Environmental Health

Overall, I had a great experience learning environmental topics for this class. It has made me change somethings in my everyday life. For example, I enjoyed the EWG module. I learned a lot about the products that I use and have made some changes. When I started the class I was using secret deodorant. Now, I have switched to a vegan brand called Love Beauty and Planet. They are a brand that focuses on vegan only ingredients and who are trying to bring their carbon footprint down by 20%. So far I love their products and would recommend them to anyone who still wants girly products yet still care for the environment. I also thought it was helpful to know where my water source comes from and how water is filtered through treatment systems. I signed up for the news e-mail Above the fold which I found very helpful because I was able to read upon environmental events going on around the world that you won't find on the news. This class has helped me see the environment in a way I never ha...

What do you personally find most troubling about climate change? What I find troubling about climate change is how fast the Earth is warming up and why aren't people concerned about it. As we know there are skeptics out there who believe climate change is a myth, something made up to scare people. But in reality, people should be scared. In one article that I read it mentioned by the year 2500 sea levels will rise 50 feet! That is amazing and quite scary. Many coastlines will be severely affected which will force people to move inland causing other ripple effects of loss of land. Sea levels are what I find most troubling. I've heard how one island country, the Maldives might not be around the next 100 years which is troubling because we should not be losing precious land so soon. I personally want to travel there to witness its crystal clear waters and beautiful beaches but with the land slowly sinking I might have to go sooner than later.  As a public health professional...

I thought the TedTalk was very informative and interesting. I have heard of the concept of zero waste but never have heard of someone who has lived the zero waste life. I felt like I could relate to the speaker when she mentioned she is a lazy person but made the choice to live this lifestyle. As someone who is lazy it sounds like a lot of work to live this lifestyle; however the perks outweigh the thoughts of it making difficult. Saving money, choosing your own preferences on things and most importantly creating less trash. What I can do to lessen trash is make more home made foods. I agree with the speaker that once opening refrigerator all you see is plastic containers which would be great to eliminate if purchasing fresh fruits and veggies was possible. I also found the video Food Waste to be impact. I did not realize how much food is wasted every year. They compared it to buying 3 grocery bags and dropping one behind. That is a lot of food that is being wasted! Overall I feel peop...

What are the health risks associated with this chemical? It was hard to find a sole chemical for ZSFG but I came across a compound used here called Metaltite which is used as a dental cement in one of the clinics in building 5 (there are many buildings located in ZSFG but building 5 is where some clinics can be found).  Is the chemical a carcinogen? Under OSHA, this compound is found to be hazardous and a highly flammable liquid and vapor. On the sheet it does not indicate whether it is a carcinogen but searching on the web it was hard to find much information on it. What personal protective equipment or special precautions should be taken when working with this chemical? Those who come in contact with Metaltite should wear protective clothing such as gloves and safety goggles and those who are handling it should not allow this compound to enter drains, sewers or watercourses. Handling of Metaltite should be taken place in a well-ventilated area and kept aw...

1) Consider your workplace or a workplace of one of your family members. Are there chemical, biological, radiological or ergonomic issues? Using the industrial hygiene hierarchy of controls, how might you address the issues? How are they being addressed in reality? I work at ZSFG (Zuckerberg San Francisco General). I would say all those exist here. Different buildings would fall under each category. Currently the new building has the state of the art equipment where radiological harm would be more common to workers. Working at a hospital you need equipment to detect what is wrong with patients at the cost of being exposed to chemical, biological and radiological harm. By using the hierarchy of controls the elimination phase would be removing equipment that is no longer in use or too old to be in operation to combat the harmful effects it has on workers. Substitution would be taking out old equipment that pose harm to workers and bring in new equipment that will emit less substances ...

I looked into AFL-CIO which is American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. I chose to look into gender equality. They have a petition called "We need data on equal pay" which consists of ending discrimination and closing the wage gaps between men and women and people of color. They go into detail explaining women are indeed breadwinners at 40% of the workforce women are breadwinners for their families and the pay gaps not only affect women but their families as well. As of August 2001 they have made statements to help stop domestic violence at work, charter for rights of working women, working on women's rights in the global economy, blogging over 50 years of women in the workforce and yet there is still no equal pay and now working towards an act that will close gender pay gaps. The timeline is made up of blogs, speeches, media hits and legislative alerts. With information such as this and people gaining exposure to the wage gap between men and...

