Health and Environment: The Impact of Technology

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Abstract

Technology is a very essential requirement in modern society and as result, things like waste production, resource exploitation; misuse and further technological research are inevitable. The major worry concerning environment conservation is release of material to the environment whose presence can be very damaging. Wastes from factories are the most feared substances that result in environmental degradation and health problems in living things. These wastes, in most cases, are hazardous to human health and the biosphere at large when improperly managed. There are campaigns all over the world to conserve the environment and prevent human beings from suffering from the effects that could emanate from inappropriate management of technology. In view of this, technological impact on the environment as well as human life has to be managed properly so that it is friendly and economical. As much as technology is hailed as having made life so easy and most of the things very convenient, it has contributed adversely on the destruction of the environment. People’s health is increasingly getting affected by environmental causes though medical services are improving so much as a result of technology.

Introduction

For the purpose of this study, referring to technology implies an instrument that enables better understanding of healthcare and maintaining better medical conditions through proper management of the environment and health information. Most of the people nowadays hold technology in very high regard. This is because it is here for human survival and betterment of life. However, this is not what technology seem to be achieving as it also comes with very devastating consequences that in fact threaten human life. Technology has been linked to the environment and human health for over 100 years now. The greatest occurrence being the industrial revolution which saw technology take new heights and increased disposal of waste to the environment. Human beings have been very relaxed in developing machinery that could be very critical in managing these wastes. Insomuch as technology is considered as the turning point of the society; it might as well as be the downfall of humanity if not properly managed. It also seems that there is even greater risk with the increasing advancement in technology. Not only have people fabricated new technology for healthcare, but have also constructed factories that continue to pollute the environment ranging from the air pollution, radioactive radiations, noise and water pollution

Impact of Technology on Health

Technology does not only refer to what is called high-tech creativity, inventiveness and computerization, but also simple crafting and transforming of some materials so that man is able to maneuver with the natural resources and satisfy his needs (Grundfest, 2005). Even as early as the Stone Age period, man was able to create simple tools that helped make life so easy and working very convenient. However with time, technology was no longer restricted to meeting the basic needs for survival; there has come a time of civilization which has seen people get more sophisticated in terms of weaponry, better work performance and communication. Critical in this technology advances is the healthcare service (Misra & Padey, 2005).

The information and communication sector of healthcare is advancing at a very fast rate. Most of the workplaces and markets are undergoing very drastic changes and are adapting the new technologies and exploiting them for greater efficiency. The changes that have been observed in the healthcare sector and the laboratories have greatly improved (Misra & Padey, 2005). Basically a laboratory to a hospital or any other health institution is like an insurance that covers people from disastrous consequences. Many healthcare facilities operate laboratories that are very well equipped with almost all the relevant machinery necessary for work; for instance the biomedical devices and other testing tools. The biotechnology and information integrated systems are a recent inventions that were not in existence 20 years back (Misra & Padey, 2005).

The diagnosis of many diseases has become digitized and faster. Sophisticated Processes like the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and ELISA have been automated and no longer take several days for results to be achieved as they used to. Changes and improvements like oracle health care transactions base are very valuable and have improved the delivery of services considerably (Grundfest, 2005). This is a foundation of the healthcare sector that has been offering support to the integration and operation of variety of health services applications and thus contributing to the betterment of the healthcare sector. This platform combines the all-inclusive, standard based, healthcare oriented information with a strong set of services that are inbuilt and integrated (Grundfest, 2005). Over the past two decades, health care facilities have faced very many problems in provision of access to views of clinical information. Currently, the information is stored in systems that access and interoperability obstructions have made it almost impossible to expose integrated views on a patient’s information (Patel & Rushfsky 2002).

Internal sharing of data in the healthcare facility is greatly enhanced today. In many occasions, administrative, clinical, and financial departments have been operating independently and data collection has been in stored in bulk. Data disparities existed that led to a lot of confusions, yet this information is necessary for the overall care of the patient (Patel & Rushfsky 2002). The changes of assembling, accessing, cross-referencing, normalizing have been solved by ICT unlike 20 year ago when paper work dominated and no easy interaction.

