Health Risk
The health risk factor can be seen as a qualitative variable that conveys the potential for an external element to cause harm to the population's health
Health risk is often consequential to other risks or calamities. The health risk factor can be viewed as a qualitative variable expressing the potential for an external element to harm the population's health. The chance of this to happen provides the measure of risk, that is, the effect it could cause.
This type of risk can be:
• anthropic, if caused by human activities like industrial accidents, industrial and agricultural activities, transportation, and waste;
• natural, if caused by natural events like earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, floods, tsunamis, sandstorms.
Anthropic variables that lead to health risks can affect human health by causing temporary and permanent damage or effects. These variables can be biological, like bacteria, viruses, and pollens; chemicals, like asbestos, benzene, heavy metals, and dioxins; and physical, like UV radiation, ionizing radiation, noise, and too-low or too-high temperatures.
On the other hand, natural variables include all types of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, landslides, floods, or other phenomena of a natural kind.