I looked into Byssinosis also known as brown lung. It is an occupational lung disease that primarily affects workers in cotton processing, hemp or flax industries. It can cause symptoms such as asthma and more severely permanent lung damage similar to chronic obstructive lung disease. In the United States the number of cases has declined over the years, however globally cases have increased. This lung disease is contracted first hand working in the fields having come in contact with cotton which when inhaled by a worked can cause cough and feeling of tightness in the chest. Symptoms can improve once exposure has been stopped about after a week. If byssinosis is caught early no permanent damage is made, however' prolonged exposure can lead up to disability and rarely death. Workers in the United States are under protection which make regulations more consistent.  OSHA regulations on byssinosis standards are up to date and no regualtions need to be modified. Rates have reduced from 1...

It was sad to read the tragedy in Nigeria. Unfortunately, the tools to look into soil for high concentrations of heavy metals are scarce and hard to detect. Its not until tragedies such as this occur in order to discover something is wrong. In this case heavy concentrations of lead was found on the ground. On a positive note, many children were spared of the same fate those before them endured and lead levels decreased once the children were given chleation treatment. I learned new information on the effects of lead in the body. The article "lead poisoning" goes into depth speaking upon lead and how it affected the Greeks, children, adults and the elderly. It was interesting to to read how lead workers and wine drinkers fell ill to working and drinking lead. Most shocking was to read the sweetness of wine combined with 20 mg of lead per liter! No wonder these people would fall gravely ill and consequently could be speculated to be the cause of the roman empires demise. Findin...

Watching the great pacific garbage patch it was quite sad to see what could be a beautiful island with clear blue water trashed! All the oceans junk ends up and becomes part of the inhabitant of the island. It is definitely a wake up call that something needs to be done to clean our oceans and protect the animals. I like the concept of Green chemistry; I have not heard of green chemistry until I seen this assignment. When I think of Green what usually comes to mind is fuel efficiency, solar panels and going electric on house hold appliances. Green chemistry sounds to be very useful. I have seen green chemistry in use at my job. Just 2 years ago the new hospital opened and everything in their is green and up to date on technology. They have solar panels to help emit sun powered electricity and of course trying to minimize the potential for accidents as the hospital is a level 1 trauma center and avoid disasters such as fires and explosions along side with physical chemicals such as liqu...

I decided to look more into highly fluorinated chemicals. They are also known as PFC's or PFAS's.  I thought this might be connected to the mineral fluoride that is found in products to help strengthen teeth; however, this goes further and explains how highly fluorinated chemicals are man made and come from many outlets and into our everyday products. Highly fluorinated chemicals are found in carpets, paints, papers, clothing cosmetics, etc. Basically anything you can think of that people come in contact with in a daily basis. Health concerns that come along with the exposure to PFC's are kidney and testicular cancer, elevated cholesterol, decreased fertility and thyroid complications that can reduce the effectiveness of vaccines within children. We are exposed by food consumption, drinking water, air and dust. We are most prone to exposure in our homes and work place. The biggest shock would be PFC's are found in 98% of American human bodies! Turns out many of these ch...

After reviewing the readings and watching the videos, an ideal chemical policy is quite difficult to make into a reality. Industries and companies are about one goal and that is money. They would refuse to let anyone stand in the way of the millions of dollars earned and not inform the public of what is really going on behind the scenes. What would be an ideal chemical policy is having restrictions on companies on how and where chemicals are dumped. For example, with enforced regulations industries would have a harder time on illegal dumping and human health and the environment could be spared of what can be generations of contaminants in the soil and water. Also stricter policies on reinforcing laws that exist would be ideal.

In reading the Louisville charter reform, I decided to look into background paper #3, "Give the public and workers the full right-to-know and participate". I found this paper to be quite informational and informative. As a consumer of fruits and vegetables and of course as a Public Health professional I feel like the public is entitled to know what chemicals are being used and what we are consuming. his paper goes into why the public deserves to know about chemicals, pesticides and toxins that are found around us everyday. The paper starts off with why honoring the right to know, it states it helps engage the public to take action on how to improve health and safety, provides relevant data, informs the public on the 100,000 chemicals that are out there and how they affect short and long term health effects. The paper goes into detail on how to make the right to know laws useful such as providing error correction on data that provided false information, electronic reporting su...

