Building Health Workforce Capacity On Air Pollution And Health

Will help health professionals diagnose an individual's signs and symptoms that could be related to an indoor air pollution problem. Arranged according to pollutant group: environmental tobacco smoke, other combustion products, animal dander, molds, dust mites, other biologicals, volatile organic compounds, heavy metals (lead and mercury), sick building syndrome, and asbestos and radon. Provides diagnostic leads to help determine causes of each health problem. Answers common questions patients may have. Resources for health professionals and patients.

Ambient and household air pollution are a major cause of death and disease globally. This public health threat is being increased due to the rapid urbanization process and environmental degradation that characterizes the 21st century and that have a higher impact in developing countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) Urban Health Initiative (UHI) is implemented as a response to the World Health Assembly (WHA) Resolution 68.8 from May 2015, which requests WHO to build health sector capacity to work with other sectors, support countries to identify effective policy measures, track progress, and continue to update the evidence for health impacts of air pollution. WHO conducted a pilot project in the city of Accra (Ghana) to address air pollution and related health effects in cities in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). The Initiative provides a health-based implementation framework to reduce deaths and diseases associated with air pollutants, and realize climate and other health benefits (e.g., less injuries and safe physical activity). Particular attention has been given to assessing the impacts of policies in sectors responsible for air pollution, specifically household energy, land-use, waste and transport activities. This report includes discussions on the main results and impacts of the pilot project conducted in Accra. And it provides guidance and available tools that can be adapted to similar initiatives around the world to assess the health impacts of air pollution, promote policies to reduce air pollution and plan healthier environments.

The aim of this guidance is to enhance the capacity of health care facilities to protect and improve the health of their target communities in an unstable and changing climate; and to empower health care facilities to be environmentally sustainable, by optimizing the use of resources and minimizing the release of waste into the environment. This document aims to: - Guide professionals working in health care settings to understand and effectively prepare for the additional health risks posed by climate change. - Strengthen capacity to effectively conduct surveillance of climate-related diseases; and monitor, anticipate, manage and adapt to the health risks associated with climate change. - Guide health care facility officials to work with health determining sectors (including water and sanitation, energy, transportation, food, urban planning, environment; - Provide tools to assist health care facility officials assess their resilience to climate change threats etc. - Promote actions to ensure that health care facilities are constantly and increasingly strengthened and continue to be efficient and responsive to improve health, and contribute to reducing inequities and vulnerability within their local settings. The targeted audience is health care facilities and health care and public health agents.

This is a readable summary of what is known about the several threats to human health to be found in indoor air, whether in private homes, office buildings, or public places (but not in industrial plants).

The Oxford Handbook of Humanitarian Medicine is a practical guide covering all aspects of the provision of care in humanitarian situations and complex emergencies. It includes evidence-based clinical guidance, aimed specifically at resource limited situations, as well as essential non-clinical information relevant for people working in field operations and development. The handbook provides clear recommendations, from the experts, on the unique challenges faced by health providers in humanitarian settings including clinical presentations for which conventional medical training offers little preparation. It provides guidance for syndromic management approaches, and includes practical guidance on the integration of context specific mental health care. The handbook goes beyond the clinical domain, however, and also provides detailed information on the contextual issues involved in humanitarian operations, including health systems design, priorities in displacement, security and logistics. It outlines the underlying drivers at play in humanitarian settings, including economics, gender based inequities, and violence, guiding the reader through the epidemiological approaches in varied scenarios. It details the relevance of international law, and its practical application in complex emergencies, and covers the changing picture of humanitarian operations, with increasingly complicated and chaotic contexts and the escalation of violence against humanitarian providers and facility. The Oxford Handbook of Humanitarian Medicine draws on the accumulated experience of humanitarian practitioners from a variety of disciplines and contexts to provide an easily accessible source of information to guide the reader through the complicated scenarios found in humanitarian settings.