MPH 632 - Fall 2018

Blog  about the above articles. Utilizing the first article, discuss what is locally grown and what is currently in season in your area. There is a lot of produce that is currently in season in our area.  Some include apples, asian pears, arugula, blackberries, corn, eggplant, kiwi, etc.  Some foods that are locally grown include avacados, garlic, artichokes, tomatoes, cuties, grapes, corn, etc. Discuss your thoughts on seasonal/local foods and hospital menus.  I think it would be a lot better if hospital put more seasonal and local foods on their menus.  Like the article stated, there are a significant positive impacts on the health of the patients, staff, and the visitors.  I feel it is also good for big facilities to support local farmers as well.  I know at the hospital that I work at, a lot of the veggies are frozen and come in bulk.  They don't taste fresh and they aren't good quality.  I feel this would really increase the qua...

Blog  on your thoughts on each of these four articles in a single blog post.  ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE 101: HOW ANTIBIOTIC MISUSE ON FACTORY FARMS CAN MAKE YOU SICK I find the concept of antibiotic resistance interesting.  The fact that people are getting sicker from infections and it could require multiple rounds of stronger and stronger antibiotics to stop an infection could have more implications than just the issue of antibiotic resistance.  For instance, like the reading mentioned, it can be harder for doctors to treat patients with allergies and you also have to consider the cost.  If people are requiring more rounds of medications, that costs money and for some people that can be a big barrier. NEARBY LIVESTOCK MAY RAISE 'SUPERBUG' RISK I work at a hospital and I commonly see patients who come in with MRSA.  They usually get this from one of their previous medical procedures and hospital stay.  Fortunately the area that I work in...

Blog  about:  Your thoughts about the vanishing of bees (what else have you heard/seen about this issue?) I didn't really know that this was an issue, nor did I know about the impact that it can have on the whole food supply.  Every time I eat something I don't take the time to recognize what had to happen for that to land on my plate, but it is important to recognize that bees do play a large role.  What is surprising to me is that there is evidence that this issue is because of pesticides, and other disease threats that are impacting the bees.   Dirt!: The Movie  One note that I got from the movie was that the importance of healthy dirt.  I don't think many people take the time to consider the health of dirt, but for some people it is such a prized possession.  I can see how this makes sense now that I actually think about it because when we buy plants they don't do well in our yards, but at my grandmothers home in Milpitas it seem...

FIND OUT  Where are the sewage treatment facilities in your community?  (Note: there are 3 in San Francisco.) Note this in your BLOG.  I like in San Mateo so there is one that is fairly close which is the Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Mateo.  There is also the Palo Alto Wastewater Treatment which is south of where I live.  The third is Mel Leong Treatment Plant in South San Francisco which is north of where I live. 

Blog about: 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? "I'd Tap That" I would then include different facts that show the benefits of tap instead of bottled water. 

Answer the following questions: 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?) The major water source originates from spring snow melt that flows down the Tuolumne river and stored in the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.   Water stored in the Crystal Springs, San Andreas and Pilarcitos reservoirs are delivered to the Harry Tracy Water Treatment Plant What chemicals were found in your water that were higher than expected? The Strontium range level found was 15-210 and the average or max is 63.3. the Chlorate range level found was 75-200 and the average or max is 145.3 What chemicals did you NOT expect to find in your water? Aluminum lead copper Are there associated health risks with the chemicals found in your water?  (sources for this last question include the EPA, CDC, ATSDR and the National Library of Medicine's ToxNe...

Note in your blog the public health importance of the Clean Water Act.  Having clean water is so importance.  As the diagram in the module showed, 70% of our bodies are made up of water, so putting clean water into our bodies is vital.   The Clean Water Act was important for public health because it helped with the protection of the millions of water sources such as rivers, lakes, and streams, and these water sources provide some drinking water to millions of people.  If this water weren't clean, it would be a health risk to the public as it puts them at risk to a number of contaminants.   Clean water can also affect our bodies because even if people don't use the water to directly drink, cook with, or bath with, it can still put them at risk if they eat the fish for example.  Those fish can still transfer those contaminants and it can still enter the body that way even though they aren't directly using the water.  

Given that there are potential health effects associated with the fragrances in our personal care products, how might you develop and implement a fragrance-free policy in a hospital, school, or other institutional setting? Consider how you would deal with the fragrances that are in employees’ personal care products.    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?    One of the first steps would be to put together a team of staff, management, health and safety representatives, and leadership to put together a draft.  Deadlines need to be set about the policy drafts. It is important to address any concerns that the employees or patients gave about the new policy draft and make adjustments to the policy draft to accommodate as much as possible.  Get management on board from the beginning as they need to b...

