source
• 1919, 1930, 1999, Vermiculite mines in Libby, Montana released asbestos dust that caused respiratory problems for the residents and continued until today. Source
• 1917 - present. War and conflicts effects on the environment and human health. World Wars I, World War II, Africa, World Trade Centers, Afghanistan, Asia, Cambodia, Iraq, Kuwait, Israel Lebanon, Russia Chechnya, Vietnam. Source
• Pittsburgh 1940's air quality.
• 1930 in Meuse Valley fog kills 60 people in Belgium due to a combination of industrial air pollution and climatic conditions.
• 1948, in Donora, (on the Monongahela River, southeast of Pittsburgh) Pennsylvania a smog inversion killed 20 people and sickened thousands more. Source
• 1952, smog in London for 5 days allowed airborne pollutant to form a thick layer of smog over the city. Research showed 12,000 premature deaths were attributed to this smog. Source
• 1954, Castle Bravo thermonuclear hydrogen bomb test on Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands. The most significant accidental radiological contamination ever caused by the United States. Source
• 1956, Chisso Corporation’s industrial wastewater with methylmercury was discharged into Minamata Bay and the Shiranui Sea resulting in 2,265 fatalities and other health problems. Source
• 1964 a riot during a soccer match between Chile and Argentina ends with 300 killed.
• 1967⁺, Agent Orange and deforestation of jungles and cropland in Vietnam. Source
• 1966, a USAF B-52G bomber crashed and exploded. The explosion caused plutonium contamination of Palomares, Spain. Traces of the blasts are still evident. Source
• 1969 The last time the Cuyahoga River was on fire is June 22, 1969, though not the biggest. It is so polluted, Time Magazine said “it oozes rather than flows" and the few fish living in it are dangerous to eat. Source
• 1971, in Derweze, Turkmenistan, a drilling rig created a sink hole that was 70 meters in diameter and released methane gas, which geologists decided to burn to reduce the risk of methane on the environment. The gas is still burning today. Source
• 1976, a chemical plant explosion in Seveso, Italy released Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) killing and sickening animals and caused skin lesions on residents. Source
• 1978, Amoco Cadiz ship broke apart and sank releasing its cargo of crude oil and fuel oil off the coast of Brittany, France. Source
• Love Canal. Canal, waste site, school and single family home site, super site, (1892, 1955, 1978, ... ) Source
• 1979, Three mile island accident partial nuclear meltdown of a nuclear reactors in Pennsylvania. Source
• 1984, the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant’s in Bhopal, India leaked poisonous gases (ethyl isocyanate gas and others) killing 2,259 and causing other health problems. Source
• 1986 Chernobyl, Russia is the worst nuclear power plant incident in history. Causing cancer, deformities, and other long term illnesses on human and animal inhabitants. Source
• 1989, Exxon Valdez oil spill, Alaska. Source
• 1989, Phillips 66 chemical complex series of explosions and fire in Pasadena, Texas where 23 employees were killed and 314 were injured. Source
• 1991, Kuwaiti oil fires during the Persian Gulf war. Source
• 2001, AFZ chemical fertilizer factory explosion in Toulouse, France killing 29 and injuring thousands of others. Source
• 2003, a sulfur plant fire in Mosul, Iraq, burned for about 3 weeks and released approximately 42 million pounds of sulfur dioxide (SO2) per day and hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Source
• 2004 Banda Aceh earthquake and tsunami in Sumatra, a magnitude-9.1, killed more than 230,000 people. Source
• 2008, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston Fossil Plant where a retaining wall failed, releasing approximately 5.4 million cubic feet of coal ash into rivers and onto ground surfaces. A mud flow that damaged properties downhill and contained arsenic, selenium, and mercury. Source
• 2010, Deep Water Horizon explosion, oil rig collapse, and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Source
• 2011, Japan Earthquake & Tsunami. Killing about 15,891 most by drowning. Tsunami waves reached up to 128 feet high above sea level at Miyako city and traveled 6 miles inland at Sendai. It flooded about 217 square miles in Japan. Waves over topped and destroyed protective tsunami seawalls, three-story buildings, generated a huge offshore whirlpool, and severely damaged the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant exposing about 65,000 people living near the plant. Source
• 2011 A four day super outbreak of 376 tornadoes in southeastern U.S. that left 321 people dead. With 226 on April 27. The worst were three EF-5s an 33 EF-4’s & EF-3’s.
• 2014, The largest environmental mining disaster in Canadian history. A dam holding coal and copper tailings fails for the Mount Polley mine in central British Columbia, Canadian. Releasing 30 million cubic yards of waste slurry into Quesnel Lake. 
• 2015, In Bento Rodrigues, Brazil a dam where millions of tons of toxic mine waste (tailings) were stored collapsed. Source
• 2015, Gold King Mine waste water spill near Silverton, Colorado. Source
• 2014 - 2016 Ebola outbreak March 2014- January 2016. 11,315 died with 28,637 cases reported. Source
• 2018 February the first cases of measles in 40 years are reported among the Yanomami of the Upper Orinoco river area in Venezuela. In 4 months 126 people contract measles and 53 die. Yanomami are vulnerable to measles, malaria, malnutrition, and mercury pollution as a result of their isolation from modern populations.