In this 21^st century, the healthcare facilities have become more dynamic and as a result, have developed insatiable need of information technology in order to offer better services to the clients and compete favorably against other sectors (Patel & Rushfsky 2002).

Patient recruitment system is a software application that has streamlined the process of patient identification and access to his/her detailed health profile; diagnosis, condition, symptoms etc. For new research these queries help to offer information on whether the patient meets the defined research criteria or not. Bio-bank system is also very important in the storage of information about the patient’s clinical data, specimens, and other assays (Grundfest, 2005). These systems aid identification and validation of drug targets. Healthcare information exchange (HIE) is also very helpful as it has enabled the sharing of information on regular basis (Grundfest, 2005). The hospital affiliates and referrals, public agencies and other regional organizations need information from the IT section.

Despite better advances in technology, there are some very bad consequences that come with it. Critical to this is the effects on the environment. Human beings have been very active in the biosphere as greatest manipulators though they have been irresponsible on many occasions. This results in degradation of the environment. The outcomes are felt in terms of human health problems (Grundfest, 2005). This is quite ironic that while man is developing very sophisticated methods of care delivery, the same technology on the other hand has increased health risks to a very considerable level.

Negative Environmental Effects on Health

Many technological processes have ended up in air and water pollution. Water pollution on the other hand has translated into very devastating health or medical cases (Grundfest, 2005). Disposing off of the liquid wastes and those chemical that dissolve in water is very important in conservation of environment and lining up to the pledge of the world health organization (WHO) of ensuring a better technology that support sustainability of the environment (UN, 2001). Management of wastes from industries has not been very efficient and many firms actually do not have wastes disposal plans that are workable. As a result, water pollution is still a very big problem (Grundfest, 2005). Efforts to make use of recycling processes have not been successful in companies that do not have enough capital to invest in waste management. The mode of disposal has been therefore to let the liquid and soluble wastes pour into water bodies like streams or to dispose in poorly managed landfills.

Water pollution is not only damaging to the water animal but also to human beings. This can result in sickness or even deaths (Grundfest, 2005. Water pollution from landfills is the commonest problem that has seen some solutions which are intended to bring about creation of wealth or creation of jobs from these sites (Brehm & Mullner, 2001). There are a number of features of landfills that are potential risks for water pollution, they include; ground water and aquifers leakage; soil fill; off-gassing; and harboring of diseases vectors. Polluted water from land fills regarded as useless and filthy in many areas hence denying some exploiters a chance to reuse the water (Brehm & Mullner, 2001).

Practically, all the types of water pollution are very damaging to the health of humans, animals and even plants (Brehm & Mullner, 2001). The different pollutions have different effects. For instance, heavy metals emitted from industries can get accumulated in water bodies. These can be very dangerous to marine life and subsequently to human life. The effects of this are slowed body development, mental problems, birth defects and cancers since some of then are usually carcinogens. There is also some microbial pollution from sewage. This often results in diseases like typhoid or cholera which is very fatal of not diagnosed and managed in time (Brehm & Mullner, 2001). There are some pollutants that come from industrial farming like organic matter that pollutes water.

There are several laws that are set to ensure that the water resources are not deliberately polluted and that the countries or organization that is found doing so should take the responsibilities (Eilyss, 1989). The world nations are encouraged to be aware of the type of wasted they are disposing in this new technology era so that, the harmful one are not released to stay free in the environment to cause problems especially health. The collapses of environment globally foreseeable if the people remain relaxed and do nothing; on the international level, pollution of the sea is the worst threat. Common causes are usually from oil mining, industrial effluent and erosion (Javed, 1989). As such there is the international law of the sea.

