MPH 632 - Fall 2018

CHOOSE ONE of the following organizations/agencies: OSHA, CAL/OSHA, NIOSH, ILO, WHO, AFL-CIO Go to their website. Each of these occupational safety and health or labor organizations support a range of occupational health and safety programs. Select a health and safety program sponsored by one of these organizations, read about it. Provide a short summary on your BLOG and how it might relate to your health and safety. These safety and health programs aim to prevent workplace injuries, illness, improve compliance with the existing laws and regulations, reducing cost, engaging workers, enhance social responsibility goals, and increase productivity and overall business operations.  One program is to improve worker participation.  Effective safety and health programs utilize workers collective experience, knowledge, and insight to find solutions work their workplace safety and health challenges.  This is important because they are the ones on the front line who kn...

Each of these diseases still affects many workers today.   Over the years there have been major public health campaigns to address them.  Organized labor has often lead the campaigns.    Select one of these diseases and search the web to learn about the history  of the public health campaigns and the  current status  of the disease and related occupational health policies.   (What are the OSHA or MSHA regulations regarding the exposures that cause the disease that you selected to review?)    The occupational disease that I looked up was Asbestosis. Asbestos is in so many places and it is a mineral that can be incorporated into construction, commercial, and household products.  There is some legislation around Asbestos such as the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), and the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act and Reauthorization Act.   OSHA does highly ...

In your  BLOG , write about your findings - about the potential dangers associated with the chemical/product you looked up. Was the MSDS an adequate tool for a worker to use to gain an understanding about the potential health risks and how to protect him/herself? (Consider that the general public reads at a reading level at or below 6th grade, and that's if English is their first language.) The chemical that I looked up was hydrogen peroxide.  The MSDS did give prevention precautions saying to keep it away from heat, mixing with combustibles, and consuming.  It was good because it did have some pictures.  Two of the pictures were clear to understand, but the other one was not clear.  This can be helpful if people don't read the language that the MSDS is written in; however it can be pointless if people don't understand the pictures.  I do think that it is a reading level that the general public can understand.  It was pretty simple as it had a prev...

Lead Poisoning The section that I found most interesting was the childhood lead toxicity section specifically.  I didn't know that the guts of children absorb lead more readily than an adults.  To think that there are long term effects such as severe cognitive, attentional, and behavioral impairments is really scary.  What is even more scary is probably the fact that lead toxicity could be undiagnosed because it can be asymptotic.  This can also have negative side effects for people who maybe are undocumented living in a rural area who don't have access to a doctor.  The lead poison could go undiagnosed for even longer which just shows how disadvantage can accumulate for some populations.  I think it is really good that there is a lot more prevention than before.  Making laws and regulations around things like gasoline and paint have an impact on the health of the public and on a larger scale.   Environmental health response to a severe...

BLOG  about your thoughts on green chemistry. Have you heard of or seen any examples of green chemistry in your work or in daily life? What are your thoughts on the 12 principles of green chemistry?  I hadn't heard of green chemistry before, but the definition and purpose make sense.  Reducing the occurrence of it from the start is taking a good preventative approach.    Some of the principles that I think are some of the most important are preventing waste.  This prevents the continuous clean up and energy spent on clean up.  I also think the one that says to design chemicals and products to degrade after use.  I feel this is important because as we have learned, there are some chemicals and products that never biodegrade and they build up for millions of years and just don't go anywhere.  This can be dangerous because it can lead to an accumulation of disadvantage for people who are disadvantaged from the start living near chemica...

Discuss  each of the 6 half-hour webinars in a single blog post, separating the post by inserting each webinar's title before discussing that webinar. There are also two extra webinars on the page, regarding regulation ("Do We Need It?") and green chemistry ("Green Chemistry"). These are not required viewing, but are fascinating and recommended if you are interested in the topics.  Highly fluorinated chemicals I like how the video said that using these products are convenient, which is true and why we tend to buy them.  They don't note the harmful effects such as testicular cancer, kidney cancer, high cholesterol, fertility, and hormone function.   It is crazy to think that it can be found in things like car seats, carpets, carpet cleaner, and furnishings.  These are things that kids come in contact with so often and they are so vulnerable to the risks.  Babies are laying and crawling on the carpets and we use carpet cleaner thinking it...

