17. Human health

Lead Papers

Shawkat Ali and Ayesha Akhter and Md. Hasibur Rahman, Dr. Janet M. Eaton, Dr. Tee L. Guidotti, Nina Hrycak, Dr. A.Jagadeesh, Dr. Gennady N. Karopa, Ms. Maria V. Kryukova (Ph.D.), Dr. Khatam Murtazaev, Anna Olofsson, Usha Sekhar and Anil Agarwal, Dr. Colin L. Soskolne

 Shawkat Ali, Ayesha Akhter and Md. Hasibur Rahman discussed about how the urban slum dwellers impose extra pressure on socio-economic and environmental problems of urban area of Bangladesh. To uplift this situation, the government has taken some necessary measures to conserve environment, social injustice and simultaneously, create employment-generating activities for the slum people. Besides, some non-government organization is helping poor people by giving micro credit loan for small trading and agricultural production, such as small poultry, fisheries and livestock development, cottage industry etc. Through income generating programme government and non-government social organization are encouraging the slum people to return their native village, so they can earn their livelihood even in their native village then they would not feel interest to migrate to the cities to live in a narrow unhygienic place. In case of those who are already became closely associated with urban life are need to provided with minimum civic facilities, some sort of technical training, non-formal education, environmental awareness for health and sanitation for efficient use of manpower. Even, any one of them feel interest to go back their village and willing to be self employed, they should also provided with small scale credit facilities to conserve further degradation of the present situation urban pollution. To lead better life every slum dweller expects help from the government in terms of better housing and settlements. Small number of slum dwellers gets financial support to start income generating activities on returning to their native village and rest people are fur away from the help. So, many of them are frustrated about getting any help from the government thus they are not moving from the urban area. It is important to take necessary step to rehabilitate the slum dwellers before eviction.

 Cultural concepts of ecosystem and human health have been linked with thoughts about cities and human settlements since ancient times (Guidotti). There has been a progression of these concepts through religious ideas, philosophical systems, sanitation, toxic substances, and, most recently, the risk of ecosystem change on a large scale resulting in the collapse of global and regional system that sustain human communities. However, ecosystems are not really destroyed; when ecosystems are pushed to the point of failure, they convert into something else and the human communities that depend on them adapt. The conversion and adaptation may not be desirable or productive, but they occur. Cities are the best examples of this. Urban systems are artificial ecosystems that preserve but subsume the pre-existing natural ecosystems. We need a new way of thinking about ecosystems and human health that does not place human beings at the centre and that is not driven by effects of individual exposures or perturbations. We also need to appreciate the value as well as the cost of cities. Urban ecosystems have characteristic pathologies. Those that place great stress on natural ecosystems or that are overly stressed in their own carrying capacity are not sustainable. There is an urgent need for valid indicators of "health" in urban ecosystems: one measure may be how well it adapts and the way that it responds to external stresses. This is a behavioural measure, reflecting the viability of the human community.

 Kryukova and Schlotgauer explained that the Dzhango Community territories are located in the central part of Sikhote-Alin, in the Khor River watershed. This territory is attributed to the Far East broad-leafed-coniferous area, manchzhuria province, ussuri-amur district, which are characterized by high biodiversity. 800 species of vascular plants can be met here, that make 40 % of all Far East flora. The uniqueness of natural complexes manifests itself in a complete set of various forest products, which have freat economic value and easy access for the indigenous people of Udege. It is possible to single out 90 food and 94 medicinal species of plants, the most valuable as for their biological and economic potential, availability and traditional use. It is difficult to find the analogues in the world for such soecies as Schizandra chinensis, Vitis amurensis, Actinidia kolomikta, Eleutherrococcus senticosus, Aralia elata, Gastrodia elata etc, if we take their food and medicinal properties. However only small part of them is used in real economic practices according to the tradition, set during the last decades. There are a lot of for this: difficulties with gathering and processing, remoteness from the basic markets, low purchasing power of the majority of consumers in the territory. But the main reason is that the Khabarovsk Territory Administration prefer to use more favorable for using more expensive forest timber resources. The timber industry activity has the negative impact on the territory: inevitable destruction of forest ecosystems and deterioration of ecological condition, final fall of the ethnobotany, destruction of the ethnic economic complex and traditional way of living for indigenous people. The decision of these problems lies in the traditional economy intensification, which has not yet opened its opportunities to the full extent. It includes the involving in economic activity of "non-traditional" kinds of raw material and resources: medicinal grasses, tea preparations, plant seeds and seedlings, tree juices, etc.

 Dr. Kh. Murtazaev, I.Turakulov and S.N. Karimov, from NGO "Ecology and Scientific Technical Progress" (Northern Tajikistan) have been studying wild, rare and disappearing medicinal plants of the Kuramin and the Mogol-Tau mountains in the course of 1998-1999, being supported financially by "Fauna and Flora International". Alongside with many disappearing plants we discovered a unique plant from the family of the carnations - Mukhallas (Diantus) which saves from many diseases. It grows along dried spots of the rivers, stony places and in the foothills. The height of plants is in the range of 20-30cm, a smooth bole, somewhat needly, it reminds carnation. They pick up an upper part of diantus in the period of bloom, in May and dry it in shadow. Pharmacological properties of diantus: if to drink its decoction during 4-5 days instead of tea it makes blood pressure lower, it cures bumps and aches; in intestine it drives out sticky substances - which are the reason of many diseases - from liver, kidneys, head. Drinking decoction of diantus restorse man's potency, promotes men and women in their child-bearing functions. It makes man sensitive, tolerating, his memory becomes clear and perceptive, his voice pleasant, it preserves hair in its good state, it won't become gray. If you take from 3.5 up to 7 g of minced diantus it will dry out of the body the venom of snake, tarantula, scorpion, karakurt and also that of spoiled food. Taking in 4.5 g of the grain of diantus in the course of three days in the beginning of Moslem New Year (March 21) will help to get rid of the venom of all the above mentioned animals for a year. We tried many properties of diantus on our own bodies.

 Soskolne explained that an evidence from Canada is used to support a model in which the integration of human self-interest could, in fact, be serving the interests of all life forms. Based on the intuition that human well-being is dependent on the health of life-support systems and that, in turn, these systems are dependent upon biodiversity, the two sets of interests, namely anthropocentrism and biocentrism, become one in a mutually unified notion of ecocentrism. Since 1996, human health was recognized as an integral component of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) grant in the area of Global Ecological Integrity. By integrating human health concerns into the grant application, this apparently added to its fundability.

The World Health Organization's definition of health is "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."

WHO's goal of health for all contributes to our understanding of the our values. It contributes to our understanding of the approaches of various societies to the ethical and human-value aspects of health as a way to pursue deeper understanding of human values across cultural and political realms. 

The Global Community organization is proposing that every individual of a society is co-responsible for helping in implementing and managing health programmes along with the government and the public institutions. 

Health of people is affected by pollutants. A tissue carries a pollutant burden if it contains an environmental residue greater than that needed for optimum growth and development. Human pollutant burden patterns may serve as indicators of the environmental quality. Human tissues can furnished important insights into current pollution problems. Tissue burdens in human tissues contain exposures from multiple routes and can provide important intelligence for the setting and appraisal of environmental standards.