Last night I had left overs from a birthday party earlier in the day. My meal consisted of iceberg lettuce salad with olive oil, beef stew with carrots and potatoes. The first food item I looked at was carrots. I am not surprised that carrots returned with 26 pesticide residues found. It's human health effects are known and probable carcinogens, suspected hormone disruptors, neurotoxins, developmental and reproductive toxins and environmental disruptors such as honeybee toxins. The pesticide commonly found was Linuron at 70.7% and the least common pesticide found in carrots is Dieldrin at 0.1%. When searching potatoes I found there are 35 pesticide residues which again is not surprising. Commonly has the same human and environmental effects as carrots. The pesticide with the highest percentage found was Chlorpropham at 80.2% and least pesticide found was Carbaryl at 0.1%. The next food I looked at was lettuce. Iceberg lettuce was not an option but lettuce is lettuce  and not surpri...

One agency that is heavily involved into looking at heavy metals not just in lipsticks but in cosmetics overall is the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. They provide a list of heavy metals they have encountered in cosmetic products and list in detail the health concerns, in which products they are found, vulnerable populations, where and how they are regulated and how to avoid coming in contact. Another federal agency that is involved with looking into heavy metals not only in lipstick but cosmetics is the US Food and Drug administration (FDA). They list the testings they have done with heavy metals in cosmetics and list their findings in a report. They also provide what they have learned and what are the next steps to ensure the public that they are taking precautionary steps into making sure heavy metals are not contaminating products. Canada health is also a promoter at eliminating heavy metals from cosmetics. They list what is found in the product, how compliance is regulated and who to...

The agency I chose to look at is the National Weather Service (NWS). They are located in Maryland and are under the US Dept of Commerce. When looking at the home page they have a map of the United States broken up by counties and have color coded indications indicating there is some form of weather even happening. Links are provided to search up topics such as flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes and so forth. The NWS mission is to provide weather, water, climate data, forecasts and warnings for the protection of life, to enhance the national economy. Their vision is to prepare society for weather events and how to respond when they happen. They have been around for over a century protecting the lives and properties of the people of the USA. NWS is affiliated with local, state and tribal agencies to plan and respond to natural disasters that can occur and providing water, weather and climate forecasts among the US, territories and waters and oceans that surround the United States. Science a...

In looking at the SFDPH website, I seen they have a separate tab for environmental health. I clicked on the tab and it led me to a page that lists a number of services and programs that serve the environmental health aspect of public health. You find such programs that cater to air quality, water quality, noise, food and agriculture neighborhoods and housing, environmental hazardous and business regulations. Aside from the main topics of environmental health, SFDPH environmental health section also provides a list of programs they have such as body art (regulating facilities that provide tattoos), childhood lead prevention providing education and resources on how to avoid lead, regulations on air and smoking, cannabis is also being overseen now that it has become legal in San Francisco. One program that stood out to me is the health, equity and sustainability branch of SFDPH environmental health. This program aims on planning, policy making and using health data to ensure neighborhoods...

·        Y our thoughts about the vanishing of bees (what else have you heard/seen about this issue?) Vanishing bees made me very sad!!! It was interesting to hear how honey bees contribute to the food that is put on our table. Also hearing that there has been missing bees around the world from Taiwan to Italy to the United States they are disappearing and no one knows why. I thought it was interesting how honey was used as medicine in ancient times. It was very sad to hear how one method of treating bees is how they are given some sort of sugar syrup and taking their honey away and generations of bees are being fed the equivalent of junk food. ·        Dirt!: The Movie  Overall, I thought the movie was interesting. I learned some new things in regards to compost and others freshened up my memory. It was interesting to hear how the back of a pick-up turned into a lush green garden. After months of ju...

