Environmental Protection and Human Security †MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about the Environmental Protection and Human Security. Answer: Introduction: Chatham is a Medway towns situated in the Medway unitary authority that falls under the jurisdiction of North Kent in the South Eastern region of England. Chatham is located in the lower portion of the dip slope of North Downs and is surrounded by the River Medway that flows towards the south to north direction (Kent State of the Environment 2015) (Details of landscape is highlighted in the picture in the appendix portion). In spite of having a rich source of diversity from the forest, mountains and the river, the atmospheric condition Chatham-Kent is threatened due to increase in the rate of air and water pollution (The BBC News 2018). According to the Kent State of the Environment (2015) the growing population of Chatham-Kent is the leading cause behind the increase in the rate of population (details of population increase is provided in the appendix). Kent State of the Environment (2015) has further highlighted that increase in the rate of immigrants are the leading cause behind t he increase in population and thereby leading to climatic change. The following assignment aims to analyse two most threatening environmental issues in Chatham-Kent (air pollution and water pollution) followed by its impacts on health and strategies undertaken by government in order to reduce the severity of the problem. At the end, the assignment will try to recommend few advanced strategies that might be proved to be helpful in order to reduce the escalating threats of unbalanced pollution in Chatham-Kent. According to the Kent State of the Environment (2015), Chatham suffers from worst air pollution during the days of light breeze and stable wind conditions in comparison to other places in Kent. On these particular days, a wide area Chatham of can get affected. Moreover, the majority of the suburbs location in Chatham experience identical degree of air pollution. However, the regions near the river banks in Chatham, receive high level of river breezes have comparatively better air conditions. On the other hand, the marshy land, which is popularly known as St Marys Island and has have the worse conditions in comparison to other areas. The reason behind this is several new developments of housing estates which cause (Kent State of the Environment 2015). According to Kent State of the Environment (2015), increase in the population density leads to the settlement of the gravity the pollutants especially during the calm nights. Population residing on or within 100 meter of the major roads have poor air quality (Kent State of the Environment 2015). According to the Kent State of the Environment (2015), one of the greatest factors responsible for the Chathams air pollution is the harmful emission coming out from the motor vehicles. In Chatham, two, four and six wheelers amounts approximately 70% of yearly emissions of carbon mono-oxide and nitrous oxide or other oxide of nitrogen. The rest 30% of emission amounts for about organic compounds which are volatile in nature and airborne particles. During winter, the wood combustion for domestic purposes is considered to be the major source of the winter smog. Such room heaters contribute double as much as particle pollution per Kg of the burnt wood. According to Kent State of the Environment (2015), industrial manufacturing activities like electricity generation accounts for about 80% of the total sulphur di-oxide emission in Chatham. Majority of the air pollutants coming from the generation of electricity are emitted via c himneys or stacks and these chimney are more than 100 meters tall thus the pollutants emitted from the tall stacks are widely dispersed but becomes thin in concentration when they settles down. Environment Protection UK (2018) is of the opinion that the major air pollutants present in Chatham include ozone, nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and other fine or coarse particles. Water is an essential component of life. The human use of water resources in Kent has cast a significant impact on the water environment of Chatham. While large water bodies in Chatham are mainly in their natural conditions, other are gradually becoming saltier or getting higher in concentration of natural silt deposition and levels of nutrients. Some of the common indicators of the human impacts over the water include pest plants and algal blooms. The subsequent water treatment is extremely costly and this will eventually increase the scarcity of water. Couple with the silt deposition and algal bloom formation, there is fast deterioration and erosion of the catchments. The soils from the water banks are lost along with the decline in biodiversity. Moreover, due farmlands are becoming unusable because of this high salinity of the water thus decreasing the land fertility (Kent State of the Environment 2015). According to Environment Protection UK (2018), the pollutants enter inside th e water bodies via two principal ways: point source and non-point sources. According to the reports published by (CBC News 2018), the scenario of the water pollution is so serious in Chatham Kent that the families residing in the Chatham Kent is now scared about the black and salty water in the well. According to the reports, the government has notified them that the quality of the drinking water has changed and the reason highlighted by them is wind turbines and not due to increase in the high rise constructions. However, the scenario of blaming and re-blaming is continuing because, the wind turbine companies blames the high traffic and well pumps as the principal reason behind the escalating amount of the water pollution in Kent-Chatham (CBC News 2018). Apart from the human activity, emission of the heavy metals as industrial waste in the water bodies also leads to the development of water pollution creating a global risk for the human health (Fernndez-Luqueo