Content by: EcoHealth – www.ecohealth101.org
Posted by: Eco-Question Editor
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Back in the late 1700s, long before people understood the reason behind immunity, farmers and doctors in rural areas of Britain noticed that dairymaids and other people who got a mild disease called cowpox seldom caught its fearsome cousin, smallpox. Was there a connection?
Some decided there was and inserted material from the cowpox into an incision they cut on the arm of healthy people, thus somehow protecting them from smallpox. In 1798, a doctor named Edward Jenner published the results of his experiments using this procedure "earning himself fame as the “Father of Smallpox Vaccination.” (In truth, we now know that for hundreds and perhaps thousands of years, Chinese healers had been inducing immunity by pushing smallpox scabs into a person’s nose. Some experts now believe that these protective practices – inhaling smallpox virus or pricking the skin – began in Central Asia in the 10th or 11th century.)
Scientists later figured out why Jenner was right "that cowpox somehow protected one from smallpox. You see, when people caught cowpox, their bodies made special cells called antibodies. They fought the disease. That’s not all. They lingered in the blood in case the disease ever returned. Because cowpox and smallpox are fairly similar, if a person was later exposed to the more serious disease, antibodies were ready to fight it too.
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Content by: EcoHealth – www.ecohealth101.org
Posted by: Eco-Question Editor
Source: EcoHealth – www.ecohealth101.org
Photo Credit: © Jeff Schmaltz, NASA’s Earth Observatory – earthobservatory.nasa.gov
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Dust. You may think of it as something that collects around the house and requires a lot of tedious cleaning. And it is. Did you know, though, that dust is also a key example of transboundary pollution and a health hazard? Each year, three billion tons of dust swirl across the face of the planet.
The number of dust storms is rising, moreover. Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, now has ten times as many dust storms as it did 50 years ago. The reasons for that change include deforestation, overgrazing, and the shrinking of Lake Chad. A single one of those African storms may be 200 kilometers (124 miles) wide and carry 100 tons of dust. Given strong enough winds, the dust can travel all the way to North America. It can also land in the ocean, where it harms coral reefs.
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Content by: EcoHealth – www.ecohealth101.org
Posted by: Eco-Question Editor
Source: EcoHealth – www.ecohealth101.org
Photo Credit: © Khaoko.com – www.khaoko.com
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Ecotourism is one of the hottest terms in travel today. It means traveling in a way that conserves the environment you visit and improves life for the people there. Ecotourism is an increasingly popular option for people visiting rainforests and other relatively wild areas. Like most things, ecotourism has both pluses and minuses.
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Content by: EcoHealth – www.ecohealth101.org
Posted by: Eco-Question Editor
Source: EcoHealth – www.ecohealth101.org
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Globalization can affect human health in many ways. These are just a few examples.
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International conferences and the Internet make it easier for scientists in different countries to share ideas for fighting HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
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People can buy fresh fruits and vegetables all year long – even when they’re out of season. This has helped improve nutrition in many affluent countries. But the energy used to transport food great distances is contributing to global warming.
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Greater movement of people can increase the spread of disease. In 2006, for example, migrant workers and refugees carried a deadly strain of multiple-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB) from South Africa to several other countries.
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Workers whose jobs have been outsourced to other countries may lose their health coverage.
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Content by: EcoHealth – www.ecohealth101.org
Posted by: Eco-Question Editor
Source: EcoHealth – www.ecohealth101.org
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Skin cancer comes in three main forms.
(Note: "carcinoma" means cancer.)
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Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC), the most common form spreads slowly. If untreated, it can invade surrounding tissue and cause problems.
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Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) is less common than BCC. But it grows much faster and can be riskier. Once found, it must be treated very quickly.
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Melanoma is the least common form of skin cancer. It usually grows out of a mole (dark raised area). Although people do die from melanoma each year, it is easily identified and, if caught early, can be treated.
Create a good habit. Ask your parents to talk to your doctor about checking the skin over your entire body once a year for any areas of concern. This gives you and your parents a baseline – or comparison – for your future checkups.
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Content by: EcoHealth – www.ecohealth101.org
Posted by: Eco-Question Editor
Source: EcoHealth – www.ecohealth101.org
Photo Credit: © Napapun Wongtala
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In a word, no. We’re not adding new CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) to the atmosphere, but the ones we released earlier haven’t gone away.
CFCs were used as:
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coolants in refrigerators and air conditioners,
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aerosol propellants in spray cans, and
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foaming agents in making plastic-foam containers.
These chemicals have a life span of 80 to 120 years. Most are still highly concentrated in the troposphere – the atmospheric layer closest to Earth’s surface. And they will continue to drift up into the stratosphere – and attack ozone – for quite a while.
Now, scientists have discovered that bromine, often found in fire extinguishers, is also destroying the ozone layer. There is more work to be done.
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