Health, wellness, and quality of life in volcanic communities: A comprehensive review of risks and protective strategies

Haiquan Wei

doi:10.54844/wsr.2025.1003

Authors

Haiquan Wei

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54844/wsr.2025.1003

Abstract

Living in volcanic regions presents unique health challenges that require comprehensive wellness approaches. Mental health, quality of life, and community resilience maybe encounter extremely dangerous situations during a volcanic crisis. It is needed to promote health and wellness alongside risk management. Volcanic eruptions bring us a series of health and environmental problems, which is determined by the different types of the volcanoes and their eruptions. The diseases caused by volcanoes and explosive eruptions can be classified into 5 categories: disease of the respiratory and digestive systems, trauma infection, abnormal cell growth and problems caused by environmental pollution after eruption. Among them, the diseases and injuries caused by volcanic ash mainly include silicosis, pulmonary inflammation, inflammatory body and cytokine diseases, changes in cell morphology, decreased cell density, obvious vacuolation of peritoneal macrophages, thyroid cancer, lung cancer, increased vulnerability to coronaviruses and other respiratory system diseases, as well as acute gastroenteritis, heavy metal poisoning, fluoride poisoning, chemical irritation, and peptic ulcers severe digestive system diseases. During extraordinary times (such as the period of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 [COVID- 19] pandemic), the disaster-causing effect of volcanic ash is more pronounced on susceptible populations, such as asthma patients, infants and the elderly. The widespread pathogenic and harmful factors are volcanic ash and toxic volcanic gases, even during the quiet period of volcanic activity. Volcanoes and volcanic eruptions bring us both wealth and disasters at the same time, which requires us to be able to coexist peacefully with volcanoes. It is of great significance for everyone to carry out popular science education on the background knowledge of volcanoes and understand the volcanoes on which we live. Volcanologists can play a greater role in volcanic education.

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