EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Chapter 14: Environment, Health and Wellbeing Environment, Health and Wellbeing 1. Introduction Our health and wellbeing are inextricably linked to our surrounding environment. In helping to prevent damage to our environment, we are, in turn, protecting our own health. Understanding the interconnections between environmental opportunities, threats and human health and wellbeing is vital and fundamental to developing good environmental and public health policy. The European Environment Agency recently published a comprehensive assessment of how the environment influences health and wellbeing in Europe (EEA, 2020a). It reports that 13 per cent of all deaths in the EU were attributable to the environment, and observe that the most vulnerable people in society are hardest hit by environmental stressors. While government policy can achieve aspects of environmental safeguarding and protection, active engagement and participation by Irish citizens is essential if real and meaningful change is to be made. This chapter opens by reviewing our relationship with our environment. It then looks at specific health risk areas and emerging issues. 2. Health Benefits of our Natural Environment Getting outdoors and using our ‘green’ and ‘blue’ spaces can offer a multitude of health benefits. These range from increasing our levels of wellbeing and physical activity to reducing stress, improving mental health and using these spaces for community interaction and enhanced social cohesion. Ireland has an abundance of ‘green spaces’ – parks, forests, communal gardens and meadows – and ‘blue spaces’ – rivers, lakes, canals and coastlines. There is an ever-growing body of evidence showing that engagement and contact with the surrounding natural environment is associated with measurable improvements in the health and wellbeing of the population (Lovell et al. , 2018). Exposure to green spaces has been shown to have a positive influence on a range of health outcomes. These include a reduced prevalence of type II diabetes and stroke; reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and death; improved pregnancy outcomes including reduced risk of low-birth-weight babies; and lower levels of depression and depressive symptoms (Braubach et al. , 2017; Sarkar et al. , 2018; Twohig-Bennett and Jones, 2018). Similarly, exposure to blue spaces has demonstrated benefits for mental health and wellbeing and for levels of physical health (Gascon et al. , 2017). Research commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in partnership with the Health Service Executive (HSE) and undertaken by the Economic and Social Research Institute and University College Dublin (UCD) confirms that a health dividend flows from engaging with our native landscape, our parks and our surface waters – our green and blue spaces (Dempsey et al. , 2018a; Grilli et al. , 2020; Scott et al. , 2020). 353