• 2018, The Camp Fire in Northern California's Butte County. Ignites by a faulty electric transmission line. The fire causes over 150,000 acres to burn, forcing at least 52,000 people to evacuate. It also destroys over 18,000 structures including 9,000 homes. Tragically, 85 people lost their lives in the fire, making it the deadliest wildfire in U.S. history in the past 100 years.
  Related information - Answers in the Ashes by John Rita Discover Nov/Dec 2023 p 30-39. Excellent article about how wildfire investigators do their job. The text includes a first person summary and conclusion on the investigation of the Camp Fire and Paradise Fire.
• The Pacific Gyre Garbage Patch in the central North Pacific Ocean. Source
  • CBS video (26:53) Cleaning Up the Plastic in the Ocean (Boyan Slat's plan) first 15:00 minutes; Midway Islands, Albatross, and plastic last 11:53 minutes.
• Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Caused by the high concentration of chemicals, like nitrogen and phosphorus, which are two of the many chemical run offs from central continental America. Source
• Guiyu, China was the first and probably the largest electronic waste (e-waste) site on earth. 88% of the children in the area suffer from lead poisoning and other diseases. The area is refereed to as the electronic graveyard. In 2015 it was shut down and e-waste was redirected to new sites. Source
• The Aral Sea once a part of the fourth largest inland body of water is now mostly a plain of highly saline soil. Source
• Natures Yosemite National Park video ...

Environmental health variables and human impacts

The condition of environmental health is complicated. Earth is a global natural environment with many local environments of all sizes and boundaries that overlap other local environments. Additionally humans have built environments of different sizes which can be isolated from natural environments and contained within natural environments.

This makes environmental health, which is complicated to start with, even more difficult to understand. Even with a lot of study one can never be sure of a complete understanding. However, environmental health depends on decisions people make. Individual and collective actions between, and among people and the environment. Decisions on materials, ideas, strategies, policies, and technologies used to survive and create our ideas (philosophies) of a good life determines our environmental health.

To believe an action will have no major affect or not to consider one, could be devastating. Therefore, people need to consider many variables when making decisions. Any change to one variable may have a small effect or one large enough to cause the extinction of one or more organisms. Therefore, deciding variables to consider is essential and must be extensive so as not to omit one that may be important. Even then different people will interpret and apply them differently.

The following list of variables is created for the purpose of making better decisions for healthy environments.

Air, Water, Earth - Food production, transportation, shelter (temperature and habitat), Energy, Human health, and Social: education, economics, government policies, laws (Environmental laws), and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), entertainment.

While the information is classified into categories we should remember all of the categories overlap, interact, and affect each other.

