OnPrisons

Built environments can also produce negative health risks when developers are not thinking about the effects of built spaces. In particular, urban layouts are designed to maximize living space. The way in which prisons are built in America is another example of how population growth results in building structures to house the influx of humans, often with inadequate built infrastructure such as the lack of windows limiting one’s access to natural light. Consequently, the population has been exposed the potential for limited healthy food options and environmental toxins such as noise pollution and water pollution. The categories described above do not occur in an isolated form but are layered throughout the structure of a community, making it a multifaceted problem. Deducing personhood to common variables, or quantifiable ones, suggests that low income and minority groups face larger negative implications of the structural environment. Through this knowledge, urbanization becomes a variable which can cause health risks, if not designed properly. Overall, health through the environment depends on a range of social, economic, and environmental factors.