Environmental Health

·        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...