1. Air quality variables and affects

• Outdoor environment and health
  • Balanced atmosphere. oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen ...
  • Toxic chemicals such as methane, sulfur, carbon monoxide, smoke, second hand tobacco smoke, ozone depreciation, cadmium, arsenic, mercury,
  • UV exposure, other radiation see also energy
  • Greenhouse effect. Water, CO2, methane
  • Particulate matter inhaled by people. Smaller particles are the greatest threat to health because they travel deep within the lungs.
    • Carbon (soot) emitted by combustion sources;
    • Tiny liquid or solid particles in aerosols;
    • Fungal spores;
    • Dust
    • Wildfires - emit Carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ash and particulate matter, PFAS, and soil particles that are changed by the heat into more mobile particles that are transported with smoke plumes over long distances and deposited down wind in neighborhoods, watersheds, waterways, and other land areas. Elements such as mercury, chromium, PAHs, other heavy metals, and toxic chemical are among the ash. In addition to unhealthy air they pollute the soil and water and make their way into plants and animas through the food webs of the ecosystem. Wildfires mobilize soil pollutants. Science. December 18, 2025
    • Pollen; and
    • A toxin present in bacteria (endotoxin).
  • Violent storms. Tornado, hurricane, thunder storms,wind, hail, ice
  • Altered precipitation, increased desert area, land degradation, lack of clean potable water, increased violent storms see also water and earth
• Suggestions for consideration to maintain a healthy environment
  • Plants: trees, grasses, bushes, ocean plants, one celled plants
  • Particulate matter from burning, stoves, fireplaces, factories, ...
  • Wind erosion dust - When dust travels long distances, its particles change in size, shape, and chemically. This travel reduces their sizes and accumulates pollutants through chemical reactions that add harmful pollutants to the particles, all making them more toxic. This poses a danger to living organisms downwind and disrupts ecosystems.
  • CO2 (carbon dioxide) from plants photosynthesis, burning fuel
  • SO2 (sulfur dioxide)
  • Smoking bans and restrictions.
  • Prevention of exposure to exhausts from motor vehicles and other engines
  • Test new material and consumer products and labels on materials and consumer products.
  • Reduce toxic pollutants release into the environment:
  • Walk, bike, mass transit, car pool, electronic communication
  • Bicycle lanes
  • Turn off lights and electrical appliances when not in use
  • Reduce toxic and other detrimental emissions into the air: fuel efficient cars, pollution free cars
  • Storm protection from wind and rain, storm shelters
• Indoor environment and health
  • Asphyxiation, cold, flu, respiratory infection, lung disease, lead, asthma, tuberculosis, lung cancers, carbon monoxide, pets, low birth weight, premature birth, birth trauma, heart disease,
  • Room air quality; building materials, ventilation, household products like furniture and electrical appliances, clean products and other household products, candles, scented products, smoke, second hand smoke, energy saving measures to reduce air flow from external source, radon, dampness, mold, other biological agents has been linked to asthma and allergic symptoms, lung cancer, and other respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
  • Reduce inside allergens: mold, pollen, animals, dust mites, dog, cat, cockroach, mouse,
  • Household air pollution and health. Source
    In a properly maintained home, most of the airborne particulate matter comes from the outside. However, some homes do have significant sources of indoor particulate matter which come from:
    • Cigarette smoke;
    • Cooking: especially frying and sautéing;
    • Combustion appliances: furnaces without a proper air filter;
    • Non-vented combustion appliances like gas stoves;
    • Wood-burning appliances wood stoves and fireplaces
    • Mold growth
    • Radon
• Suggestions for consideration to maintain a healthy environment
  • Building ventilation to control exposure to particulate matter, allergens, ozone, radon, cooking, .
  • Prevention of moisture accumulation, mold growth,
  • Prevention of exposure to exhausts from indoor combustion (furnaces ... )
  • Test new material and consumer products and labels on materials and consumer products.
  • Designs for noise reduction

2. Water

• Potable (safe to drink) water system
  • Contaminates. pathogens, lead, ...
    