In 1982, the United Nations organization (U.N) conceived the treaty known as the law of the sea as a way of governing and ensuring safer utilization of the seas by countries either over, or beneath the surface of the ocean (Javed, 1989). The accord also contains some directives on the law of the mining in the deep sea and the relocation of resources to the underdeveloped nations and marine business, research developments, pollution, and resolution of disputes.

The Law of the sea (LOS) is an agreement among world nations concerning regulation of activities like navigation and sea transit rights; territorial demarcations in the sea, legal regulation of the sea resources and their conservation; as well as other issues of ocean management. It attempts to deal with the current conflicts over the waters of the sea. Since its inception, some people referred to it as the most vital legal tool of the 20^th century (Mukhi & Srivastava, 1997).

The accord set up some legal principles to govern the ocean space, its use and exploitation of all the resources from it. The law of the sea also established a contractual process for dispute resolution between countries and instituted an international tribunal for this duty. The agreement also takes into consideration the right to conduct research (specifically scientific investigations) (Mukhi & Srivastava, 1997). It also explains the major cause of pollution of sea waters including coastal activities like drilling, dumping and pollution by marine vessels. The law also controls the activities of a nation beyond its sea territorial jurisdiction; it includes deep sea mining and possible spills (Mukhi & Srivastava, 1997).

Impact of Air Pollution on Health

The adverse effects of air pollution are very common all over the world and they include mostly respiratory diseases and it’s been alleged that the reduction in the life expectancies is due to these types of pollution. There is also scientific proof that the infant mortality rates are very high in those areas that have been observed to be highly polluted (Mukhi & Srivastava, 1997). Concerns about the dangers of the air pollution have also resulted in creation of regulatory laws that are aimed at mitigating emission of detrimental pollutants to the air at global and national levels. There are other measures that are very effective in reducing the impact of environmental pollution on health but these are very expensive. This therefore means that there is need to have accurate and more informed decision concerning health and air pollution based on scientific evidence (Mukhi & Srivastava, 1997).

The causes of air pollution are so diverse and range from very complex mixtures of particles that could be gases, liquid or solids. Several hundreds of substances potentially injurious have been found in the atmosphere (Maddison, 1997). However for this study, few of them will be addressed briefly due to lack of time and space. They are; Particulate matter, carbon gases and nitrogen. This should however not be seen to imply that other pollutants are not dangerous.

Getting exposed to ambient pollutants in the air has been connected to several health problems ranging from reticent transient effects in there respiratory system to complete impairment of the pulmonary system functionality. There is also a very strong link between air pollution and prevalence of cardiovascular diseases as well. The most severe effect is the lessening of life expectancies (Javed, 1989). Exposure to particulate matter in short term can result in high mortality rates, increased hospitalization, and adverse impact on the cardiovascular system and lung infections. Long term exposure leads to reduced lung function, symptoms of lower respiratory inflammation, and chronic diseases symptoms of obstructive pulmonary disease (UN, 2001). The effects of carbon gases exposure are also similar casing very adverse outcomes on the respiratory tract, lung infection, reduced pulmonary function and poor lung developments. Nitrogen gases like nitrogen dioxide exposure results pulmonary infection especially asthmatics, allergic reactions and symptoms of pulmonary tract inflammation. Also notable are increased deaths, admission and medication costs (UN, 2001).

Can the reduction in air pollution lead to better health? There have been a lot of epidemiologic and toxicological studies that have been carried out in Europe and the US, whose result’s show that reduced air pollution translate to reduced health problems. It’s also imperative to note that there are some people who are more susceptible than others (UN, 2001). Susceptibility is also determined by the duration of the expose and underling medical or health conditions of the individuals. The infants and unborn are very sensitive to pollutants while those already suffering from cardio-respiratory problems are worse hit in the event of an exposure (UN, 2001).

Considering that there are some safer exposure limits, the WHO has regulations that ensure that the pollution should not go beyond these limits and reach threshold of causing problems to humans.

