Health

Christina Global issues Tijana Miljkovic Apr 11 2010 Small habits make big results What makes a city healthy' What entitles a city to be called “a healthy city'” Is it cities consisted of healthy citizens, who preserve nature' The earth is full of materials that we just throw away and put to waste rather than use them for productive things. In order to answer these questions we have to look at the root causes, and then make changes whether big or small accordingly. One of the root causes that we will look at is waste disposal, and how it keeps are cities from becoming “healthy cities.” First let us look at how big of a “waste” food is in cities. We just make food thoughtlessly since we need it as human beings, yet we don’t realize that just wasting food creates a dilemma for not only us but every living thing. If we look at the statistics “American households throw out 1.28 pounds of food a day in their refuse. Annually that is 467.2 lbs/year. This does not include food loss that goes down the garbage disposal, into compost piles, as food to family pets etc.” (Timothy W. Jones. PhD Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology) a big thing that it does is attract small animals such as rats, mice and insects, and bring diseases that could be transferred to humans. Of course we need these creatures since they help the food chain, but if they are brought to cities because of food waste then we are hurting the health of our cities as well as damaging crops or food. If we take a look at pigs being fed food waste we can see that this can cause swine flu or spread pathogens to humans. Waste, whether it is food, things, or liquids it is polluting and poisoning to human beings. Especially, illegally dumped chemicals and motor oil can contaminate lands, creeks and water supplies. It can seriously disrupt the balance of nature, people could get sick if they were to drink or swim in polluted water, and in extreme cases, can cause human fatalities. In nature, water is not always the source of life; it can be a source of diseases and eventually death. It transmits a number of microorganisms, bacteria, viruses and protists of all kinds. These organisms can sometimes lead to serious diseases when they enter the human body. Treating the water you use is necessary for you to stay healthy. It can be easily prevented if we abide by the laws, or if anything increase the penalties in the law for illegal dumping so people would be less likely try to dump waste. Human waste also can cause people to get sick. It can get into the local water supplies from sewage treatment plants. Stuart fox said the mismanagement of human waste is a serious health problem for the 2.6 billion people who don't have regular access to toilets. A good example can be found in the slums of Kenya, waste management is so haphazard that residents dispose of feces-filled plastic bags by simply flinging the bags away without concern about where they land. It was discovering those flying sacks of waste that inspired Anders Wilhelmson to invent the PeePoo, a chemically treated toilet bag that sterilizes human waste and converts it to fertilizer, all for only two or three cents. As he mentioned “the PeePoo won't just save lives, but allow the people suffering through the problem of waste mismanagement to save those lives themselves.”(BY SINDYA N. BHANOO NY Times) Carelessness of waste management also has a bad impact to social problems. Messy streets, yards, and land can have a bad affect on the attitudes of local people. It also brings out economical problems, and it can be hard to find workers - such as nurses and trades people - to work or live in a community where the environment looks untidy or unsafe. A city like this would lose their credibility and could be considered an unhealthy city. If waste is managed well, the cost of fixing problems does not become a burden on city finances. In detail, people can be greatly affected by mismanaged waste which will lead to an unhealthy city. Right now I think recycling is probably one of the best things that we can do to keep the cities cleaner and to keep us going in the right direction. Sometimes people are just too lazy to recycle and if we could somehow possibly integrate it more with society rather than just an option of being able to recycle. If the state were to place more recycle cans and put maybe a fine of littering if you throw a can into the regular garbage we could possibly see some improvement for the city. It’s hard when we have people who are not motivated to help the future society by trying to clean it up. Even if it’s a slow process every time you can help it makes a difference. People’s knowledge of how and/or what to recycle is linked to their level of participation. As expected, those who are less knowledgeable about how and what to recycle are less likely to participate, or tend to recycle less material.” If all it takes is a few more ads on TV and campaigning for recycling is all that is needed to get more people, then we are not doing very good, and I’m sure this can benefit all cities both healthy and unhealthy. If we take a look back at food waste and its impact cities we can see that there is another problem that CNN had brought up and that is methane gas from rotting food. Methane, the gas food waste produces, traps 23 times as much heat in the atmosphere as the same amount of CO2, the EPA says. And landfills are the place you will find most of it -- they account for 34 percent of all methane emissions in the U.S. (By Rachel Oliver for CNN) There has always been a big issue of global warming and it should be treated fairly with all the other problems yet if we help organize and maintain the waste managing going on the outcome for everyone would be very positive. I think that multiple things such as global warming, money, and the way we live would fixed and or better if we worked towards a cleaner society. For example if we take a look at the city of Cilincing, Jarkata “Residents witnessed the death of thousands of fish in their fish ponds following the Jakarta administration's decision to dump its waste in the surrounding area. The decision was made after the Bekasi municipality closed Bantar Gebang, which has served as a sanitary landfill dump for Jakarta's 6,000 tons of daily waste since 1986. Black liquid from untreated waste seeped into the fish farms, killing the fish that were local residents' main source of income.”( Worldsources Online| December 27, 2004) The loss of fish due to this black liquid waste effected this particular city in three ways. First, being the food for the people surrounding that area, business for the fish catchers which effects the economical side of the city, and last it effects food chain. It’s very hard to believe that one spill can cause this much damage, but it was due to a bad waste management and we as a community of people living on earth have to figure out a way to clean up these disorganized unhealthy cities. Lastly let us take a look at landfills and their effect on our cities and what solutions we can do to improve them. “Landfills present a clear and present potential threat to human health as well as a threat to our environment.  As noted even the best landfill liners will leak…”82% of surveyed landfill cells had leaks while 41% had a leak area of more than 1 square feet, “ according to(Leak Location Services, Inc. (LLSI) website.) We can obviously conclude that landfills are probably one of the worst and fastest growing things in the world that we really need to get rid of or figure out a solution. Landfills are piling up with no outlets and with more trash coming in, that’s more of a possibility to have contaminated water. They say that “The only way to guarantee clean groundwater is to never contaminate it in the first place.” (Indiana University Northwest) The solution for this problem would have to be a cleaner way of incinerating solid waste or a better alternative possibly through science. Landfills will probably one of the hardest things to get rid of completely. Until we are able to take care of it efficiently we need to just be aware of what is going on in these landfills. In conclusion, we had better think to do the small things and making the right habits formed. It can be start by picking up garbage, do recycling, reducing, reusing, decreasing incinerator and else. There are a lot of good solutions like Education. Being able to reach out to people like mentioned earlier with ads on TV or campaigns, it will allow people to be aware of what’s going on with their own city and help clean it up. Finding those root causes and breaking them down little by little, so that hopefully we can make a brighter future for the next generation and have a healthy world, and not just a healthy city. Bibliography 1. http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/24/food.leftovers/index.html 2. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-997452_ITM 3. http://www.mass.gov/dep/recycle/reduce/crbdrop.pdf 4. http://www.iun.edu/~environw/landfills.html 5. http://www.epa.gov/waste/nonhaz/municipal/index.htm 6. http://www.communitycompost.org/info/usafood.pdf 7. http://www.leaklocationservices.com/ 8. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/science/02bag.html'ref=science