Francis Anthony B.

Losloso, RN
MAN-AHN
March, 2019

ARTICLE: Decreasing Environmental Health Risk in the Philippines: Implementation of a

Culturally Appropriate Screening Tool

Maintaining a health friendly environment is very difficult to achieve nowadays

especially in the Philippines. Multiple factors are to be considered in achieving a safe
environment. Stepping out of the house already exposes an individual to a lot of environmental
hazard. These are prominent especially in urban places since we are in the verge of
modernization. In this generation, we are going to have a hard time establishing and defining
what safe environment is.

Poverty has been identified as one of the causes why our environment is considered
unsafe. Just by looking our surroundings, we can see people with poor hygiene, not being able
to take a bath, homeless people lying around the street sleeping with their pet dogs, people
spitting in the ground, throwing trash everywhere and many more. These factors can be linked
to lack of education, some people know the consequences but still do it anyway. Limited
posters can be seen outside stating “do not throw trash here” and so, people will throw their
trash on the other side, still not following proper waste disposal.

Proper waste segregation and disposal has been actively campaigned by our
government, but few people chose to obey it. This results to water contamination, clogged
water drainage that results to flood after a heavy rain which causes people at risk of being in
contact with urine from infected animals leading to leptospirosis. Recently the government was
able to pursue the Manila Bay Clean Up drive and was considered as success. However, despite
it is considered to be a successful project, people especially the homeless eventually swam over
the bay which exposes them to coliform bacteria.

Increasing population also contributes to environmental problems. Overcrowding poses

a great risk for acquiring communicable diseases like respiratory infections due to inadequate
ventilation among houses. Recently there was a breakout of measles which easily spread over
specific places in our country, because of lack of education regarding risks and benefits of
having measles vaccine.

Talking about respiratory infections, according to WHO (2017) taken from the article,
the annual average air quality index in Manila, Philippines exceeds the recommended safe level
by 70%. It is caused by outdoor air pollution primarily from motor vehicles, factories and people
who smoke. Common mode of smoking nowadays is the use of electric cigarette, also known as
vape. According to another article stated in my reference, e-cigarette aerosol has been
identified as a major source of indoor air pollution which impairs indoor air quality. About 1 in 4
deaths in the Philippines has been attributed to air pollutions. 25% of all deaths and diseases
results from lung cancer (WHO, 2017).
 All these stated environmental risk factors and a lot more that has not been stated is
associated with the increase of neurological, respiratory, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal
diseases. As a result, there is an increase in number of patients being hospitalized. In my area of
assignment in the ENT-Ward, most of my patients were diagnosed with mouth-laryngeal mass
and majority of them has history of smoking and poor house ventilation. Senate bill 1599
indicates the proposal of increasing the excise tax on cigarettes, regardless of brand to PHP60
per pack (Pacquiao, 2019). The youth and those who have financial constraints will greatly
benefit in preventing them to become smoker. It will help in decreasing the number of smokers
in our country.

The article is geared towards educating and training health care workers to decrease
environmental health risk in the Philippines. The researchers were able to have positive findings
in the study which helped them equip nurses in screening patients for environmental health
risk in utilizing the “Environmental Health and Safety Assessment Tool” which was translated in
Tagalog.

Proper training and education are the most important weapon in fighting environmental
health risk and threats. Nurses have a big responsibility in relaying this information to lay
people. Innovations such as infographics, videos, advertisements and programs were
implemented to ensure that people will be aware and responsible in taking care of the
environment and in return, the environment will also take care of their health.

References:

http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1062908
https://repository.usfca.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1155&context=dnp
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-017-0005-x