Influence of industrialization on environmental health: Historical vision from the industrial revolution to the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Environmental pollution begins with the industrial era and increases after the Second World War with the rise of technology. In the 1970s, man began to become aware of the seriousness of this progressive and irreparable damage. Ecology and related sciences are developed and actions are implemented everywhere to manage or alleviate the damage. Pollution can directly alter the components of an ecosystem, water, air or soils, but it can also occur due to the presence of unusual physical or physicochemical phenomena, such as heat or ionizing radiation. Its effects are manifested mainly by damage to ecosystems and therefore damage to the health of human beings, animals, plants, land or water (Nebel, 1999; Clark, 2003). Today the ecological disasters of London, Donora, Minamata, Chernobyl, Bophal, the Persian Gulf, the Danube originating in Baia Mare or those of oil in the seas are well known (Baxter, 1991). In Peru, we know of the environmental damage of the City of Oroya, Lake Junín, the Choropampa spill, and urban contamination by lead dust from deposits of mineral concentrates in Callao. According to the Pan American Health Organization, there are 20,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Amazon Basin (Martín, 2020). Gold miners and illegal loggers are exposing indigenous communities to considerable health risks, a situation that could have severe consequences given the poor response capacity of hospitals and health services in the region. Therefore, the spread of the virus in these communities could imply a tragedy that, in addition to the human losses, could, in turn, affect traditional knowledge and produce negative effects on the governance of the region. As a result, there could be even more deforestation in the future. Differential policies to serve ethnic populations in the region are an urgent need (Bermudez et al., 2020; Vélez et al., 2020a). That is why this research set out to establish the Influence of industrialization on environmental health: Historical vision from the industrial revolution to the COVID-19 pandemic.