Radioactive Radiation Pollution

Radiations in the environments are very dangerous. These types of radiation were developed during the world war times as the world was trying to exploit all forms of energy and weaponry (UN, 2001). The atomic bombs were most significant in causing serious damage at that time. In history the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki left very devastating impact that lasted for years as it affected that genetic material of the victims. Releasing radioactive substances to the environment or the particles described as high –energy is what can be explained as pollution. This can happen as a result of human activities or accidentally (UN, 2001). This is the reason why nuclear plants all over the world are restricted to a certain levels of production and are usually handled with greatest precaution since at times accidents can be inevitable.

Sources of such pollution can be from testing of the nuclear weaponry; use of the nuclear energy as fuel; extraction of nuclear, and separation; accidental leaks from production plants and some times natural sources are just released form the ground for instance radon (UN, 2001). Considering the fact that a very small leak of radioactive material can have a cumulative consequence on human health since it can alter the genetic composition; the wastes can still be toxic in the environment for hundreds of years, this type of pollution is very dangerous and most detrimental.

This problem is further compounded by the fact that it’s very difficult to assess its effects. Its spread could be very rapid and very irregular and may not present symptoms in humans or animals for several years like cancers or other chronic diseases (Harrison, 2001a). The damage caused by such pollution is dependent on the half-life of the compound and also the rate at which it can be absorbed and excreted by an organism.

Researchers have often used the single celled animals since they can reproduce very fast and if they genetic composition is altered; it can easily be presented through the offspring. The situation is quite different for large animals like humans. Faster changes can however be is observed in the cells that divide very fast like the skin, intestines, gonads and blood cells tissue (Harrison, 2001a). Radioactive elements destroy the bases in the DNA causing cross linking which is in turn expressed as cancers and congenital defects. Regardless of the fact that the body has a mechanism of repairing such defects, this can take a very long time when the consequences are so big. However when the exposure was short and the effects not so much, the body can repair this (Harrison, 2001a).

Scientists differ about the threshold dose that can result in some damage. Some argue that there is no such thing and that any amount of exposure could be harmful as every dosage had a finite risk. Furthermore, the damage perceived to be caused by low dose could be as a result of cumulative impact or additive harm from previous exposures to other substances (Harrison, 2001a). Other scientists believe that there is as threshold that has to be attained for some impact to be observed or felt. It’s imperative to note that though the radioactive pollution is linked to genetic problems, it does not necessarily have to cause this as research in Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not expose any problems in the siblings of the victims (Harrison, 2001a). The parents however suffered high rates of cancers and other diseases.

There is a legislation on international management of the radioactive materials. This law is set to make sure that radioactive substances are well safeguarded to augment the wellbeing of the public health and to promote peaceful and responsible exploitation of nuclear energy (Harrison, 2001a). Nuclear energy usage is proving to be very important in sectors of medical delivery, industrial production, national defense and scientific research. And as such, it’s continually exploited hence the need to regulate possible damage to the environment. The law requires that governments should incorporate controls and prevention measures for nuclear pollution in their environmental protection plans (Eisenbud, 1998).

Health Impact Resulting from GMO’s and Environment

Over the recent past, humanity faced difficult issues emerging from technology development, environment degradation and human health concerns all of which were deemed of utmost importance since they concerned future survival of the race. Overpopulation and availability of food formed the greatest percentage of the issues in the millennium goals (Eisenbud, 1998). Food systems particularly what humans have to eat and produce need to be addressed specifically because they could stem into crises (food insecurity) if not attended to in time. A very crucial measure suggested was the introduction of biotechnology in the production of food especially for the developing nations which faced the greatest problems of food shortage due to poverty, unfavorable climatic conditions and poor farming methods (Eisenbud, 1998).

