WORLD HEALTH DAY TODAY: Our Planet, Our Health.

Dr Shirish Khedgikar

'World Health Day' is a global health awareness day

being celebrated every year on April 7 from 1950. The first World

Health Assembly organised by the World Health Organization' (WHO)

in 1948 decided to celebrate it by declaring a new slogan for this

day, every year. Slogan this year is ‘Our Planet,

Our Health.’ It's for global attention for keeping earth healthy and foster a movement to create healthy planet to live on.

WHO estimates that more than 12 million deaths around the

world each year are due to avoidable environmental causes. Nowadays, the climate crisis is the single biggest health threat to

human beings, as well as other animals on earth. Extreme

weather events, land degradation and water scarcity are affecting

their health. In the heating world, mosquitoes spread diseases

farther and faster. Exposure to extreme heat increases risk of

headaches, confusion, tiredness and vomiting. Heat above 40 degree Celsius

causes heat strokes resulting in organ failure and hospitalization.

Droughts and wildfires due to climate change are hazardous for

health. Wildfires cause suffocation. Inhalation of smoke and burn

injuries result in deaths. Such trauma affects mental health

and also results in loss of housing and livelihoods.

Over 90 percent of people breathe polluted air, resulting from

burning of fossil. According to fuels Paris Agreement documents,

control of air pollution will save a million lives per year worldwide

by 2050. Transportation produces around 20 percent of global

carbon emissions. Alternatives like walking and cycling stop it

and also offer major health benefits. Greenhouse gas emissions

produced during production, packing and distribution of food cause 11 Million premature deaths per year due to heart diseases and cancer. Highly processed, unhealthy food items and beverages cause obesity. Plastic found at the bottom

of oceans and on the highest mountains has made its way into our food

chain now. Floods due to extreme climate change result in

displacement of public. Shortage of food and safe drinking water

cause different infectious diseases.

Recent COVID -19 pandemic highlighted inequities in the

world. Inequitable distribution of income, health and power is

threat for health. Social protection, budgetary provisions for poor

people with good legal and fiscal strategies should be our goals for

ecological sustainability. Climate-resilient health systems can

protect the population. Financial provisions for it must be

adequate and easily available. Providing fresh air, clean water,

healthy food and good medicines to citizens is the responsibility of

Government.

(Writer is Associate Professor at Government Dental College, and

Hospital, Aurangabad.)