Poor environment causes 68 diseases

　　Interviewed experts: Dr. Wei Zhengzheng, Research Center for Environment and Economic Policy, Ministry of Environmental Protection; Special correspondent of this newspaper, Fang Ji.

　　Article 21 of China Citizens’ Environmental and Health Literacy (Trial): Keep the environment clean and reduce the occurrence of diseases.

　　In recent years, with the rapid economic development in China, the environmental quality has been deteriorating, and the impact of environmental pollution on human health has become increasingly obvious. The health risks and harms caused by the environment have also become one of the most concerned public topics of the country, society and the public.

　　Environmental factors have caused about 12.6 million deaths worldwide.

　　In 2016, the keynote report "Healthy Environment, Healthy Humans" issued by the Second United Nations Environment Assembly and the report "Preventing Diseases through a Healthy Environment-Global Disease Burden Due to Environmental Factors" issued by the World Health Organization both showed that in 2012, about 12.6 million people worldwide died due to environmental factors, accounting for 23% of all deaths, a decrease of 1% compared with 2002. Among them, the death of non-communicable diseases due to the environment increased from 17% in 2002 to 22% in 2012, and the death of infectious diseases decreased from 31% in 2002 to 20% in 2012. The report mainly considers eight categories of environmental risk factors, such as occupational risk, environmental air pollution, vector environmental management, indoor air pollution, second-hand smoke, residential radon, lead and water (including drinking water, sanitation facilities and hand hygiene), and mainly considers 68 diseases that are significantly related to environmental factors, such as respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diarrhea, asthma and malaria.　

　　There are many reports about outdoor air pollution, cancer villages, children’s blood lead poisoning and campus poisonous runway events in China. Dr. Wei Zhengzheng from the Environmental and Economic Policy Research Center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection told the reporter of Life Times that there are still some long-term health hazards that may be caused by long-term low-dose exposure of pollutants, such as infertility caused by environmental endocrine disruptors, birth defects, and early development of adolescents. In urban and rural areas, environmental sanitation problems are becoming more and more obvious. Industrial pollution, agricultural pollution and domestic pollution are the main reasons for the deterioration of environmental sanitation, and most of them are man-made. Keeping the environment clean, reducing the breeding of parasites and germs, and cutting off their contact with people can reduce the occurrence of diseases.

　　A large area of cultivated land is polluted by pesticides to varying degrees.

　　With the development of rural economy, rural environmental pollution has attracted attention. Huang Jikun, director of the Agricultural Policy Research Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and others investigated the basic situation of environmental pollution in 101 villages in five provinces of China. The results show that 44% of the villages have deteriorated in the past 10 years, and factors such as the development of rural township enterprises, urbanization or the concentration of population residence have a significant negative impact on the rural environment. Wei Zhengzheng said that the main environmental health problems facing rural areas at present are water pollution, random stacking of domestic garbage and farmland soil problems.　

　　"Drinking irrigation in the 1960s, washing rice and vegetables in the 1970s, and the water quality deteriorated in the 1980s, and now it is black and smelly", which is a true portrayal of the changes in rural water environment. Domestic garbage in rural areas has developed from perishable vegetable leaves and peels to plastic bags, agricultural production films, fast food boxes, waste batteries, etc. Many of them are unrecoverable and non-degradable, which seriously pollutes the environment. A large area of cultivated land has been polluted by pesticides and toxic and harmful substances to varying degrees, mainly from industrial and urban sewage discharge, excessive and unreasonable use of pesticides and agricultural films in farmland, high environmental hormone content in large-scale livestock and poultry farms, and livestock manure, which has affected crops.　