• Clean water can be maintained by limiting pollution of surface water, ground water, rivers, streams, lakes, oceans ... such as DOM (dissolved organic matter) which include aerosoles and precipitation, urban runoff, agricultual runoff, microorganisms, industrial chemicals, wetland, forests, wildfires affect me and different ecosystems.
  • Sanitation. Sewage system: organic waste from factories, animals, humans, ...
  • Chemicals in sewage, runoff, ... Chemicals: lead, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, pesticides, herbicides, hormones, antibiotics, psychoactive drugs, contaminants in personal care products & pharmaceuticals disposed in drains and in human waste.
    • Clean water for humans & animals, which can accumulate contaminants
    • Plants can also accumulate contaminants and pass on to animals in fruits and vegetables
  • Groundwater management considerations:
    • Enforcement of protective measurements for:
    • Developing and implementing plans
    • Upgrading monitoring systems
    • Enforcing construction regulations and pollution standards related to water use and runoff
    • Restricting or requiring recharging efforts
    • Land management and use plans related to water use and runoff
    • Groundwater extraction- limiting, measuring, protecting to maintain a sustainable use of surface and groundwater resource.
    • Altering ground and land water use to maintain a sustainable use of surface and groundwater resource.
    • Importing water so as not to increase flooding risks. Along with other flood management with flood walls, levees, stormwater management
    • Green roofs, drainage systems
    • Restoring floodplains
    • Restoring and maintaining natural channels
  • Prevent contamination of watersheds and water ways for recreational and other purposes.
  • Clean recreational water for swimming, boating, surfing, ...
  • Irrigation
  • Hygiene
  • Radiation
  • Erosion run off from wind, water, and
  • Conserve water use.
  • Altered precipitation, increase desert area, land degradation, lack of clean potable water, increased violent storms see also air and earth
  • Flood, drought
  • River system considerations
    • Importance of the river for connectivity.
    • Rate and volume of water flow
    • Fish and animal migration
    • Transportation
    • Environmental concern for environmental pollution
    • Energy flow as sources of food for animals and sunlight for plants
    • Amount of oxygen in the water
    • Change in water temperature
    • Sediment flow
    • Production of hydroelectricity
    • Production of green house gases
    • Fish diversity and health
    • Health of plants and animals
    • Cost of any change
    • Degree of regulation for environmental protection
  • Wildfire - a growing threat to water quality - source
    • Wildfire roars through rivers, aquifers, drinking water networks, and wastewater systems, producing cascading failures and structural changes in water availability and quality. Human exposure to the effects of wildfire has increased, despite declining global burned area. Vulnerability to contaminated water from rain washing toxic substances from burned areas accelerated by vegetation loss that increases runoff. Sediment, nutrients, and dissolved organic matter flow into rivers and overwhelm treatment plants and contaminate groundwater in aquifers. Canopy loss and soot-darkened snow accelerate melt, moving runoff earlier and intensifying summer water shortages.
    • Wildfire also changes the soil microbial communities, especially fungi, and are replaced by heat-tolerant decomposers that accelerate nutrient release. Burnt organic matter is easily washed along with black carbon and persists in rivers, increases oxygen demand, and suppresses microbial processing, weakening natural self-purification.
    • Infrastructure can contaminate clean while drinking water where plastic pipes melted and depressurized networks drew in smoke, causing extreme benzene contamination.
    • Wastewater systems fail as fires and blackouts disable treatment plants, and postfire storms overwhelm sewers with ash and metals, exporting poorly treated effluent downstream.
    • These failures are most severe on small utilities, private well users, and rural and Indigenous communities, which makes wildfire a driver of water inequality.
    • Wildfire problems don't stop after fighting the flames.
• A good general source for - A Path to Clean Water Science July 20, 2018. p 222-224
• Suggestions for consideration to maintain a healthy environment
  • Develop and monitor water systems to provide safe drinking water.
  • Conserve water use.
  • Maintain fresh water availability
  • Keep water free of fecal oral pathogens,
  • Consider water safety. Ways to prevent drowning, flood, drought, poisoning, oil spills, toxic chemicals: oil, lead mental retardation, mercury, cancers,
  • Use pesticides and herbicides in a safe responsible and limited manner
  • Have a plan for storage and disposal of hazardous materials at home, school, community spill, business, factories.
  • Use only environmentally friendly office cleaning and pest control chemicals.
  • Require chemicals be tested before use: Our reliance of the use of chemicals drives a continuous want to create, produce, and use more chemicals well before we can assess their hazards and risks to human health and the environment.
  • Malaria: Reduce standing water, drainage, manage water ways ...
  • Keystone pipeline:
    • U.S. Senators pass a symbolic amendment 52-48 to back construction of the pipeline.
    • On his first day in office, President Biden signs an executive order revoking the permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
    • Judge halts work on Keystone XL pipeline, orders environmental review to be redone
      Omaha World Herald article by Nancy Gaarder
    • Controversial Keystone XL pipeline route across Nebraska is approved, but hurdles likely remain Omaha World Herald article by Paul Hammel

Suggestions for consideration to maintain a healthy environment

• Manage production to avoid shortages and starvation
• Four steps toward sustainable water resources:
  1. Measurement - valid information on amounts of water in watersheds and water use must be availablel to make good decisions on use and conservation.
  2. Valuation - with multiple users a way to assess the value of different ways water is used (drinking, environmental, economic, business) and their benefits must be determined to make quality decisions.
  3. Decision making - procedures to resolve what values and needs to consider for making decisions must be determined.
  4. Governance - policies and management must be determined that are adaptable and able to motivate enough acceptance to be implemented. If not methods to resolve conflicts and enforce just decisions must be available. Science November 24, 2017

3. Earth Land use, food production, soil management, erosion, conservation, habitat, housing, transportation, business, cities, ...

