Environment Ministry’s vision on health risks

For the first time, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has come out with a vision statement that acknowledges problems related to environmental health. It talks of how to deal with the adverse effects of increasing hazardous and bio-medical wastes, radiation and climatic change on human health.

The statement recommends focused health risk studies, which bring out the cause-effect relationship in clear terms for the benefit of policy makers. On air pollution, the statement suggests environmental health risk assessment studies in different parts of the country to establish the correlation between various diseases and air pollution. It says toxic effluents should not be allowed to be discharged into water bodies and emphasis should be made on zero discharge by way of recycling and reuse.

The vision envisages inventorisation and guidelines for hazardous and bio-medical wastes. It expresses fear that change in climate may pose potential health risks with rise in temperature leading to an increase in vector-borne diseases.

It also suggests setting up of a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences with regional centres while emphasising the need to modify the existing record and registration systems in the hospitals and nursing homes by including occupational and environmental history in treating diseases.