Over the past few years many researchers have come up to question the safety of the genetically modified foods on human health and the environment. There are possible negative effects these GMO’s have on the environment and subsequently human health (Hollis, 1996). There are bio-safety analyses that are proposed to assess the risk these GMO’s pose on human health (Eisenbud, 1998). Such techniques include human health, molecular characterization and effects on other living and non-living components in the environments. There has not been a standard formula for ensuring proper safety checks and those already available vary a greatly from case to case. However, mostly molecular characterization has been very important in investigation several aspects on environment (Rogers et al, 2008).

On the international level, the world health organization (WHO) is actively involved in ensuring that the human beings get safer food for consumption. The organization has set authorities that ensure that those food stuffs that have risk on human health and the environment at larges are assessed and recommendations made (Rogers et al, 2008). Experts suggest that though the GMO’s could have some potential damage, this can be managed.

What are these risks to human health? GM food stuffs are always tested by the WHO to assess the direct effect on health which include toxicity; the probability to inflict and aggravate allergic reactions as in allergenicity; specified components believed to possess toxic characteristic; stability of the modified genes; nutritional consequences of the new genes inserted and the possibility of having unintended outcomes as a result of gene insertion (Rogers et al, 2008).

Possible risks to human life have been assessed and it’s believed that these could be potentially dangerous given that effect could be out of control. Though in theory, a lot of aspects are questioned, on three of them are very significant and will be briefly explained in this paper. They include allergic tendencies, out-crossing and gene transfers (Rogers et al, 2008).

Allergenicity: principally, transferring genes that are from foods that are commonly known to be allergic is very much discouraged save it be that it can be demonstrated to not to carry with it the type of protein that is causing the allergic reactions (Callan & Thomas, 1996). Though the traditionally produced foods do not undergo such tests, the WHO recommends it for the GMO’s because of the fears that have been raised across the world. However, WHO and FAO have not so far found any allergic effects in the GM foods that are currently on the market (Rogers et al, 2008).

Gene Transfer: this is where possible transfer of genes from the GM foods to the human body cells or to intestinal bacteria is analyzed to determine whether this can cause any concerns. In case the genetic material can have adverse effects on human health, recommendations are made not to use it. This would be very critical if the antibiotic resistant gene used could be transferred (Rogers et al, 2008). Though this probability is very low, the WHO and FAO encourage the use of GMO without the resistance genes.

Out-crossing: sometimes, genes can move from the GMO’s into the wild or conventional species; or there could be mixing of the GMO’s and other crops. This could have indirect impact on the safety of the food stuffs. This risk is a reality as it was once revealed in the maize products produced in the US for human consumption. Several nations are now setting in place some strategies and controlling means to reduce the chances of mixing (Eisenbud, 1998).

The risk of the GMO’s on the environment includes effects of the GMO in the environment and their stability in free environment considering the variation of the normal ecology (Hollis, 1996). The assessment of such can include investigating the unintended effects of the new gene. Issues of concerns include the ability of the genes to get into the wild species and persist in these non-target organisms even after harvesting. Reducing the spectrum of other organism and limiting the biodiversity (Raffensperger & Tickner, 1999). There is also a problem as there will be increased use of chemical in agriculture. The risk to the environment is the possible negative effects on the non- pest insects that are in fact very beneficial in agriculture. Another concern is the possibility of generating new crop pathogens; there could be possible negative effects of the plant biodiversity on plants and animals (Raffensperger & Tickner, 1999). The ability to resist herbicides could be transferred to the weeds.

Methodology

The problem of assessing the impact of technology on health and environment has two major categories. First is that there is so much difficulty in the real identification of the impact and measuring it as well (Maddison, 1997). Secondly, once determination of the impact has been made possible, it’s in most cases very necessary that monetary costs are estimated for the related deaths (mortality) and diseases occurrence (morbidity) (Ostro, 1994).

