Health is a phenomenon which is not restricted only to an individual. Although an individual is necessarily concerned with his own health. Health involves the home and the larger community to which an individual belongs and of which he is an integral part. A person who is in a peak of health, but is surrounded by squalor in his environment and sickness and hunger cannot be considered to be in good health - this was stated by Udoh and Ajala (1988).
Environmental health is the control of all physical factors in one's surrounding. Hazards in the physical environmental can be categorized as either biological or physical. Biological hazards include viruses and micro organisms while the physical ones include such things as various types of radiation, noise and chemicals.
Categories of environmental health problems include :
(1) Refuse
(2) Pollution
(3) Inability to cart away garbage, etc.
Refuse is an unwanted material at a particular place. It can be classified into:
(a) rubbish (b) garbage (c) Sewage
Rubbish are lifeless materials which are not easily decomposed, such as rubber, iron, polythene.
Garbage are such materials that can easily decomposed, eg bread, potatoes, green leaves, etc
Sewage and liquid waste include waste from toilet, kitchen, etc.
Pollution is said to occur when the natural process of self-purification cannot cope with the rate of discharged of substance or energy in question. Sometimes pollution will not take place. For instance, edible items dumped at a particular place and not found the following day (probably eaten up by animals) is no pollution. But pollution will occur where several garbage and sewage dumped at a particular place remain there to rotten and dry up.
Inability to cart away garbage or accumulated refuse will definitely cause land and air pollution. Refuse piled up in a place does not only become decayed and produces bad smell, but also serves as a breeding place for vectors like rats, cockroaches, mosquitoes, etc.
However, carting away refuse in any particular area and prevention of pollution of the atmosphere require great efforts. Government should protect human health by providing money for material resources, and where necessary they should place restrictions on environment that is fond of dirty habit. Public conscience on environmental health should be awakened. Foods and drinks sellers should be mindful of proper disposal of their sales remnants. Bins should be collected regularly while collecting van should be readily available and constantly on the road.
