Final Blog

In the beginning, I was not looking forward to this class because I took environmental health as an undergraduate for my major and I did not find it interesting at all. I think it was mostly the lecturer was not very good at lecturing and made the topics seem boring. On the other hand, I think Dr. Sattler is a great lecturer and she's very good at storytelling which made the topics very interesting. I think she did a very good job at emphasizing and explaining the public health impacts and implications of the environmental health issues. This definitely helped me make more connections to environmental issues with public health and the overall understanding of environmental health. The small group blogging was a great learning exercise because I get to read my group members' opinions, ideas, and learnings, which then leads me to learn something new as well. My only feedback is that I wish we could've used canvas as our platform to blog. I feel like it will be organized if each module has its own discussion board so all blog entries will be in the same place, which makes replying easier.

M12.9 Climate Change

What I personally find troubling about climate change is that humans are setting up themselves for extinction, but they are not doing anything progressive to address the issue. The government tells us to use less water by taking shorter showers and don't water your lawn, and take public transportation. However, I think these actions are too small to significantly address climate change. As a public health professional, I think we need to push for using renewable energy and decreasing animal livestock. It will be a challenge to convince the public to eat less meat and that eating meat is what greatly contributes to climate change. If I were to define and describe climate change to someone, I would say that it is extreme changes of the weather we normally see throughout the year, for example, warmer regions are experiencing higher rises in temperature, and colder regions are experiencing much lower temperatures than that usually would. Additionally, natural disasters are more extreme and catastrophic. I would also say that human health is also affected because homes are being destroyed, therefore facing displacement, and crops are also destroyed or aren't growing due to extreme weather changes, therefore depletion of food sources. Not only is it just physical health, but the stress and trauma that comes with experiencing natural disasters affect mental health as well.

M11.5 Zero Waste Life

Like the young woman said in her Ted talk, quitting plastic is not an easy thing to do. The past two years I've switched to living a more minimalistic lifestyle and through that, I discovered about zero waste life. As I learned how people live a zero waste life and compared their way of life to my lifestyle, I realized how it can be difficult. Like the speaker mentioned, you have to do a lot of research to build a zero waste lifestyle. Although I cannot see myself living a zero waste lifestyle, I try my best to not produce that much waste. Similar to the speaker, I also get frustrated when people get take-away food and the plastic that comes with it that will be eventually be thrown away in the next hour or so. I always meal-prep and bring my own lunch to work so I don't have to take-away food. I always use a reusable water bottle. Recently, with Starbucks slowly phasing out straws in their stores, had got me to consider using a reusable straw. I rarely buy drinks but on those occasions I do, I don't want to use a plastic straw. I always carry reusable bags with me whenever I go grocery shopping. One thing I want to improve on is to not shop so much on Amazon because of all the plastic it produces from its packaging.

M10.8 Occupational-related disease

Byssinosis is a lung disease caused by prolonged inhalation of textile fiber dust and primarily affects workers in cotton processing, hemp or flax industries. According to Corn (1981), recognition of byssinosis came late. In the late 1960s, medical professionals stated that the disease does not exist within the American textile mills. It is not until the 1970s the science community showed that it does exist. With the mobilization of public opinion, changes in social attitudes, new scientific evidence, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act led to setting standards to control and eradicate byssinosis called the Cotton Dust Standard There is the Task Force for Byssinosis Prevention and they include OSHA, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Department of Agriculture, the National Cotton Council, the American Textile Manufacturers Institute and the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees. The last regulatory review of the standard was done in 2000, and the new amendment stated that "textile manufacturers that use an improved method of washing raw cotton to eliminate the risk of 'brown lung' will be exempt from all provisions of the OSHA cotton dust standard."

Citations:
Corn, J. K. (1981). Byssinosis—An historical perspective. American journal of industrial medicine, 2(4), 331-352.
https://www.ehstoday.com/news/ehs_imp_34273

M10.5 Occupational safety and health organization

The organization I chose to explore is CalOSHA and I selected their respirable crystalline silica safety program to read up on. Construction workers have potential exposures to respirable crystalline silica, and since my dad is a construction worker, this program caught my attention. Respirable crystalline silica can cause silicosis (lung fibrosis), lung cancer, and other serious health effects. The program set standards to control employee exposures to respirable crystalline silica. The standards are:

• requires all employers to protect employees from exposures that exceed the "permissible exposure limit" (PEL) for respirable crystalline silica
• applies to occupational exposures in construction, except where exposures will remain below the "action level" under any foreseeable conditions
• applies to all occupational exposures except construction work, agricultural operations, and exposures from the processing of sorptive clays

By learning about this type of exposure among construction workers, I want to ask my dad if he has any knowledge about his occupational health risks. 

