Title: Components of environmental health
Course: Hygiene and Environmental Health Part 1 - Ethiopia (Full)

Components of environmental health

Table 1.1 describes the areas of environmental health and hygiene that will be of importance to you as a healthworker and that you will learn about in the rest of this Module.

Table 1.1  Components of hygiene and environmental health.

Description | Concerns
Personal hygiene | Hygiene of body and clothing
Water supply | Adequacy, safety (chemical, bacteriological, physical) of water for domestic, drinking and recreational use
Human waste disposal | Proper excreta disposal and liquid waste management
Solid waste management | Proper application of storage, collection, disposal of waste. Waste production and recycling
Vector control | Control of mammals (such as rats) and arthropods (insects such as flies and other creatures such as mites) that transmit disease
Food hygiene | Food safety and wholesomeness in its production, storage, preparation, distribution and sale, until consumption
Healthful housing | Physiological needs, protection against disease and accidents, psychological and social comforts in residential and recreational areas
Institutional hygiene | Communal hygiene in schools, prisons, health facilities, refugee camps, detention homes and settlement areas
Water pollution | Sources, characteristics, impact and mitigation
Occupational hygiene | Hygiene and safety in the workplace

Figure 1.1  Components of hygiene and environmental health.

Figure 1.1 illustrates the various aspects of hygiene and environmental health that are described in Table 1.1. Look at the separate drawings within the figure and match each of them to one of the descriptions.

Show answer

Starting at top right, the drawing there illustrates solid waste disposal in a pit. Below that is a woman cooking at a stove to show food hygiene in a cooking area. The handpump illustrates water supply. Personal hygiene is represented by the person washing themselves. The next drawing shows a storage cupboard, again illustrating food hygiene. The drawing at top left is a pit latrine to represent human waste disposal. The central drawing illustrates healthful housing. (Vector control, institutional hygiene, occupational hygiene and water pollution are not shown.)