The role of environmental and occupational hazards in the adult health transition.
In the course of economic development from the pre-industrial to the post-industrial stages, human communities go through major social and economic transitions. The demographic transition, a long established concept, refers to the change from a stage of high birth rates and mortality rates to one of low birth rates and mortality rates. The mortality rates have always decreased before the birth rates, giving rise to a period of rapid population growth in each society. The recently-coined term "health transition" provides a more detailed view of the different aspects of the mortality decline and of the changes in morbidity and causes of morbidity which also accompany economic development. The health transition is associated with major changes in exposure to environmental and occupational health hazards. The traditional hazards of the pre-industrial stage include unsafe drinking-water, poor sanitation, infected food, tropical disease vectors, indoor air pollution from biomass smoke, and accidents in agriculture and fishing. Gradually these are replaced by or overlap with the modern hazards, such as urban air pollution, tobacco smoking, pesticides, occupational hazards in new industries and traffic accidents. The health impact of these hazards depends very much on the preventive measures taken. For some hazards there is an increasing health risk, in parallel with the increasing occurrence of the hazard, which is followed by a decreasing health risk as preventive actions become effective. This intervention transition does not occur automatically with economic development, but requires specific policies and plans, as well as community involvement. The adult age group (15-59 years) is likely to be at particular risk for environmental and occupational hazards which emerge during the health transition.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Kjellström
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T
Division of Environmental Health, World Health Organization, Geneva.
Rosenstock
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L
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003710:Demography; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000633:toxicity*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009017:Morbidity; D009026:Mortality; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D012306:Risk; D012922:Social Change
D004785:Environmental Pollutants