et al. 2013). Accordi ng to BBC News (2018), at present the sea surrounding England is contaminated via tiny plastics and in order to make the scenario worse, the plastics that are entering oceans are becoming toxic via adsorbing oily pollutants present on their surface and this toxic is transferred to the fishes and this in turn gets transmitted into human. Moreover there is no proper waste management procedure (Gusti 2009). UK government is only planning to recycle those plastics into Kayaks but that process is designated to be expensive (BBC News 2018). Government of UK Environment agency (2018), has the duty to check the water quality of the sea which is designated as the bathing sites in England. According to the reports published the weekly assessment between May to September, current water quality in England is deteriorating and this forecast the risk of high level of water pollution (Refer to the images in the appendix). How pollution cast adverse impact on health Air pollution contributes to significant amount of morbidity and mortality while some affects contribute to short-term exposure while other affects contributes to long term exposure (Naddafi et al. 2012). The reports published Kent State of the Environment (2015) revealed that that air population in Chatham-Kent is associated with rise in the risk of hospital admission for cardiovascular and respiratory disease during the year 2012. There is also a direct association of air pollution with the admissions related to asthmatic attack among the children. According to Naddafi et al. (2012), the state-of-the-art epidemiological research has elucidated that coherent and consistent relation between air pollution and health related outcomes like respiratory symptoms, chronic bronchitis, decreased lung functions and reduced lung functions. The relative risks associated with the air pollution are comparatively small. For example for a healthy adult, the average risk of dying might increase for any given day via less than 1% if the atmospheric concentration of the inhalable ( 10 meter diameter) particulate matter (PM10) increase via 10 micro gram /m3 (Naddafi et al. 2012). However, the short term risks of the air pollution like respiratory and cardiovascular mortality, hospital admissions for pulmonary diseases and cardiovascular disease, COPD and acute myocardial infarction may significantly increases the health complications during the later stages of life (Naddafi et al. 2012). Anderson, Thundiyil and Stolbach (2012) further opined that the short term acute exposures subtly up lifts the rate of cardiovascular complications within few days of pollution spike. The group of population who are directed towards the long-term exposure of PM have significantly higher incidents of cardiovascular complications along with increased mortality rate. According to Anderson, Thundiyil and Stolbach (2012), PM is ascertained to contribute cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease via t he mechanism of systemic inflammation, indirect and direct activation of coagulation factor and direct translocation inside the systemic inflammation. The susceptibility of the respiratory diseases are also increased via the significant exposure to PM. PM leads to pulmonary related mortality and morbidity via generating inflammation along with oxidative stress that leads to the development of pulmonary anatomic and physiologic remodelling. According to Lelieveld et al. (2015), PM leads to worsening of the respiratory complications followed by decrease in function of the pulmonary organs, recurrent healthcare utilization and increased rate of mortality. Domestic and hospital sewage contains numerous pathogenic micro-organisms which are undesirable and its disposal into the water bodies leads to an epidemic outbreak of bacterial diseases like dysentery, typhoid, cholera and jaundice. Moreover, the presence of bacterial contamination into the water bodies and contact of that contaminated water with the human body gives rise to skin diseases and other dermatological complications (Frstner and Wittmann 2012). Presence of heavy metals within the water bodies like zinc, leads, arsenic, copper, mercury and cadmium leads adversely affects both the human begins and animals feeding that water. Presence of mercury in the waste water care converted into methyl mercury via bacterial action which gives rise to Minamata disease, a neurological syndrome affecting both fishes and human. Lead emitted as industrial waste causes lead poisoning leading to headache, anaemia and loss of muscle power. Cadminium poisoning causes cancer for the pulmonary org ans causing itai-itai disease also known as ouch-ouch disease which causes painful disease of bones and joints (Frstner and Wittmann 2012). Strategies undertaken in order to reduce pollution In order to protect the environment from the unhealthy yet harmful levels of air pollution, the government of Chatham-Kent has undertaken certain objectives in order to protect the health and wellbeing of plants animals and human beings. The major policy adopted by the European Government is to increase the funding against the environment protection. The main funding is being devoted towards the waste management particularly which are increasing the rate of water pollution (National Audit Office UK (2014). Moreover, there are further stringent controls upon the industrial discharges of the pollutants that have high tenacity to cast adverse health impacts. The expenditure also encompasses reduction in the emission of the threatening pollutants along with other industrial pollutants, which are emitted from the chimneys. Moreover, according to National Audit Office UK (2014), UK is also planning to meet the European air quality limit values via reduces the rate of emission of the harmfu l sulphur di-oxide and nitrogen oxides from the automobiles. According to the European Commission (2014), the government of UK is also planning to take active initiatives in order to reduce the rate of emission