INTRODUCTION:

The word hygiene derives from the name of the ancient Greek goddess of

healthful living, Hygeia. Initially worshipped in her own right, by the fifth century

BCE in Athens Hygeia was instead depicted as a demi-god, the daughter or wife of the

god of healing, Asclepius. While worship of Asclepius aimed at curing disease

through divine intercession, worship of Hygeia emphasized obtaining health by

living wisely in accordance with her laws. In contemporary Western society the

concept of hygiene has become associated with standards of personal grooming

which often have little effect on individual health.

Historical background

Hygiene in the earliest sense was not connected to cleanliness or personal grooming.

Indeed popular attitudes in Western Europe and the US held that frequent bathing

was dangerous to individual health. It upset the physical system, robbed the body of

precious natural oils, and led to debilitating illness. Though individuals such as

Benjamin Franklin urged cleanliness as a necessary component of healthful living,

the plumbing technology required to make this easy was underdeveloped and

expensive. Travellers in Europe and the US during the early nineteenth century

frequently commented on the filthy conditions both of persons and households. One

historian has suggested that, in a largely agricultural community, the dirt of honest

labour was associated with both economic and physical well-being, an outlook that

applied to both peasant cultures in Europe and yeoman farm life in the US.
Beginning in the early nineteenth century, the repeated onslaught of diseases such as

cholera began to alter people's understanding of personal hygiene. Since orthodox

medicine seemed powerless in response to these pandemics, a variety of alternative

medicines gained popularity. Many of these alternatives emphasized disease

prevention through healthful living, which included diet and clothing reform, daily

cold water bathing, exercise, regulation of bowel movements, and abstinence from

coffee, tea, alcohol, and sex. In their attack on heroic medicine, reformers

emphasized personal and domestic responses to health crises.

For these reformers, living hygienically was essential both because it led to

physical well-being, and because it revealed proper moral character. Catherine

Beecher, the most prominent domestic advice author of the mid-nineteenth-century

US, propounded this view of hygiene. In Letters to the People on Health and

Happiness she called her hygiene precepts, ‘… laws of health and happiness, because

our Creator has connected the reward of enjoyment with obedience to these rules,

and the penalty of suffering with disobedience to them’.

Florence Nightingale, in her efforts to reform English hospital care, provided

the most cogent arguments linking personal and public hygiene with good health

and morals. Like many of her contemporaries, Nightingale believed that unhealthy

living made individuals susceptible to contagion. She rejected germs as a specific

causal agent, however, asserting that dirt, sewer gases, and other environmental

contagion produced illness. Nightingale's system for training nurses reflects this
belief, and Nightingale nurses cleaned the patient and created order in the hospital.

Nightingale is, therefore, a transitional figure linking the idea that the individual

has a moral responsibility to live healthfully with a desire to control external threats

to individual health.

As Western society became more urban and industrial, the disorderliness of

city life seemed to threaten the health of even the most dedicated follower of

Beecher's ‘laws of health and happiness’. Gradual acceptance of the germ theory

compounded the fear that right living alone could not prevent illness. The eleventh

edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica reflects this attitude by asserting that hygiene

embraces ‘all the agencies which affect the physical and mental well-being of man.’

Hygiene as a system included not only personal hygiene related to food, clothing,

exercise, cleanliness, and sexual control, but also sciences such as engineering,

meteorology, bacteriology, and public sanitation and waterworks.

Since social health required both environmental cleanliness and hygienic

behaviour on the part of the masses, reformers sought to extend private middle-

class standards of hygiene into the public arena by reforming garbage collection,

water delivery, and sewage disposal. They also sought to change the behaviours of

the lower classes. In the US the effort to transmit hygienic practices to the masses

was inextricably linked to Americanization. The goal was to lift so-called ‘dirty

foreigners’ to middle-class American standards. The lessons of hygienic living were

first taught to women through ‘settlement houses’ and visiting nurses, but the most
effective pedagogy of hygiene targeted children in schools. Hygiene instruction

prodded children to swat flies, refrain from spitting, brush their teeth and hair,

clean their clothing, wash all of their body and not just the parts that showed, eat

balanced meals, and abstain from alcohol, tobacco, and sex. Humiliation of children

who did not meet the teacher's standards was frequently used to reinforce these

lessons, and students were expected to carry the lessons home. African- Americans

and immigrants readily embraced hygienic living as a means of uplift. Booker T.

Washington, prominent leader of the African- American community and founder of

the Tuskegee Institute, emphasized the ‘gospel of the toothbrush’. Ironically,

African-Americans, many of whom worked as janitors, maids, and laundresses,

were viewed as indelibly dirty and diseased regardless of their adherence to the

hygienic standards of the white middle classes.

DIAGNOSIS:

Some problems are diagnosed according to individual, community and policy

that focus on behavioral basis, cognitive and social aspect of living.

Individual: Lack of information caused poor hygiene. For example, improper hand

washing, especially before or after meal an preparing of foods as well as before and

after using of toilet, improper washing and caring of hairs, un-cleaned ear lobes, not

shaving of hair to specific area such as armpit for ladies and beard to boys, not
using of soaps during bathing and they take a bath two to three times a week, not

brushing of teeth regularly even after meal, untrimmed nails and hairs, not

changing of under garments, cloths and wearing used dressed. Also, superstitious

beliefs from parents or elders transfer to siblings. For example “ bawal magwalis ng

gabi”. Some says “ito na ang nakalakihan ko, bahala na” they are satisfied on what

they already knew and learned from their childhood. Actually, some parents neglect

to instruct their personal things. For example, arranging their closets, books, shoes

or sandals properly, sweeping their own dirt and proper disposing of own garbage.