The most appropriate technique or methodology used to assess the impact of environmental pollution on health is conducting an epidemiological research in the selected region and establish the Dose-Response Relationship (SRR) (Raffensperger & Tickner, 1999). This relationship links the environmental consequences with the health outcomes that are observable. However considering the cost of carrying out DRR experiments, information from other DRR’s already established will be used for the study (Maddison, 1997). This method will also apply to the water and air pollution impact since these are the major sources of contact with humans in the event of environmental pollution. The investigation of the water dose response reaction, the outcomes become very complicated because it’s not the industrial effluent polluted water per se that results in health problems but also individual hygiene in the individual houses (Maddison, 1997).

Air Pollution Investigation

The dose – response investigation will be used to investigate the way mortality and morbidity is correlated to the ambient air pollution by a certain pollutant. The common pollutants are the particulate matters which are therefore analyzed from the studies. The selection of that area to be studied will be those regions that are identified by WHO as polluted (Ostro, 1994). Sample will be the residents of such areas randomly selected for the study. Cases of deaths can be increased through chronic exposure to the pollutants that aggravate the sickness and result in deists. Acute exposure on the other hand can heighten the chances of a person with compromised health to get worse and most susceptible people die (Ostro, 1994). Previously researchers have indicated that very fine particles in the air are more injurious as they are highly linked with high morbidity and mortality rates (Maddison, 1997).

Though single studies in the past indicated relationship between effects on health and the specific pollutant, this is not sure proof that the deaths were as a result of the pollutant. It’s important to vary out several studies so that if the outcomes are duplicated across various regions with such type of pollutant, conclusion can be drawn from them (Ostro, 1994). In such cases then epidemiologic research design to be used will be the meta-analysis which will work on the basis of statistical pool and aggregation of the results. When the results are supported by the clinical and toxicology studies then the research is valid (Maddison, et al 1997).

The study will have to use time-series whereby the results will be drawn from it in relation to the number of occurrences (Callan & Thomas, 1996). A second design will be cross-sectional studies. These studies have a major advantage of not having to compound other wider array of factors since population characteristics like smoking, occupational exposure, sex, age and so on are not affected (Maddison, et al 1997).

A cross-sectional analysis makes comparisons of various health effects on several regions that are selected for study. These cross-sectional studies will be divided into two; the retrospective and the prospective cohorts. The prospective studies are usually very beneficial though take a lot of time and are very costly (Maddison, et al 1997). For that reason, the study will focus on the short term implication of environment pollution on health. The studies assess the current disease occurrence against past exposure in retrospective survey and use present exposure and make a follow-up for the occurrence of health problems in future for the prospective cohort (Maddison, et al 1997).

A 2 x 2 table for the Cohort Studies

	Disease Occurrence	No Disease Occurrence
Exposure to pollutant	A	B
No Exposure to Pollutant	C	D

Water-Pollution Studies

Samples from water bodies and drinking taps will be collected for assessment for the presence of water pollutants that are from industrial wastes for instance heavy metals (leas and zinc compounds), and also those from agriculture like pesticides, and herbicides (Harrison, 2001b). Running Water from dump site and especially from landfills will be sampled since they usually end up in water bodies where drinking water is at times drawn into purification system then channeled to water pipes for domestic use (Maddison, et al 1997).

Epidemiological studies to investigate the health problems resulting from water pollution will just be like those done for the air pollution. The research design will be retrospective and prospective cohort (Harrison, 2001b). Basically the heavy metal contamination is very dangerous in terms of wreaking health problems. Cadmium, lead, and mercury are very common causes of pollution and hence these health concerns.

Results and Discussion

Assessment of the impact of technology on health and environment is very important in the current society since, degradation of environment and health problems that result are increasingly becoming the major problems in the world today (Raffensperger & Tickner, 1999). Since the impact is of magnitude significance, there should be sufficient evidence to ensure that the exposure can be connected to the occurrence of the disease with a very strong literature backing (Maddison, et al 1997). The systematic review of documented researchers will offer convincing proof that the effects observed during the study are valid and accurate.

