How Big is the Problem?

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that environmental contamination plays a significant role in at least 25% of major diseases worldwide.  This means that, on the average, 1 of 4 cancers, 1 of 4 chronic diseases ... are induced by the toxins that now permeate our “globalized” environment.  The WHO estimates that as many as 13 million deaths can be avoided every year by making changes to our everyday environments.  In fact, environmental factors play a part in 85 of the total 102 categories of global diseases. 

A Closer Look at the Fabulous Four

Food:  Food can be contaminated by three main categories of toxins:  (a) biological;  (b) chemical additives; and (c) chemical residues.  Biological toxins are by far the most common and immediate of threats to food safety and human health.  In the United States, 30% of the population is impacted by food borne diseases caused by micro-organism (biological contamination);  these diseases result in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths.  Developing countries suffer even more severely from compromises in food safety.  Chemical contamination has broad reaching consequences on human health but with far longer reaction times than biological contamination.  Chemical residues can come from pesticides used to (intentionally) grow particular fruits or vegetables or from persistent pollutants that come from industrial processes and enter the food chain unintentionally; although many of these pollutants (POPs) have been banned for decades, they continue to appear in the global food chain, accumulate (worsen) with age, and contribute to a wide range of chronic diseases.  Chemical additives are typically found in processed foods and are intentionally added during the manufacturing process to achieve desired  consistency, shelf life, or other product attribute. 

Air: Outdoor air in urban environments causes 799,000 unnecessary deaths every year while indoor air pollution adds another 1.6 million premature deaths to the spectre of poor air quality.   To put these numbers in perspective, premature deaths caused by the combination of unsafe outdoor and indoor air causes half as many deaths as tobacco smoke and twice as many deaths as unsafe sex.  Air pollutants are concentrated indoors, predominantly by solid fuel burning in developing countries (coal and wood) and by increased energy efficiency (which concentrates air pollutants) in homes and other structures found in developed countries.   The burden of poor urban air quality is borne primarily by fast developing countries in Asia, but the threat to health from compromised air quality affects most individuals living in civilized society from indoor stove burning in poorer countries to an incompletely regulated stew of emissions, vehicles, and building materials from consumer products in developed countries. 

Water:  Microbial organisms from human and animal feces continue to be the top contributors to compromised drinking water quality.  Poor water quality from fecal contamination results in an incredibly broad range of health impacts from premature deaths of children (1.4 million from diarrhea alone every year) to rampant infection (2 billion yearly infections from intestinal nematodes introduced by fecal contaminated waters).  Understandably, in response to microbial hazards, the WHO views the health consequences of microbial contaminants to “be of paramount importance” such that the control of these organisms “must never be compromised.”  In addition to microbial contaminants, limited numbers of chemicals (such as arsenic) impact drinking water on a large scale while some chemicals (such as lead, uranium, and selenium) can play a more isolated but nevertheless significant role in localized situations.  In total, when considering biological (microbial) and chemical compromises to drinking water quality, approximately 10% of the total burden of global disease could be prevented by improving the means by which people obtain and consumer their drinking water. 

Soil: Humans are exposed to soil by the foods they eat, the water they drink, the air they breathe, the soil they touch and by direct consumption (eating dirt).  Volatile contaminants in soil, such as those emitted by solvents and petroleum hydrocarbons, enter into the air and then into the lungs directly and through lodging themselves onto inhaled particles.  Children are especially vulnerable to soil contamination, as they ingest significant amounts of soil (200 mg) in daily play.   Soil is most often contaminated by pesticides (in agricultural areas and gardens), solvents & petroleum hydrocarbons (near landfills, industrial activity or waste disposal, underground storage tanks) and heavy metals (in many urban areas).  In urban areas, lead is a priority concern while in rural areas, pesticides pose a primary health risk. 

With a plethora of environmental toxins intruding upon the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink, it is difficult to sort through all the information flowing into our consciousness with any degree of effectiveness.  A major part of the mission of Coming Alongside is to sort through this information for you, so that, given 101 things that you could be doing to protect you and your family, you can choose those things that have the most impact on protecting and preserving health.  Here, we provide overview facts and perspective for the student, for the researcher, or for the individual just getting started on understanding environmental health and exposures. 

The Priority Players (on your left) are those chemicals or biological pathogens in each category (food, air, soil, and water) that are known to be most hazardous to your health and should be avoided wherever possible.  Our Food, Soil, Air, and Water pages translate these often-technical chemical names into specifics of how to apply available knowledge to protecting the health of you and your family.