Contact Us

Find out the disease and risks of pollution you may have been exposed! Fill out the form below for more environmental pollution information!

Environmental Pollution
RISKS

Environmental Pollution Medical Conditions

Pollution Diseases may affect any of us with potential devastating effects. According to a Cornell University study, about 40 percent of deaths worldwide are caused by environmental pollution (including water, air, and soil pollution) – see article published by Chronicle OnLine on August 2, 2007. Knowing more about what causes these diseases and how do they manifest will help us prevent or minimize exposure as well as identify pollution episodes and potential associated health diseases early. We hope that the general information provided here will help you in this respect.

Environmental Pollution Diseases

What Are Pollution Diseases and What Causes Them? Polluting the environment means spreading new man-made chemicals in the environment or re-distributing and concentrating natural substances/chemicals due to human activity. The main problem with pollution is that it may affect human health eventually resulting in medical conditions usually referred to as pollution diseases (since they would not have occurred in the absence of pollution). The health problems caused by pollution are not some rare types of illnesses happening to few exposed individuals, but rather they could be common and well known diseases with symptoms as trivial as nausea, headache, cough, or difficulty in respiration! Additionally, pollution diseases are not affecting only people who directly handle pollutants, rather they may affect any one of us without even knowing it. This is because pollutant concentrations of health concern are usually not easily perceived by any of our senses, but may create long-term health effects.

Classifying Pollution Diseases.

Below are the main pollution diseases classified based on the polluted media causing them – you can find more by clicking any of the links below:

Living Organisms Affected by Pollution Diseases as Indicators of Pollution Moreover, living in a contaminated environment may sensitize human body weakening our defense against a large number of medical conditions, including cancers, arteriosclerosis, hepatitis, heart disease, asthma, and tuberculosis – to name just a few.

Plants and animals may also be affected and sometimes provide clues for pollution episodes:

  • bank of dead fish and/or birds along a water stream are an obvious sign of pollution, usually in high concentration)
  • trees are some of the “classic” indicators of environmental changes – which is the basis of using them to reconstruct past climates through the technique called dendrochronology. The basis of such technique is the fact that in most climates, trees develop growth rings every year. The width of the yearly rings is directly proportional with the amount of rain as well as any other environmental factors affecting tree growth (the wider the ring, the better condition the trees have), thus including pollution. Even if trees adapt and are still alive looking relatively healthy to the necked eye (when low concentrations of pollution is found in the vicinity of trees), by examining the width of each growth ring (in a tree-core sample) one can observe pollution events;
  • overgrowth of algae is many times a clear sign of water pollution with fertilizers including nitrates and phosphates.
  • Behavioral and other changes in fish and other animals – are usually associated with their exposure to endocrine disruptors and other chemicals.