M10.1

My dad is a contruction worker and some of the health and safety issues he experinces are:

• pain from physical overexertion or working in uncomfotable positions
• exposure to lead, wood dust, asbestos, paints, solvents, and other toxic chemicals or materials
• working in hot weather and being over exposed UV rays
• working with hand tools, powered tools and heavy powered equipment
• loud noises
• working at heights
• electrical hazards

According to the hierarchy of controls, these issues can be addressed with personal protective equipment. My dad has equipment to protect himself such as wearing hard hats, gloves, masks, and googles. It is unfortunate that these health and safety issues can be addressed by removing or replacing the hazard– my dad need to work with hand and powered tools and use wood, paints, and other solvents in order to build things. A barrier that my dad might or may have experienced in exercising his right to a healthy and safe workplace is a language barrier since he is an immigrant and does not understand and speak English very well. 

M10.2 MSDS and ToxNet

I decided to look up the Material Safety Data Sheet of a nail salon worker and chose to read up about a base coat product. The product contains the hazardous chemicals trimethylbenzoyl diphenylphosphine oxide and hydroxyethylmethacrylate. The health risks associated with these chemicals are potential allergic skin reaction, damage of fertility or the unborn child, and repiratory issues. 
The precautionary statements are:

• Obtain special instructions before use
• Do not handle until all safety precautions have been read and understood
• Avoid breathing vapors
• Contaminated work clothing should not be allowed out of the workplace
• Wear protective gloves, eye protection
• IF ON SKIN: Wash with plenty of Wash off immediately with soap and plenty of water

I believe that the safety data sheet is an adequate tool for nail salon workers to understand about the chemicals they are working with because the data sheet lists out the ingredients and its potential health risks, first aid measure, firefighting measures, accidental release measures, and handling and storage instructions. However, the worker will need to be at a 6th grade reading level to understand. In California, many nail salon workers are Asian immigrants and do not read or speak English, therefore this population are most likely not reading the data sheets and are not educated about their occupational health. 

M9.4 Heavy Metals

I am curious about CDC's thought process of setting the acceptable blood lead level of 60 μg/dl during the 1970s. If there were no significant meta-analysis studies that proved at which blood lead level was dangerous, how did CDC decide on that blood lead level? Then when newer studies were published, and CDC decided to drop that level to 10 μg/dl, I am still confused on why they chose that level. Since there are studies showing the serious health effects lead exposure, I would assume CDC to put out a statement to inform the public that even if there is no safe level established, due to findings of negative health effects, any type of exposure to lead should be taken seriously. I feel that just by lowering the acceptable blood lead level is not a preventative measure to protect public health.

M9.3 Green Chemistry

This is my first time hearing and learning about green chemistry. After learning how we are always surronded and exposed to toxic chemicals, it is relieving to know that there are safer and "greener" alternatives. I am also glad to learn that there is the Green Chemistry initiative to address the issues of toxic chemicals so in the future we can have greener and safer alternatives. The 12 principles of green chemistry take on a preventitative lens so little to no harm can be done when a new chemical product or process is created. I think the principles are great measures that scientists must strictly abide to when innovating a new chemical product because they are safety measures, so if not followed, there will be public health consequences. If the green chemistry principles had been applied when plastic was invented, the Earth would be so much different. We would not have so much landfill and pollution, and animals and sea creatures' life and habitat would not be harmed.

M9.2 Six Chemical Classes

After learning about the six classes of chemicals, I realized humans are always in contact and exposed to those chemicals. We are always surrounded by these harmful chemicals and I feel like it would be a challenge and at times a hassle to avoid all of those six classes of chemicals. I do want to live healthier and I plan on slowly replacing with safer alternatives. It was also shocking to learn that even if some products label themselves as free of certain toxic chemicals, the replacement is just as or more harmful than the previous one. Knowing this, I will not automatically trust labels with these kinds of statements, and I will take matters into my own hands and do my own research.

The chemical I choose to learn more in-depth about is antimicrobials because I always thought it was a good chemical. I was surprised to learn that this class of chemicals is hurting our health by killing beneficial microorganisms on our bodies. I understand why antimicrobials would be used in soaps and items we touch a lot like yoga mats and kitchenware, but I was surprised antimicrobials are in toothpaste and cosmetics as well.

M8.5 An Ideal Chemical Policy

I think the Lousiville Charter for Safer Chemicals outlined the essential elements for an effective chemical safety policy. Those essential elements are: 

1. Require safer substitutes and solutions
2. Phase out persistent, bioaccumulative, or highly toxic chemicals
3. Give the public and workers the full right-to-know and participate
4. Act on early warnings
5. Require comprehensive safety data for all chemicals
6. Take immediate action to protect communities and workers

Other elements outlined in the Lautenberg Act are:

1. Requires safety finding for new chemicals
2. Health-based safety standard
3. Give EPA authority to require testing of chemicals

One of the flaws of the Toxic Substance Control Act is that it mandates there needs to be evidence that a chemical posed a risk before it could require testing. Waiting for evidence wastes time and more people can be exposed during the wait. Effective public health protection starts with acting on early warning signs. Prevention is a key service of public health, and prevent means that health professionals cannot ignore warning signs, even if there is no significant evidence. Health professionals need to act on early warning signs in order to produce significant evidence.