• Volcanoes, earthquakes,
• Agriculture, protein production,
  • Animal hunting, fishing, herding, grazing, farming, beef, chicken, turkey, fish, buffalo ... Livestock outweigh wild mammals 22:1. Domestic fowl mass is greater than all other birds.
  • Plants: wheat, rice, oats, corn, vegetables, fruit. There was twice as much plant biomass since humans began farming. History & technology timeline
  • Irrigation
  • Climate, storms, floods, drought, wildfire,
  • Invasive species
• Transportation: roads, rail, bus, cycling, cars, trucks, air travel, drones,
  
• Space for living, exercise, recreation, temperature in buildings 68 in winter 78 summer, insulation, cement cooling paint (CCP)
• Housing, business, factories,
• Soil quality. fertility, salt,
• Mineral use - mining, sand (see The unsustainable harvest of coastal sands. Science December 8, 2023. Includes a good overview on the use of sand and sustainable managment.) Natural resource trusts could work to establish safe, efficient, equitable use and reuse of minerals. Source
• Animal care.
  • Farm animals: swine flu, avian or bird flu,
  • Fishing, over fishing, invasive species, pollution, dams,
  • Household pets: rabies, heart-worm, fleas, ticks
  • Nature: ticks: Lyme disease, Babesiosis caused by Babesia microti from black legged tick, Rocky Mountain Spotted fever, Anaplasmosis, Colorado tick fever, Powassan encephalitis, Tularemia, Ehrlichiosis, Relapsing fever
• Biodiversity, Loss of biodiversity
• GMOs
• GMO pollen spread by wind, water, animals.
• Bacteria, virus, molds, allergens, pathogens, mosquitoes, ticks,
• Animal waste, plant materials,
• Environments that favor disease,
• Chemicals use. Fertilizer (nitrogen increase algae, fish kill), methane
• Travel related to spread of disease, invasive plants and animals into new territories.
• Bio-warfare and bio-terror.
  

Suggestions for consideration to maintain a healthy environment

• Reduce solid wastes - example - reduce the use of single use cutlery (SUC) … require consumers to request cutlery for home delivery
• Conserve, Reuse, recycle
• Recycle batteries
• Use biodegradable products
• Use sustainable resources
• Radon mitigation
• Plan for habitat, natural and constructed, structures, infrastructures, and surveillance (homes and communities), buildings, housing, work, business, recreational
• Plan for land use - see the Great Green Wall
• Ensure recycling bins are available and use recycled paper
• Switching all standard paper from virgin to recycle.
• Avoid the use of building materials from unsustainable sources, giving preference to timber and wood products from responsibly managed forests.
• Where offices are renovated, prioritize, green options (movement-sensitive lights, low-flush toilets, heating etc) where possible. Maximize energy efficiency, using the best and most cost-effective techniques,. Explore renewable energy sources.
• Review the office's carbon footprint by evaluating on a regular basis the cost of paper-usage, electricity, water etc in the office.
• Maintain a consistent pharmaceutical disposal strategy
• Barbecue safety
• Backyard safety
• Manage shortages, excessive consumption, waste through conservation, reuse, and recycling
• Protection of the natural and constructed environments development and exposure to hazardous chemicals and radioactive materials by reducing or eliminating contamination, removal of wastes both biodegradable and non biodegradable
• Incineration of solids, burning with filtration and scrubbers
• Physical hazards,
• Natural disasters
• Technological disasters

4. Energy production

• Electricity: coal, solar, wind, nuclear ...
• Heat: natural gas, geothermal, wood, coal, electricity
• Technology
• Nanotechnology to improve electronics, manufacturing, clean energy, disease prevention, detection, treatment; and environmental assessment.

