The Effects of Environmental Assaults on Human Physiology (2) Prof

1.0 Introduction The central theme of this conference is most appropriate, for today there is so much talk about adverse effects of the environment on health. Indeed one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY and the target set for the year 2015 is to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. It is of particular significance that this conference is holding in one of the nine states of the Niger Delta Region, which has some degree of environmental pollution. The New Webster’s Encyclopaedic Dictionary of the English Language of 1997 defined the environment as follows: The aggreate of surrounding things, conditions or influences; The air, water, minerals, organisms and all other external factors surrounding and affecting a given organism at any time; The social and cultural forces that shape the life of a person or population