Video:How Does Pollution Affect Health?

Transcript:How Does Pollution Affect Health?

Hi I’m Christopher Padgett, an environmental scientist, for About.com and today we’ll be talking about the environment.

Water Pollution

One of the biggest factors in our daily life is pollution. Pollution can attack us in many different ways, all affecting our health. Water pollution is the contamination of water in lakes, rivers, oceans and ground water. It is polluted when it is impaired by contaminants without adequate treatment or removal. Water pollution is one of the leading worldwide causes of death and disease. There are many different types of pathogens and bacteria that can form in untreated and infected water.

Health Concerns

Water can become polluted from food processing waste, chemicals, silt, human waste and a variety of other ways including oil spills. Oil spills have ecologically crippled the gulf coast, contaminating the water and the wildlife that lived there. This can affect a human being's health in many ways. Obviously, drinking polluted water will harm you. There are many third world countries with no clean drinking source, which leads to widespread disease. Also, if you were to eat a fish that lived in this water, you would become ill as well. Some examples of water-borne diseases are typhoid, cholera, hepatitis, and amoebic dysentery.

Air Pollution

Air pollution can be just as deadly. Every day, the air is polluted in some way. It may include carbon monoxide, lead, and toxins such as mercury and arsenic. Every U.S. city has a fair amount of air pollution. This is especially evident in Los Angeles, where there is a smog problem due to the number of cars on the road. China and India also suffer very much from air pollution much worse than the U.S.

Respiratory Health Concerns

Ozone pollution can cause respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, throat inflammation and congestion. Inhaling smog can irritate your lungs, causing sunburn within the lungs. The people with the greatest risk of being affected by air pollution are young children, older adults, and people with asthma. People who work outside also face increased health risks.

Hopefully you now have a better idea about how pollution can affect your health. Do your part to try to help the environment to help not only you, but also your fellow man. Thanks for watching. If you'd like to learn more, please visit us on the web at About.com.