Page 242 - Health, Population and Environment Education 9

Activity: 1

Visit a nearby health post, sub- health post or primary health centre. Observe the status
of primary health care services that are being applied then prepare a short report on it
and submit to your subject teacher.

10.5 Concept of Risk, its types and Mitigating Measures

Concept of risk
The treat of damage, injury, loss or any other impact caused by vulnerabilities is called
risk. Risk may be caused by external or interal vulnerabilities. In other words risk is the
threatening event caused by external and internal vulnerabilities which can be prevented
through precautions. Risk may cause damage to life, health and property which may be
caused by calamities or hazards.

Hazard
A natural or man-made situation that possesses threat to lives and properties in
environment is called a hazard. A hazardous situation that has come to pass is called an
incident. Most hazards in nature are dormant or potential. When the hazards come to
their extremity, they become active and show their dangerous and devastating nature by
claiming lives and properties.
Hazards may be both natural and man-made in environment. Similarly, some hazards may
be physical, biological, chemical, etc. Some examples of natural hazards are earthquake,
volcano, landslide, etc.
The conditions or situations that can cause the body physical harm or inverse stress
are called physical hazards. Physical hazards may occur naturally or through human
activities. Some examples of natural hazards are earthquake, volcano, etc. The man-made
hazards occur more due to the human activities. For example, landslide, flood, road
accident, explosion of bomb, etc.
The chemical substances that create threat in environment and harm lives, properties and
environment are called chemical hazards. Chemical hazards may be both natural and
man-made. For example, insecticides, harmful gases, acids, etc. The biological agents that
can cause risk in living beings are called biological hazards. Such hazards are bacteria,
viruses, fungi, foreign toxin, etc. They have adverse impacts in the lives of living beings.
Although, there are many types of hazards, broadly the hazards that occur in nature are
categorized into natural hazards and man-made hazards. The brief description of these
hazards is presented below.

i. Natural hazards
Various natural processes are responsible for occuring different types of destructive and
devastating hazards in nature. The hazards which occur in nature due to the natural
processes are called natural hazards. They occur automatically in nature periodically or all

242 GREEN Environment Population and Health Education Book-9