World Environment Day

World Environment Day

Syllabus

GS 3: Environment

Why in the News?

World Environment Day 2025, celebrated on June 5, focuses on plastic pollution and urges India to adopt exposomics to combat its rising environmental health risks and disease burden. This year’s theme echoes the “World Environment Day 2023 beat plastic pollution” campaign, highlighting the ongoing global effort to address this critical issue.

Introduction

• World Environment Day 2025 focuses on ending plastic pollution, highlighting the larger issue of hidden environmental hazards. The theme “Beat Plastic Pollution” emphasizes the urgent need for global action on this pervasive environmental problem, building on the momentum from previous years’ initiatives for environmental protection.
• India, already burdened with high environmental health risks, must urgently adopt new scientific tools like exposomics. This approach is crucial for addressing the growing concerns about plastic waste and its effect on the environment.
• This approach integrates all life-long environmental exposures to develop holistic health strategies and strengthen public health infrastructure. It considers various factors, including chemical exposures and environmental toxins, to provide a comprehensive understanding of environmental impacts on global health.

Rising Environmental Health Burden in India

• India contributes nearly 25% of the global environmental disease burden, highlighting the need for improved environmental management strategies.
• Rapid economic growth has increased exposure to harmful environmental risks, including plastic pollution and microplastics.
• There is growing complexity in how the environment and lifestyle interact, creating new public health challenges. This includes the impact of plastic waste on ecosystem health and human wellbeing.

Limitations of Current Approaches

• Current health indicators only focus on a few known risk factors.
• Around 11 environmental risk factors are studied in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) estimates, which may not fully capture the impact of issues like plastic pollution.
• This limited scope leads to underestimations and ineffective prioritization of preventive strategies, particularly in addressing complex environmental issues like waste management and recycling.
• Piece-meal methods create health inequities and escalate public health costs, highlighting the need for a more comprehensive approach to environmental policy.

Global Burden of Disease and Its Findings

• WHO began estimating the environmental burden of disease in 2000.
• According to the 2021 GBD cycle: o Environmental and occupational health (OEH) risks led to 18.9% of global deaths (12.8 million). o These risks caused 14.4% of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). o PM2.5 air pollution led to 4.2% DALYs and 4.7 million deaths. o Household air pollution caused by solid fuels caused 3.9% DALYs and 3.1 million deaths.

These findings underscore the significant health impacts of environmental factors, including plastic pollution and other forms of environmental degradation.

India’s Specific Environmental Health Crisis

• Nearly 3 million deaths in India are linked to OEH risks, highlighting the urgent need for effective environmental management strategies.
• Over 100 million DALYs in India are due to such risk factors, including those related to plastic pollution and other environmental toxins.
• Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, asthma, stroke, and diabetes are increasingly attributed to environmental causes, including exposure to microplastics and other pollutants.
• Lead exposure is especially dangerous to children under five, resulting in India accounting for 154 million lost IQ points, 20% of the global loss. This underscores the critical need for comprehensive environmental protection measures.

What Current Data Misses

• Only a few environmental risks are tracked due to lack of human exposure data.
• Risks like micro-plastics, solid waste, and environmental noise are not included in most health burden estimates, despite their significant impact on ecosystem health.
• Environmental risks often interact with metabolic risks (e.g., high blood pressure) and behavioural risks (e.g., smoking, unhealthy diet), creating complex health challenges.
• These complex mixtures and life-long interactions are not explored enough, highlighting the need for more comprehensive approaches like exposomics.

Impact of Climate Change

• Climate change amplifies environmental health threats: o Increased air pollution o Heat waves o Vector-borne diseases o Flooding and wildfires
• Food security is threatened due to reduced crop yields and supply chain disruptions, further exacerbating environmental health risks.
• Mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression are rising due to ecological instability, including concerns about plastic pollution and other environmental issues.
• These overlapping risks create compound health events, especially affecting vulnerable populations and highlighting the need for a circular economy approach to environmental management.

Need for Holistic Health Strategies

• Current GBD frameworks are inadequate for long-term and integrated planning, particularly in addressing complex issues like plastic pollution.
• Environmental burden estimates are conservative and leave out key health determinants, including the impacts of microplastics and other emerging pollutants.
• There’s a need for new paradigms that cover all environmental factors affecting human health, including comprehensive waste management and recycling strategies.

What Is the Human Exposome?

• Inspired by the Human Genome Project, the exposome tracks all lifetime environmental exposures, including chemical exposures and other environmental toxins.
• It studies how these exposures interact with health outcomes over time, providing a more comprehensive understanding of environmental health risks.
• Traditional environmental studies miss many of these complex interactions, highlighting the need for advanced approaches like exposomics.

Exposomics: The New Scientific Approach

• Exposomics explores interactions between: o Chemical, physical, biological, and psycho-social environments o Diet and lifestyle o Genetics and physiology
• Exposomics creates an Exposure Wide Association Study (EWAS), similar to Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS), offering new insights into environmental health impacts.

Technologies Driving Exposomics

• Real-time sensor-based exposure monitoring via wearable devices
• Untargeted chemical analysis using human biomonitoring samples
• Human-relevant micro-physiological systems (organs-on-a-chip)
• Big data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for pattern analysis and evidence integration

These technologies are crucial for understanding the complex interactions between environmental factors and human health.

India’s Readiness for Exposomics

• India faces multiple challenges in implementing such high-end scientific projects.
• Yet, India has already adopted tech and data-driven health models.
• Investing in exposomics can help integrate environment and health management systems, addressing issues like plastic pollution more effectively.

Immediate Priorities for India

• Develop integrated environmental health surveillance systems
• Create harmonized data ecosystems and interoperable data repositories
• Build capacity in public health, data science, and environmental monitoring

These priorities are essential for addressing environmental challenges, including plastic waste management and recycling.

Mainstreaming Environmental Health into Public Health

• Exposomics can make environmental risks a central part of India’s health policy, including strategies to address plastic pollution.
• It can enhance prediction, prevention, and personalised health solutions, considering various environmental factors.
• Precision medicine becomes possible by aligning exposome data with genetic insights, offering new approaches to environmental health management.

Future of Environmental Health

• The next phase of World Environment Day could focus on exposomics and its role in addressing global environmental challenges.
• This approach is key to preserving health equity in the face of global ecological and climate challenges, including the ongoing fight against plastic pollution.
• Human exposome projects hold promise for long-term, scalable, and cost-effective prevention strategies, aligning with global initiatives like those of the UN Environment Programme.

Conclusion

India must urgently embrace exposomics to build a resilient public health system. With the rising burden of environmental diseases, this innovative approach can help protect health, ensure equity, and shape a safer future. By focusing on environmental sustainability and integrated health strategies, India can address the complex challenges posed by plastic pollution and other environmental factors affecting human health. This approach aligns with global efforts, including the UN Environment Programme’s initiatives, to create a more sustainable and healthier world.

Source

The Hindu

Mains Practice Question

Discuss how exposomics can transform India’s approach to environmental health management and contribute to sustainable development, particularly in addressing challenges like plastic pollution and waste management.