of the harmful nitrogen di-oxide in air as emitted from the automobiles (details of expenditure is highlighted in the appendix portion). The other measures undertaken in order to reduce the air pollution via the European Government include adoption of cleaner and environmental pollution free technology by both the small and large scale industries, installation of the tall chimneys in order to assist dispersion, instant removal of the pollutants from the exhaust chambers. The state government has also taken initiatives banning of the open burning and backyard incinerators, prohibition against the use of open-air fires for domestic heating along with discouraging the use of the old wood heaters that fail to satisfy the England standards. In the domain of automobile, the state g overnment has imposed reduction in the exhaust pollutants emitted from the cars via keeping the cars tunes and via reducing the number of cars released on the roads for transport per day (Environment Protection UK 2018). In order to ensure that the objectives of the policies are being met, Environment Protection (2018) keeps a detailed watch on the quality of air while setting appropriate air quality indicators via setting and revising goals and objectives of each indicator in a yearly manner. The National Audit Office UK (2014), the European Union proposed clean air policy package in the year 2013 in order to limit the rate of emission of the harmful gaes and small air particles into air. According to Environment Protection UK (2018) safeguarding the water bodies can be achieved via single organizations of via few individuals alone. Environment Protection UK helps to protect the water environment of Chatham-Kent via application of the environmental laws, policies and regulatory controls and via working into close partnership with the communities residing in Chatham-Kent including business organizations, governmental bodies, groups and individuals. Primarily, Environment Protection uses risk-based approaches in order to identify there are existing adverse impacts over the water bodies. The rationale behind this approach is, if a risk towards the water environment is easily identified then prompt actions can be taken in order to address the associated risks. This specific risk based approach is gradually gaining prominence among the environmental agencies and research bodies. Environment Protection UK (2018) also uses measures delivered under the Environment Protection Act UK (1990) in order to restrict the escalating population and thereby protecting the environment. In the industrial domains, certain types of industries popularly categorised under the scheduled premises are required to earn the approval from Environment Protection UK (2018) along with licensing controls before initiating their major works. This ensures that the works which have potential to adversely harm the environment are thoroughly examined in order to ensure that the parameters of the water environment are protected. Assessment undertaken by Environment Protection UK (2018) encourages the industry to employ efficient industrial processes in order to minimise the emission of the water waste. The same regulations of detailed assessment are also applicable to the research and developmental bodies. For example, the research proposals must be examined by the Environment Protection UK be fore getting permission to initiate the work Environment Protection UK (2018). Recommendations In the domain of reducing air pollution, the government must take active initiatives in order to increase the appeal, acceptability and safety of urban active travel along with subsequent discouragement of travel inside the private petrol or diesel driven motor vehicles (Woodcock 2009). According to Woodocock (2009), this will provide greater health benefits in comparison to the policies that are focused solely over the lower emission of the harmful gases from the motor vehicles or other automobiles. Turrell et al. (2013) have further opined that decrease in the inequalities in the socio-economic status will help in the sustainable use of the environmental resources and thereby reducing pollution. According to them, a balanced environment will be built where the advantaged people will be encouraged towards walking transport and on contrary; the disadvantaged people will be educated in the domain of keeping the environment pollution free via not throwing garbage into the water bodies and employing proper waste management. Stoett et al. (2016) further concluded that multilateral development institutions could help to dodge the risks via the integrated risk assessment in order to foresee the potential interacting threats towards the environment, social stability and health. Socially and ethically responsive, culturally sensitive, equitable yet politically correct and creative solutions are required in urgent in order to bring forwards the communities and the stakeholders together under a single umbrella where they will work in a united and committed from towards the betterment of the public and environmental health (Stoett et al. 2016). 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A review of current and potential indicators within the Kent Environment Strategy. Access date: 18th April. Retrieved from: https://www.kent.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/63812/Kent-State-of-the-Environment-Report-Evidence-base-supporting-the-strategy.pdf Lelieveld, J., Evans, J.S., Fnais, M., Giannadaki, D. and Pozzer, A., 2015. The contribution of outdoor air pollution sources to premature mortality on a global scale.Nature,525(7569), p.367. Naddafi, K., Hassanvand, M.S., Yunesian, M., Momeniha, F., Nabizadeh, R., Faridi, S. and Gholampour, A., 2012. Health impact assessment of air pollution in megacity of Tehran, Iran.Iranian journal of environmental health science engineering,9(1), p.28. National Audit Office UK (2014). Environmental protection. Access date: 18th April. 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