Towards world environmental health day in Tanzania

Towards world environmental health day.

On 26^th September 2017 the whole world will join hand to celebrate the World environmental health day. Many of us we tend to commingle these two terms environmental health and environmental at large generally Environmental health encompasses the assessment and control of those environmental factors that can potentially affect health but environment is the totality of what surround a humanbeing biotic and abiotic matters. This year theme is Indoor and outdoor air quality choice of the theme is connoted to with the emphasis given by WHO director general who cemented on the necessity of  air quality march 2017,thus WHO stated that poor quality of air affects more than 80% of the worlds population and microbial pollution is a key element of indoor air pollution. It is caused by hundreds of species of bacteria and fungi, in particular filamentous fungi (mould),growing indoors when sufficient moisture is available. On the other side ambient (out door air quality) in both cities and rural areas was estimated to cause 3 million premature death world wide (WHO 2012 fact sheet).According to thee WHO international agency for Research cancer (IARC) ambient air is marked to be carcinogenic if not well managed and controlled thus it is the air quality which may pose cardiovascular and respiratory perturbations risks.

In Tanzania Morogoro is the only municipality reporting to the WHO and has high levels of particulate matter contributing to poor air quality (WHO 2014 fact sheet) .The  require standard by WHO for particulate matter (PM) with diameter of 2.5 microns  should not exceed 10 micrometer/m3 and 20 micrometer/m3 for PM with 10 microns.

At this juncture with have seen the necessity of having this theme regarding air quality especially in Tanzania where we have the Environmental Management regulation for air quality standards of 2007 which is still not having much teeth to make it function better and we are also on a radar toward the medium economy country with a lot of industries which will also pollute our ambient air. Moreover the number of environmental law breaches will increase since there is no a landed description which has pinpointed the way to manage pollution in conjunction to the projection of middle economy country. Toward the environmental day Tanzania has to make sure that all the required standards for air quality standards are well informed and followed, with the increase of enforcers to the carrier I mean Environmental health officer (EH0).

Some countries like  Malawi vehicles pays pollution fee which is the polluter pay fee which evert the externality to some extent we have also to initiate some of the effective means which will make and ensure the air quality of  standard so that the health of the individuals is well protected  for better developed Tanzania as we move towards middle economy country. VITA VIVENDA

THE MAGIC OF RAUVOLFIA CAFFRA

THE MAGIC OF RAUVOLFIA CAFFRA

Rouvolfia is named after Leon hart Rauwolf who died in 1596 the other term which is Caffra comes from Arabic word Kafir meaning non-believer.In Tanzania this tree has been named in different ways such as Muveriveri in Hehe tribe ,oljabokaryan in Masai ,Quinine tree in English and Mkufi in Swahili.

The tree is most common in Ruaha but also it does occur in other variety locations which are pre-dominated with seasonally waterlogged conditions like wetlands.

Point of interest to this tree is that it the excellent indicator that the ground water table is very high. Also at a certain time in a year the tree becomes infested with froghoppers who excrete pure water which attracts variety of birds.

Humans uses. It contains various alkaloids which is called reserpine and has a tranquilizing effect and is used in the treatment of hypertension. The milky white latex was once thought to cure malaria hence it is named Quinine tree.

It is also said to be a magic plant since it refrain some individual who have bad intention not to affect you ,the powdered roots when carried are said to protect one from the evil intentions of witches also the pegs made from the branches of this tree are concealed in the thatch of ne home it will make the visiting witches forget their evil intentions.

The bark is used mostly by Hehe to increase the alcohol strength of the locally made “ulanzi” which is the wine made from the bamboo sap, this is the same even to home-brewed beer.

Medically  ,the sap from the pounded seeds is dropped into the ear. For hypertension constipation and abdominal pians a root decoction is drunk. For rashes the pulverized stem is mixed with butter and rubbed in skin. Epilepsy patients are told to inhale the vapors of a bark decoction and then bathe in the same liquid.

This shows how nature is of vital to our life as the authenticity indicated on the above description.VITA VIVENDA

In the end, we will conserve only what we love .we will only love what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught by Baba Dioum –Senegalese ecologist.