Using the National Library's ToxNet resources that you just learned about while viewing enviRN–Evidence , review and describe one or more health effects that associated with exposures to: Urea formaldehyde (found in pressed board, a common building material) Bleach (a cleaning/disinfectant product) I know from experience that formaldehyde has some long and short term health effects associated with exposure.  I get Brazilian blowouts which have formaldehyde and when it gets processed the smell is really sharp, it makes my eyes water, and it makes it hard to breath.  I know it can also cause skin irritation.    Long term effects can lead to serious health conditions, one of the big ones being cancer.  It is classified as a carcinogen and has been shown to cause cancer.  It can be found in a lot of building and home supplies, which can be scary because your whole family can be exposed.  It would be better if people are aware of ...

Given that there are an estimated 21,000 excess deaths from lung cancer associated with exposure to radon, how would you develop a national awareness campaign? Name some of your potential collaborators (stakeholders). I would first start by doing my research and finding out what my target audience should be, where they are located, and the best way to reach them.  Social media can be a really useful tool so I would want to utilize social media to spread our message to people all over the world.  I would want to get someone famous to get on board and who can help spread the word and be an ambassador for the campaign and help with donations towards the cause.  I would also want to reach my audience using a number of different avenues such as rallies, billboards, commercials, items such as shirts and stickers.  One thing that I would hope that I could do is to offer free test kits to anyone who wants one so people can test their homes and fix the issue if it is ide...

Dr. Sattler told us about the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco this week.  I saw on the news this morning the protests on the streets of San Francisco.  Protesters are trying to draw more attention to the air pollution and social inequality that affects their state. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/08/rise-for-climate-protests-san-francisco-new-york

BLOG about your personal experience regarding transportation and its implications for your health and the health of your communities and air quality. One of the readings mentioned that public transportation produces 95% less carbon monoxide, 92% fewer volatile organic compounds, and 45% less carbon dioxide compared to private automobiles.  I was surprised by this number because I was unaware of how much of an impact driving your own car can make.  And to think about how much traffic there is now and how many people are on the roads makes it hard to even comprehend the negative implication driving and not taking public transportation can have.   I was also surprised bu the statistic that men are 44.6% less likely to be overweight or obese if they use public transportation to work.  This shows that active commuting has significant positive effects on a persons noticeable health such as their weight.  Also if there is less pollution emi...

Prompt: Using your zip code (or the zip code from your family home, find out the following and  enter info in your BLOG. Who and what are the top polluters in your zip code? Some of the top polluters in my zip code include Tyco Thermal controls (manufactures heat tracing systems), South Bay Marble (building supplies), Peterson Prods (plastic manufacturing), Discovery Partners Intl., and Equilon San Francisco Terminal.   What percent of the homes in your zipcode have lead-based paint? One percent of homes in my county have lead based paint Are there Superfund sites in your zip?  (In your BLOG, make sure to tell us what a Superfund Site is) A Superfund is a federal government program designed to fund the clean up of sites that are contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants.  There aren't any superfud sites in my county. What can you tell us about the Superfund sites that are near where you live? The database says that there a...

Prompt: How does this fit into the concept of "social determinants"?  How does it connect to the "Black Lives Matter" movement?  Blog about your observations/thoughts regarding environmental justice. This fits into the concept of social determinants because depending on the color of your skin or the economic class that you were born into, your health could be already determined by those factors.  Just depending on your zip code your health could be compromised, compared to a neighboring zip code that isn't as exposed to some of those health risks and you fall into those neighborhoods based on factors such as income or race.  Just the three words of the movement, "Black Lives Matter" says what should be considered when evaluating the injustice in environmental treatment.   Black lives matter, however the lack of environmental justice for people who are in a disadvantaged group may convey the idea that their lives are less valuable than someone of an u...

Why are we still ONLY focused on sedentary lifestyles and diets when addressing obesity in the US?  Why are we not also looking at ways to decrease exposures to those chemicals that may be contributing to the epidemic? I feel like there are barriers and a price to place the blame onto the big companies that expose us to those chemicals and health risks.   Like we found out in class, it is a process and there are so many barriers to make health risks even known.  I wasn't aware of this issue before this module so I assume a lot of other people aren't either and that is what those companies want.  They don't want it to be public knowledge that we are exposed to harmful chemicals and it is easier to place blame on the individual.  There is also data that supports the fact that lifestyle changes, such as diet and exercise, work so that data supports the lifestyle changes that we ask people to make when addressing obesity. I do feel that is is imo...

I was shocked when the video showed that the two children's test results came back with multiple times higher than the parents results.  The exposures to those chemicals are just so abundant in so many everyday items.  I also thought it was so surprising that levels of PCBs could come from where you live and the food you eat.  My first thoughts and reactions of getting test results like this back from my doctor would be surprised and shocked.  Honestly, I probably wouldn't believe that these chemicals came back as positive or that I was exposed to them in the past.  I feel like some of these chemical are in so many common products or just part of my normal routine that it would't really occur to me that those were the sources such as make up, microwave ovens, rugs, etc. If I saw that I had these chemicals in my body already I would feel just so surprised because I am sure that it didn't feel very different than before, but that I have all these chemicals in my...