The built environment - A missing ‘cause of the causes’ of non- communicable diseases
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Date
2016
Open Access Location
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
MDPI AG
Rights
The Authors - Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0
Abstract
The United Nations “25 × 25 Strategy” of decreasing non-communicable diseases (NCDs),
including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases, by 25% by 2025
does not appear to take into account all causes of NCDs. Its focus is on a few diseases, which are often
linked with life-style factors with “voluntary” “modifiable behavioral risk factors” causes tending
towards an over-simplification of the issues. We propose to add some aspects of our built environment
related to hazardous building materials, and detailed form of the construction of infrastructure and
buildings, which we think are some of the missing causes of NCDs. Some of these could be termed
“involuntary causes”, as they relate to factors that are beyond the control of the general public.
Description
Keywords
United Nations 25 x 25 Strategy, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), built environment, hazardous building materials, involuntary causes, global NCD burden, missing NCDs, missing causes, environmental factors, sick building syndrome
Citation
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH, 2016, 13 (10)