Environmental Health

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...