Women, Environment, and Health |
박은교, 김규연, 하은희 |
이화여자대학교 |
여성, 환경 그리고 건강 |
박은교, 김규연, 하은희 |
이화여자대학교 |
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Abstract |
There are a growing number of reports discussing the harmful effects of environment pollutants,as food, air, and water aggravation; soil pollution; and ozone layer depletion are becoming theirmain sources all of which result in negative health effects. Moreover, a higher amount of fat tissue,weight gain and loss, and physiological changes caused by conditions such as pregnancy, breastfeeding, and menopause leave women more vulnerable to environment pollutants. However, medicalscience and related fields routinely consider a 70 kilogram Caucasian man as the standard bodytype and consider that women are no different from men except the breast and uterus. Genderspecificmedicine completely opposes this concept. It suggests that women are different from mennot only due to the genital organs but for the whole body system, and these differences should beclinically considered. Therefore, this study is designed to review the health effects of the environmentto women based on gender-specific perspectives. According to previous studies, endocrinedisrupting chemicals (EDCs), heavy metals, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) cause harmto the woman's body, including reproductive toxicity and carcinogenic action. Even making minorchanges to the living environment is expected to reduce the exposure of harmful pollutants. |
Key Words:
women, environment, health, gender-specific perspectives |
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