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People born today, on average, have a life expectancy about twice that of folks just over a century ago. Most of those additional years have been gained by healthful environmental changes – including improved sanitation, purified water, cleaner air, the safer use of chemicals in our homes, gardens, factories and offices, and the restriction or elimination of unsafe practices.
In other health-promoting environmental steps, the Unites States and its states and cities, businesses and unions have worked together and:
• Removed lead from gasoline, and redesigned the gasoline pump to expose you to less benzene, which might increase your risk of cancer.
• Reduced smog, making your breathing easier.
• Removed from the market questionable products, such as a laxative ingredient that tests showed could cause cancer.
• Restricted or removed from commerce many workplace chemicals, food dyes and pesticides because they posed a risk of sterility, cancer or other diseases.
• Recommended healthier food habits – advising pregnant women, for example, to avoid eating certain large ocean fish, like shark and swordfish, in which mercury accumulates.
Progress has also been made in how we think about environmental health. Today, the environmental health sciences aren’t entirely about pesticides and other chemical pollutants in our air and water. The definition of “environmental health” has broadened to include the environment we create for ourselves (by smoking or not smoking, and by our diet, for example). It also includes the medicines and other therapies we are prescribed, our occupations and places of work, and our lifestyles. Some scientists even believe that a good view of nature, as opposed to a brick wall, may have a positive effect on our health.
The environmental health sciences also look at socioeconomic status – that is, how the workplace, neighborhood and home environment of many poor Americans produce disease, disability and premature death.
Ironically, though today’s pesticides are safer and our air and water cleaner, the new, broader definition of environmental health adds to the numbers of disease that are related to the environment. For cancer, the environment-related contribution has “increased” from an estimated 3 or 4 percent or so, when synthetic chemicals were the issue, to 80 percent under the broader definition. The environments we personally create for ourselves, through our habits, diet and lifestyle are now seen as very important.
Задание 4. Подберите наиболее подходящий ответ на вопрос:
1) Why do people born today have a life expectancy about twice that of folks over a century ago?
a) due to the global warming
b) due to different environmental changes and modern conveniences
c) due to improved sanitation, purified water, the safer use of chemicals, and elimination of unsafe practices
2) What health-promoting environmental steps have been worked out in the United States?
a) lead removal, reduction of smog, restriction of chemicals and pesticides, healthier food habits
b) healthful environmental changes
c) the safer use of chemicals in our homes, gardens, factories and offices
3) What does the definition “environmental health” include?
a) the environments we personally create for ourselves, through our habits, diet and lifestyle
b) a good view of nature
c) environment we create for ourselves; the medicine and other therapies we are prescribed, our occupations, and our lifestyle
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