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Poor Environmental Conditions Leave Devastating Effects

Published on February 2, 2012

By Lauren Glass

Many individuals who reside in areas with poor sanitation and airborne pollution are subjected to serious health issues and face an early death. When people are exposed to highly contaminated environments, they are prone to obtaining life-threatening diseases such as polio, pneumonia, cholera, typhoid, malaria, etc. Poverty also serves as a factor for an unsanitary environment since certain individuals don’t have access to clean water and food. Hygienic habits and preservation of pure water and supplies contribute to a more healthy environment for individuals as well as the availability of vaccinations for illnesses.

Tippy Tap Set Up

Individuals can easily protect themselves from germs and spreading them to others through a simple task of cleansing themselves. Andrew Hinton’s film, It’s in Your Hands, portrays a couple from India creating a device known as the tippy tap to wash their hands. Sowmya Somnath, an engineer/sanitation specialist, states, “The villages we work with typically don’t have running water. Those that do, don’t have water coming through their taps during the dry season which can last as long as 6 months. Women and girls bear the burden of water collection, carrying water pots on their heads between wells and homes…”

“The villages we work with typically don’t have running water. Those that do, don’t have water coming through their taps during the dry season which can last as long as 6 months. Women and girls bear the burden of water collection, carrying water pots on their heads between wells and homes…” -Sowmya Somnath

Clean water is therefore not easily obtained and its preservation is important. The tippy tap is created with sticks, a jug of water, string, soap, and a nail for making a small hole in the jug in order to pour out only a small amount of water so that it is not wasted quickly. One of the sticks is used as a foot lever to pour water from the jug, which eliminates the need to touch the device with dirty hands. Sowmya provided information that Dr. Jim Watts developed the earliest version of a tippy tap and different versions of the device were created to save water and to allow use of a way for others to stay clean outdoors (Somnath). The video indicates that a thousand children in India die every day from infections and that half of the deaths could have been prevented from washing hands.

U.S. military spraying Agent Orange upon Vietnam

The Vietnam War resulted in a highly polluted environment for civilians that continue to suffer from the causes. The film, The Leaves Keep Falling, which was directed by Julie Winokur, displays the hardships of Vietnam families with children that were born with severe deformities and disabilities due to the effects of the chemical, Agent Orange, which is used to kill plants and crops. Winokur and the crew for the film shed light on the legacy of Agent Orange for the Vietnam Reporting Project and the Renaissance Journalism Center. The U.S. military released millions of gallons of the substance in Vietnam during the war and this type of airborne pollution contaminates the food and water supplies, which is responsible for the ongoing health problems of generations within the country. Coming into contact with the air and food that was affected by the chemical caused individuals to spread infections to their children.

Mother tending to her disabled child

Parents were worried for their children’s health, yet they did not express any hatred towards their opponents in the Vietnam War. Julie Winokur states, “We were impressed and humbled by the lack of anger toward the U.S. for the war and it’s extensive impact.” The video portrays children that are unable to walk or grow and they have no ability to complete tasks or care for themselves. A mother and her child, Nguyen Thi Ly, were analyzed and interviewed about their situation with their same facial deformities. The mother is the daughter of a Vietnam soldier in the war that was exposed to Agent Orange in Quang Binh. This is a result of the hardships that the man’s daughter and granddaughter had to face due to the lasting effects of the chemical substance. Winokur notes, “There are still over 200 ‘hot spots’ on former U.S. military bases in Vietnam where dioxin levels are dangerously high. This is an urgent environmental concern that the U.S. bears a moral responsibility to rectify.”

“There are still over 200 ‘hot spots’ on former U.S. military bases in Vietnam where dioxin levels are dangerously high. This is an urgent environmental concern that the U.S. bears a moral responsibility to rectify.” -Julie Winokur

Ways in which people can help prevent the spread of the chemicals effects is to wash their food before eating and to make sure they drink fresh water since contaminated supplies are a factor for infecting people with chemical related health issues and spreading them to future generations.

The inability to access any sanitary human needs is a factor of mortality or obtaining diseases. Many deaths occur from a lack of healthcare and a scarce supply of healthy foods. According to the World Bank, “1.2 billion people lived in absolute poverty, a condition defined by the United Nations at the start of the twenty-first century” (”Poverty”). Inhabitants in Africa struggle daily to obtain food and water because they often need to travel long distances to fetch the supplies that they need to survive and shortages of human needs make living conditions very difficult. During his address to the World Health Assembly in 2001, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan stated, “The biggest enemy of health in the developing world is poverty” (Kern, Ritzen, 2). Due to the fact that individuals struggle for what they need to live and don’t obtain an adequate amount, they are subjected to illnesses and early death. A woman from Ecuador stated in the context of her children, “They sometimes get sick for no reason. Sometimes it is because of lack of food. We are poor. We have no money to buy or to feed ourselves..” (Kern, Ritzen, 6). Starvation contributed to many deaths within those whose health remained poor. Between 1981 and 2005, India’s poverty rate decreased from 60% to 42% of the population according to the World Bank poverty statistics (“Statistics on Poverty in India”). However, one third of the world’s percentage of children remains malnourished.

Migration has led to an increase in polio cases in certain countries in proportion to a decrease in others. India is reaching the end of the disease endemic due to the use of new vaccines to help prevent inhabitants from becoming infected. The up-rise of the virus in certain countries led to enforcement of vaccine requirements for tourists and immigrants. There has been a 34% decrease for the polio cases in India compared to a 135 % increase in Afghanistan and a 22% increase in Pakistan. This is due to the importation of people traveling in and out of the countries that may spread the disease. The World Health Organization stated, “Travelers to and from Pakistan should be fully vaccinated, and travelers to the country who in the past have had three or more doses of oral polio vaccine should have another one before they travel.” (“34% Dip in Paralytic Polio Cases”). This requirement is enforced to eventually eliminate the poliovirus and to prevent it from being reintroduced into the country.

The leading factors in the spread of diseases involve pollution, poverty, and unsanitary living environments. Solutions such as washing hands and being able to eat and drink cleansed supplies can keep a person healthy because failure to do so makes individuals more prone to poor health issues. Inhabitants need support for the hardships they face, especially when their conditions are beyond their control. Better lifestyles and vaccines would be a beginning towards a healthier environment for inhabitants.

To find out more information about how to build a tippy tap, visit tippytap.org.

To read about more coverage on the Agent Orange contamination in Vietnam, look into the Vietnam Reporting Project.

This article is available for noncommercial use under a Creative Commons license. It was originally published on MediaRights.org, a project of Arts Engine, Inc. This notice must accompany the article at all times.

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