　　To solve rural environmental problems, Wei Zhengzheng said that it is necessary to deal with solid wastes such as rural garbage, human and livestock manure, domestic garbage, domestic sewage and production wastewater, as well as the reduction and rational use of chemical fertilizers, and the control of pesticides and organic matter. First, thoroughly clean up all kinds of accumulated garbage in the village streets, in front of the house and behind the house, around the village and in public places, eliminate sanitary corners and have no exposed garbage. Clean up the floating objects and all kinds of sundries on the water surface of river ponds and ditches in villages, remove the indiscriminate construction, misplacing and illegal planting on the banks of rivers, and stop the sewage and feces from being discharged directly into rivers, enterprises exceeding the standard and burying rivers; The second is to establish a fixed garbage dump to realize centralized stacking and regular removal. Vigorously promote the rural garbage disposal mode of "household collection, village concentration, township transfer and county treatment", collect villagers’ domestic garbage and transport it to township transfer places in a centralized way. Conditional village, to establish a rural part-time cleaning team, set up a special garbage bin; Third, the management of human and animal feces, the implementation of harmless sanitary toilets. It is forbidden to defecate anywhere, the open pit should be covered, the excrement and urine should be disinfected by lime or bleaching powder for centralized treatment, and poultry and livestock should be kept in captivity to prevent their feces from polluting the environment and water sources. Keep the barn dry to reduce the chances of parasites and germs breeding; Fourth, take the development path of ecological agriculture, implement ecological balanced fertilization technology and ecological prevention technology, and control the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides from the source. Combined with water-saving irrigation technology, improve the efficiency of agricultural water and fertilizer utilization.

　　Citizens should not blindly oppose the construction of waste incineration plants.

　　Not only rural areas, but also urban environmental sanitation needs urgent attention. According to the data of National Bureau of Statistics, the urbanization rate of China has reached 57.35% in 2016. With the rapid development of cities, urban environmental problems are also developing rapidly. Urban air pollution, indoor air pollution, urban water shortage and water pollution, urban waste and garbage pollution have seriously affected people’s production and life.　

　　Global Burden of Disease Assessment in 2010 shows that outdoor PM2.5 air pollution caused 1.2 million premature deaths and more than 25 million years of healthy life in China in 2010. Gas burning pollution, industrial waste gas, dust from construction sites and motor vehicle exhaust have become the main air pollution sources in China. Excessive discharge of industrial wastewater and a large amount of domestic wastewater have been discharged into rivers without treatment. 78% of the river sections in China are not suitable for drinking water sources, and 50% of groundwater is polluted. Many cities such as Beijing and Xi ‘an have also experienced water supply crises. It is estimated that China’s annual economic losses caused by pollution amount to 40 billion yuan. The growth rate of urban solid waste is far greater than the carrying capacity of the environment. In 2015, the output of urban industrial solid waste in China was 1.91 billion tons, and the output of domestic waste was about 18,600 tons, which increased at the rate of 7%~8% every year. Two-thirds of the cities in China were surrounded by garbage. The accumulation of solid waste everywhere not only hinders the view, occupies land and spreads diseases, but also seriously pollutes the environment and intensifies the pollution of water, atmosphere and soil.　

　　Wei Zhengzheng said that the government and the public should take action to deal with urban environmental sanitation problems. First, we should actively participate in the prevention and control of air pollution, use clean energy as much as possible, build clean heating projects, give priority to public transport, reduce traffic exhaust emissions, and actively promote the use of new energy and fuel alternative vehicles; Second, pay attention to indoor air, choose green decoration materials, strengthen indoor ventilation, keep the living place and surrounding environment clean, often clean the sanitary corner, try to keep the residential room dry and reduce the reproduction of germs; Three, advocate water conservation, encourage the reuse of wastewater. Use various natural purification methods to treat sewage, and adopt new technologies and methods to purify water, so that sewage cannot be directly discharged into rivers, lakes and seas; Fourth, vigorously support the recycling and comprehensive utilization of garbage resources. The citizens should actively participate in garbage sorting and recycling, understand the two main ways of municipal solid waste disposal, landfill and garbage incineration, do not blindly oppose the construction of garbage incineration plants, support garbage incineration power generation to turn waste into treasure, and assist in supervising the operation and sewage discharge of garbage incineration plants. ▲