The exposure – response variables will be determined from the study and support obtained from literature about the concentration – response variable for a number of health problems (Harrison, 2001b). Assessing the exposure of a general population to the cause of the disease explains the occurrence of the disease. When there is a long-term exposure to the pollutants, then occurrence of a diseases is determined, then this can form the basis of concluding that the exposure was indeed the underlying case of the disease (Harrison, 2001b).

There will be direct correlation between the exposures to the pollutant with the disease occurrence. This is because there is very high correlation from previous studies as well (Callan & Thomas, 1996). Basically when epidemiologic results are duplicated, it implies that the results are more accurate. When people inhale polluted these pollutants get absorbed into the bloodstream and through this, they are transported to through the cardiovascular system which means it will be deposited within the blood vessels or the heart. These chemical can interact with the biological substances in the body and as a consequence cause some structural changes like causing inflammation or necrosis. Other could even cause functional problems that could see the heart and other part of the cardiovascular system function improperly (Stewart, 2002). Arrhythmic problems could be fatal.

Lung diseases are very common in areas that air polluted. When ambient particles contaminate air from industrial emissions and get into the body through the lungs, problems ensure. The respiratory system is very sensitive. This is because its tissues are made up of very susceptible tissues as they are very much exposed. Due to the work of the lungs (air exchange), it’s very easy to bring the pollutants to the lung tissues (Stewart, 2002). These pollutants injure the lungs directly like ozone or the free radicals in air and metals. Furthermore, the lung tissues have the bioactivation enzymes that are able to transform the air pollutants into some very reactive compounds that result into further injuries.

Water pollution is very complicated as there are many pollutants that get into water and could not be from industrial effluent (Stewart, 2002). However, the impact of such contamination gets directly in contact with the intestines upon consumption. They can react with the bacteria in the intestines or get absorbed into bloodstream resulting in health problem. The most common are the diarrheas diseases.

Conclusion

Considering that the impact on the environment is indicated via climatic changes for instance the impact of carbon gas emissions and acidic rains, it’s important to ensure that a very strong policy is developed to function throughout the world to control possible and further degradation of the environment. Many of the climatic changes that occur as a result of the technological tests and other scientific experiments are trans-boundary in nature implying that the mistakes of one nation could affect the entire region and event the world at large for instance global warming effects. For this reason, the prevention of such occurrences has to be addressed effectively and this can only take place by international cooperation. Precautionary principle comes to mind very fast as its one of the internationally approved strategies to curb such undertakings that causes great risk to the public. It’s for the same reasons that the principle has been endorsed by the European Community having been incorporated in their environmental policies to encourage regional solutions to the climate problems at international level. Degradation is very fast and failing to address the problem with same momentum would be like ‘sitting on a time bomb waiting to explode’. It is the right time for the whole world to take charge as the capacity to absorb and conquer the negative climatic effects was very low implying that human beings have to be more cautious than they have previously been.

The world scholars including lawyers, scientists, environmentalists, and policy makers came up with the wingspread declaration at the headquarters of the Johnson Foundation. The statement included the verity that an activity should be stopped or intervened upon as precautionary strategy if its suspected to be a threat to the public especially health wise even when the cause and effect connection is not clearly proven by scientific research or test.

Currently, there are a lot of forewarning symptoms that hint at an approaching disaster calling for intervention or use of the precautionary method. Some of the presenting signs are the people themselves as the state of health problems is increasing with many individuals suffering mental or learning disability, a lot of asthmatic and respiratory problems, and several cancerous conditions among others. Other dangerous signs to watch include poor plant growth and development of animal species, the consistent depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer and the increased signs that global warming is taking place. The problems that could result from climatic changes like the cases of cancer ailments or the consequences of global warming could be too large, the causes very varied and the outcomes could be too long-term to be evaluated out with irrefutable or evidence scientific research that would link the cause to the effects. For faster conclusions, people have to rely on the general observations, intuitive common sense reasoning, case studies and postulations that are founded on the general knowledge.

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