Utilizing the first article, discuss what is locally grown and what is currently in season in your area. What is locally growing and in season in my area are: Avocados, blood oranges, blueberries, cranberries, dates, dragon fruit, figs, grapefruit, , guavas, lemons, limes, , longan, melons, oranges, passion fruit, pawpaws, pears, persimmons, pomegranates, sapote, starfruit.  Discuss your thoughts on seasonal/local foods and hospital menus.  I think it is a great idea to use season/local foods in hospitals. I currently work in a hospital and everyday for lunch they have a seasonal/local veggies on the menu. I feel it encourages employees and patients to try different foods and when they grocery shop they can add those foods to their household pantries.  Find a Harvest Calendar for your state (or a state you are interested in) utilizing the link in the first article (found underneath the example Harvest Calendar for New York State).  The state I chose...

In reading each four articles, the common theme was antibiotics and antibacterials. Both combating diseases whether it be in animals and humans. The first article Antibiotic resistance 101 both taught me and expanded more on what I knew in regards to feeding antibiotics to animals. One piece of information that was new to me was the discovery of growth when providing a small dose of hormones everyday. When providing small doses animals grow at a rapid rate; gets the consumer thinking what kind of antibiotics are being given to the animals. What also expanded my knowledge was exactly why antibiotics are given to the animals. In a way it makes sense that we want to target the host of potential spread of viruses, yet over time it has been proven that more harm that good has come out of this method. By having factories/farms have control of using antibiotics they are putting our foods and our health's in danger and the FDA needs to continue monitoring and find alternative methods to gi...

What is the source of your drinking water? Where does your water ORIGINATE?  (It is treated at a water treatment plant, but what watershed or aquifer is the sources of the water?) I tried looking for my source of water on the CCR from the EPA page but no information was available. I do know the water source from San Francisco comes from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir which is situated on the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park. 85% of the water comes from the Sierra Nevada snowmelt.  What chemicals were found in your water that were higher than expected? Chemicals were found at where they should be. Hetch Hetchy is known to have some of the cleanest water in the country.  What chemicals did you NOT expect to find in your water? Lead was found in the water. Not at high quantities but none the less it is there.  Are there associated health risks with the chemicals found in your water?  (sources for this last question include the EPA, CDC, ATSD...

The importance of the Clean Water Act of 1972 is highly significant. It was made to better control water pollution across the United States.  Before it's enactment cooperation's were able to dump toxins and chemicals into water ways such as those in Chicago. Without this act, chemicals and toxins would freely roam around in our waters which would cause marine life to become extremely contaminated and we could not use it for extracurricular activities such as swimming and other water sports. The Clean water Act also helps setting standards on industries; limiting their toxic dump to only certain locations. As started earlier, Chicago's water Lake Michigan, was heavily used as a dumping site polluting it's water and fish. It was believed they would not be able to swim or even consume  the water. Without this act our oceans and lakes would be polluted to the point that there would be no way to enjoy them because all we would see is trash and, sewage dump and chemicals. It ...

I live in San Francisco, therefore the 3 sewage facilities are San Francisco Southeast Treatment, Treasure Island Waste Water Treatment Plant and Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant.

If you were to develop a nationwide campaign to get people to drink tap water instead of bottled water, what would be your campaign slogan? In order to make a campaign slogan to get the country to drink tap water instead of bottled water; there would need to be proof indicating tap water is safe to drink. Data and pictures would need to be put together to demonstrate that tap water is at safe levels to drink. One campaign would be commercials. Commercials would explain why tap water is a better alternative to bottled water with graphics and opinions from citizens around the country to testify too that tap water in different cities is safe to drink. A community I can think of that would need extra attention to persuade to drink tap water are those in Flint, Michigan. We know their situation that tap water is not safe to drink therefore they need bottled water. It may take many years for them to drink tap water again and be able to trust the government that it is safe due...

In your blog groups, share your ideas for what the elements of an ideal chemical/fragrance policy should be. How would your policies eliminate/decrease our body burdens and exposures?   As we know fragrance in products is what sells. People enjoy a nice smelling soap, lotion and of course perfume. Although these products can bring a smile to our face they are also bringing harm to our health. Some policies that can be implemented are having fragrance free products with natural smelling odors. For example, if soaps are made using rose or lavender there should be ways to include the scent without having to add harsh chemicals. It might be expensive but it would be for the benefit of our health. I think hospitals already supply patients with non-fragrant or less scented products. With patients who come in sick and yet need to keep clean they are not as exposed to harsh chemicals as their bodies are healing from the aliments that have in the hospital. Po...