Suggestions for consideration to maintain a healthy environment

• Climate change
• Conserve electricity. Turn off lights, use low wattage bulbs, LED, wash in cold or warm water, temperature in buildings 68 in winter 78 summer, insulate
• Healthy energy exchange to maintain a balanced ecosystem (plants, animals, decomposers)
• Noise and electromagnetic fields
• UV rays, ionizing radiation, other radiation
• Energy use
• Electric power plants: use of nonrenewable resources, heat exchange, water use and waste, solid waste, gases production (CO2, Sulfur, Mercury, ...)
• Nuclear power plants: radioactive materials, heat,
• Sound: hearing loss, insomnia,
• Skin cancer, sunburn
• Lead and other chemicals in gasoline vapor and exhaust
• Particulate matter from gasoline and diesel engine exhaust

Suggestions for consideration to maintain a healthy environment

5. Human health

• Diet and nutritional needs.
• Reduce traffic accidents: Traffic calming strategies light, road maintenance, one-way streets, speed limits, road narrowing, barriers, pedestrian crossing, bike lanes, traffic signs, traffic laws, cell phone use,
• Reduce accidents in the home: Hand rails low grade slopes, lighting, window guards, friction surfaces,
• Reduce infant and child mortality.
• Make sure schools are located away from major highways.
• Eliminate extreme poverty and hunger, primary education, gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat malaria and other diseases, environmental sustainability, shared global responsibility.
• Environmental conditions
  • Temperature change - increase negatively affects the health of humans by increases in production of plants, insects, pollen, ticks, infectious disease, malaria, mold, mosquitoes, lice, changes in patterns of infectious disease, increase in sea level, reduction of air quality, increase in the severity of natural disasters like floods, droughts, and severe storms associated with climate change.
  • Changes in habitat - Land use, green corridors to allow for migration, changes in populations can be both positive and negative. Extinction of organisims reduces biodiversity. And deliberate extinction by gene modification - mosquitoes, or the new world screwworm, which has been eradificated in North America. Should it be in other areas? Use of Sterile insect technology.
  • Chemical use. Pesticides disrupt ecosystems, drive pest resurgence or resistance, jepordize food security, encourage pesticide tolerant species, remove pest resources, pheromones, sticky traps, genetic alteration, cropping, organic, parasitic wasps, more pest eating species (fish, ducks, bats, frogs, robotics to tiely target interventions, patch spray, weeders,
  • Waste management - textiles, landfills, release micro and nanoplastics and PFAS polyfluoroalkyl-substances.
• Reduce inside allergens: mold, pollen, animals, dust mites, dog, cat, cockroach, mouse,
• Accidents, road traffic, highway, train, air crashes. falling: slippery surface, , drowning, work related accidents, asbestos, radon gas, fire, earthquake, head trauma, Radiation from nuclear medicine, consumer products, military and industrial applications and nuclear waste management
• Birth defects, spina bifida or Down’s syndrome
• Cancers, Parkinson disease
• Stress
• Long working hours, lack of exercise, muscular skeletal and joint disease,
  
• Depression
  
• Heart disease
  
• Fire and smoke, candles, smoke alarms
• Electrocution, electric shock, electrical fires
• Cooking stoves that use kerosene and solid fuel (wood, other plant materials, and animal waste) cause 4 million people to die each year from inhaling smoke from these stoves. Ethanol burning stoves are healthier than these. Source
  

Suggestions for consideration to maintain a healthy environment

• Negative impacts pathogens, nematodes, diarrhea (transmitted through water, poor sanitation and hygiene, or food resulting in more than 1.5 million deaths a year, mainly children), intestinal flu, malnutrition, hunger, malnutrition, malaria, lyme disease, feedlot run off, hook worm, trichuriasis, lymphatic filariasis caused by worms in the lymphatic system whose larvae are transmitted mosquitoes, dengue, encephalitis, HIV/AIDS, STD’s, hepatitis B & C, tuberculosis, low birth weight, cancers, animal attacks: venom, bites, scratches, ... ; fish and shell fish consumption
• Sanitation: washing hands, food safety
• Negative impacts
  
• Guns
  
• Suicide, ingest chemicals, drown, hang, shoot,
  
• Crime

6. Social: Education, Government policies, laws (Environmental laws), and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), Economic, Entertainment

• Education
• Media
• Corporations
• Laws (Environmental laws)
• EPA policies, rules, budget