Community: Improper waste disposal is one of the problems in this area where in

there are people who always disposed their garbage’s anywhere. Not following the

color coding of their Barrangay especially in segregating of biodegradable to non-

biodegradable. Some disposed their garbage on their backyard because there is no

garbage collector and the waste stock so long that caused bad smell. Also, it blocks

their drainage so the water can’t flow well and there are many living sector that

may cause illnesses. Aside from that, some factories have no proper way in disposing

their waste. For example short drainage and directly disposing it to the river that

caused water pollution.

Policies:

RECENT NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS

AND DOH POLICIES AFFECTING ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND

SANITATION:
1. Stockholm convention on persistent Organic pollution(POP’s) in may 2001, were

the Philippines is a signatory and eventually by the senate on February 2,2004

through senate resolution 676, this treaty bans the use of POP’s are called the

“Dirty Dozen” of pesticides, industrial chemical and unintentional by products of

burning:

Pesticides: aldrin and dieldrin, andrin, choldrane, heptalchor, DDT,

hexachlorobenzen, mirex, and toxaphene.

Industrial chemical: polychlorinated biphenyls, and hexachlorobenzene.

Unintentional by products of burning: dioxins and furans(caused by burning

plastic)

R.A.6969- “toxic substance and hazardous and nuclear waste control act of 1990”

and its implementing rules and regulation (DAO 29) (1992) - regulating the

importation, use, movement, treatment and disposal of toxic chemicals and

hazardous and nuclear waste in the Philippines.

R.A. 874: “clean air act of 1999”- provides a comprehensive air pollution

management and control program to achieve and maintain, healthy air. Section 20

bans the use of incineration for municipal, bio-medical and hazardous waste but

allows the traditional method of small- scale community burning.

Motor vehicles cause 70% of outdoor air pollution and measures are required to

alleviate air pollution due to motor vehicles, such as: all motor vehicles are required

to pass the smoke emission standard prior to registration; phasing out leaded

gasoline in the end of year 2000; automotive diesel fuels sulfur content should be

lowered; and decrease in the aromatics and benzene levels in unleaded gasoline.

Furthermore; ban smoking in enclosed public places including public transport in

order to prevent indoor pollution due to second hand smoke.

R.A.9003: “ecological solid waste management act of 2000”- it declares the adoption

of a systematic, comprehensive, and ecological solid waste management program as

a policy of the state. Adopts a community-based approach. Mandates waste

diversion through composing and recycling.

R.A.: “Clean air waste Act of 2004”- this law aims to establish waste water

treatment facilities that will clean wastewater before releasing into the bodies LGUs

to form the water. Management areas that will manage wastewater in their

respective areas.
SUPPLEMENTAL IMLEMENTING RULES AND REGULATION OF CHAPTER

II – “WATER SUPPLY”, OF THE CODE ON SANITATION OF THE

PHILLIPINES (P.D.856) - this supplemental IRR provides the guidelines on the

proper regulation of the water refilling station.

Water refilling station should regularly monitor their drinking water quality in the

following schedules: monthly for bacteriological quality, every six months for

physical and chemical properties, annually for biological; quality, and radiological

properties when need arises all of these water analysis procedures should be done

only in DOH- accredited laboratories and the water quality should follow the

Philippines national standard for drinking water (PNSDW).

Supplemental IRR on chapter XVII on sewage Collection and disposal and Excreta

disposal and Drainage of the sanitation code of the Philippines (P.D. 856) – it

regulates and provides proper guidelines for LGU’s and established involve in the

dislodging, collection, handling and transport, treatment, and disposal of domestic

sludge from cesspools, communal septic tanks, domestic sewage treatment plants

facilities and septage from household septic tanks.

Effectiveness:

This section describes ways to build positive relationships with residents. The

first step in trying to understand how a resident behaves is to try to identify the

reason behind the behaviour. Ask yourself, “What does the resident need?” Is it to

be heard? For example, an angry resident may refuse to eat his food and throws on

the floor because no one involves him in making his food choices and he feels a loss

of control over his daily life. Second, face the resident, lean forward slightly, get to

the resident’s level and make eye contact. Now, send a message that you are

interested in what the resident is saying. Use the therapeutic touch when

appropriate, may also get the residents attention because the more you get to know

the resident, the better you’ll be. Third, listen carefully to the residents. Allow them

to express their opinion or feelings while others listen. You can show interest by

nodding and saying things like “I see” or “mm”; this will help you learn how she

seems to feel about the situation at the moment. Fourth, ask open-ended questions

rather the “yes” or “no” questions. For example, say “papaano natin itatapon ang

mga basura?” Then, use “I” rather than “you”. For example, “Ako kasi binubukod

ko ang mga basura sa amin”. Lastly, ensures that they are comfortable in the

activity to increase their motivation to participate. In addition, direct staff has an

important role to play in terms of sharing information about local recreational

opportunities, helping residents to get ready for community activities such as,

getting bathed and dressed, how to segregate garbage from biodegradable to non-

biodegradable, and if necessary, assisting with transportation.