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What is Environmental Health and How Can You Improve Yours?

Young man and woman jogging outdoor in nature.

These days, more and more people are starting to go green, live a minimalistic life, recycle, and buy organic. One of the most important reasons is to protect the Earth and our life on it. This is the concept of environmental health.

There are so many bad influences like excess of carbon dioxide, methane, and other gases that affect environmental health.

What is Environmental Health?

The easiest way to explain it is that it is a science and practice that protects all living and breathing humans from various environmental hazards.

What Is Environmental Health? – Chartered Institute of Environmental Health

It is preventing human injury and illness and promoting well-being. By reducing unhealthy habits and committing to doing everything in your power as an individual, you contribute to environmental health every day. The choices you make and the paths you choose to go are crucial to the Earth, which serves fresh air and clean water. But for the Earth to help people, people must support it first! Here’s how to help the environment.

9 Ways You Can Improve Environmental Health

Walk More

Instead of driving, choose to walk or ride your bike. Not only will you improve environmental health, but you will also boost your health and burn extra calories. By creating a healthy habit to walk at least a couple of miles each day, you reduce a significant amount of carbon dioxide you would otherwise emit to the atmosphere by driving.

Reuse Your Plastics

If you’re anything like me, you drink 3–4 liters of water per day—and there’s nothing wrong with that if you’re using eco bottles. Try to imagine the water bottle hill you would be creating yourself in one month using single-use plastic bottles. Let’s see—if you’re drinking 3 liters per day and you are buying one-liter disposable bottles, that’s three bottles per day. Multiply that by 30 days in a month; you’ll get 90 bottles per month! By buying an eco-friendly bottle, you are not only saving the environment, but you are also saving unnecessary expense.

Volunteer woman doing dispose, recycle and waste management.
By Eco-friendly Bottles To Save Our Environment And Unnecessary Expense (Image Source: Shutterstock)

Buy Organic Food

When buying food, try buying locally grown veggies and fruits. Buying them at the supermarket often brings the risk of not knowing when the groceries are harvested, and whether they’re fresh or not. By going to the farmers’ market, you can eat freshly harvested food and do a good deed by supporting local farmers, as well.

Make Your Own Cleaners

Have you ever wondered how our predecessors cleaned their bathrooms, kitchens, and other areas? They did not have the chemicals you use today to clean your home. Instead, they used white vinegar and baking soda for cleaning as natural cleaning products. There are many recipes on the internet to create an eco-friendly and powerful cleaning formula. Adding a couple of essential oil drops or even a squeeze of lemon juice will make your house not only sparkly clean, but it will also smell great.

Keep It Green

There is quite a long lift of the pros when it comes to planting. Number one is the oxygen every planted tree unselfishly shares with us, so plant a treeor two. If you have kids, “how to plant a tree” makes for a perfect family project. Nourishing an eco-friendly state of mind is essential from a young age. Ensure your kids know why you’re planting the tree, what’s so good about nature, and how they can help environmental health.

Eat Less Meat

Believe it or not, eating less meat has a lot to do with greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere. By choosing to eat less meat, less livestock is needed, resulting in less methane in the air. There are about 1.5 billion cattle in the world. Each cow, on average, produces 70–120 kilos of methane per year! If you’re not ready to become a vegetarian or vegan, try reducing one red-meat meal at a time and eat fish or other delicious specialties from the vegetarian diet.

Animal protein sources- meat.
By Choosing To Eat Less Meat, Less Livestock Is Needed, Resulting In Less Methane In The Air (Image Source: Shutterstock)

Grow Your Own Food

If you have a garden of your own, you can start producing your food. You don’t need to be a professional to harvest a couple of lovely crops from your own garden. All the plants want is some sunshine and water, and a little love. They need water, so make sure to water them regularly, and they will return the love with a tasty crop for your next meal.

Wear Organic Clothing

Did you know the fast fashion industry is one of the planet’s primary pollutants in the world? The production of clothes is harmful to the environment due to chemicals and waste.

Woman in natural clothes with an eco mesh string bag.
The Production Of Clothes Is Harmful To The Environment Due To Chemicals And Waste (Image Source: Shutterstock)

Luckily, more and more brands are becoming aware of the problem and are starting to utilize low-impact dying, upcycle natural materials, and grow organic cotton. If you are willing to search, you will find every clothing piece made in an eco-friendly manner.

Environmental Health is Good for your Mental Health

Caring for the environment is good for your mental health. Pandemic and quarantine have taken their toll, and you need to take care of your mental health now more than ever. A recent study showed that climate change affects people’s mental health so that they are becoming anxious and depressed. Air pollution is considered the most significant factor in climate change, and it is often linked to many mental illnesses—such as dementia, anxiety, and depression. Apart from mental health, it is also harmful to our heart health, lungs, and other organs.

Environmental Health Starts with You

So instead of adding to the pollution, choose your bike as transportation to work, choose eco-friendly bottles for your water, and choose your clothing wisely. You might think you can’t change the world as just one individual, but I beg to differ. Individuals create change. Individuals stand out, and individuals are the ones that create a different point of view.

Be the change for environmental health by showing other people how it’s done. Start creating change today by making small decisions that will make a great impact in the long run.