After watching all of the provided videos and reading material blog about what you think is essential for an ideal chemical policy and then elaborate on one of the elements from a public health protection perspective. I think it is essential for an ideal chemical policy that the weaknesses in the current policy are identified and broken down to find out what is working and what isn't.  I also think there needs to be more regulations around protecting the public and having the publics best interest in mind.  I feel that there needs to be more of a push for adequate protection around chemical exposures, especially given the amount of research that exists  around the topic.  There needs to be more transparency for products on the market so consumers are more educated on the products that they are buying.  There also needs to be a reduction in the competitive marketing of chemicals and industry interference.  From a public health protection perspecti...

Consider the elements of an ideal chemical policy. The Louisville Charter is a consensus-built position paper identifying the key elements of a good chemical policy. READ: THE LOUISVILLE CHARTER FOR SAFER CHEMICALS  (Links to an external site.) Links to an external site. In the article above, read through the headers in RED (h3 for screen readers). . On the left- side bar there are background papers for each of the elements. Choose one or more of the background subjects to blog about. Background #1 - Require safer substitutions and solutions It is surprising that safer subsitiutions are not the goal or that there arent any specific guidelines set yet.  I would think that safety should be one of the first and main concerns.  And in most cases the replacement could be hazardous as well.   This paper discusses implementing the substitution principle which will involve opposing the interests of the chemical producers.  It also invol...

BLOG  about the following: Recall your last night's meal.  Go to the  What's on my Food website  (Links to an external site.) Links to an external site.  and enter the foods that comprised your meal. The information on the site is based on foods that are NOT "organic". What did you find out about the pesticide residues that may be in or on your food? What do you think about this? What should we be doing about this in terms of public health, not just in terms of our personal choices? Last nights meal: homemade tomato soup salad with avacado and cherry tomatoes 1 pesticide residue was found for avacado Imiprothrin  69 pesticide residue found for cherry tomatoes Bifenthrin and  Pyraclostrobin 52 pesticide residue found for lettus were the most common Imidacloprid and Mandipropamide were the most common I found that a lot of the pesticide residues that were on my food from my meal last night were from the lettuce and the ...

REVIEW this  EcoEmploy website  (Links to an external site.) Links to an external site. , where you will find a listing of just some of the major federal agencies that have some role in environmental health. Choose one of them and write a paragraph or two in your BLOG about the nature of the agency’s role in protecting environmental health. The one that I selected was the United States Department of Agriculture - Natural Resources Conservation services.  This agency has many different topics of focus such as air, water, plants, animals, people, climate change, land use, soil, and energy.  I will select climate change as the main example as the USDA regional climate hub missions is to develop science based, region specific information and various technologies to enable climate smarter decision making.  Agricultural and natural resource managers are expected to provide assistance to enable farmers and landowners to help them adapt to climate change and w...

Review your local (city or county) health department's website and list the services that you would consider Environmental Health Services.  In your  BLOG , note the environmental health services. Some of the environmental health services that are available through the county are: emergency preparedness healthy environment safe waste disposal food and exercise This was just a few of the services that San Mateo County offers clients.  I thought it was good that they had what seemed like more preventative options and measures.  I thought the food and exercise section could provide more information and be more intensive.  The information on the website was pretty minimal for this area.   I thought it was good that the website had a lot of opportunities to volunteer in times of emergencies.  They also provided information about earthquakes which is relevant to this area.  I feel they need to add more information about how to be p...

Consider your topic of interest for your literature review. What agencies at the local, state, federal, and/or international level provide information, regulatory oversight, or are otherwise implicated in addressing that topic? USA Swimming - Usaswimming.org CDC https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/swimming/swimmers/rwi/respiratory-infections.html National Environmental Health Association' https://www.neha.org/eh-topics/water-quality-0/recreational-water Local health departments: Ex: city of San Mateo California Department of Public Health https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CEH/DRSEM/Pages/EMB/RecreationalHealth/California-Swimming-Pool-Requirements.aspx ASPS - Association of Pool and Spa Professionals https://apsp.org/ National Swimming Pool Foundation https://www.nspf.org/