Dan's Environmental Health Blog

This course has been a good one. One truly relatable to everyday life. It has certainly opened my eyes to all the problems surrounding public/environemental health and this issues we need to fix more urgently than others. It is also quite amazing how much is brushed under the rug and ignored. This occurs through poor policy, compromised politicians, and big money weighing in on issue they should have no say in. The blogs were good. It did keep me on track with the modules once I got the hang of it. I think a couple small real world examples to discuss in class or in a small group that we then present on in that same class would be cool. Thank you for the informational great class Dr. Sattler. Dan

After watching the video and viewing the lecture in class I just don't see how a zero waste life is possible. I do however believe that the world could product less waste overall. Just going to one sporting event generates so much waste in many forms that I don't want to here how many tons of garbage and plastic is used over the course of a season. I think pharmaceutical waste is the most serious thing to take care of. When rivers and small streams are coming back positive for man made chemicals and pharmaceuticals we have an issue that needs to be addressed. Following this, plastic waste is the next thing to solve.

The thing that I find most troubling about climate change is clearly the temperature rise. The temperature rise with the domino effect of sea water rise is devastating. It will be a slow process and I think civilization will be fine. I worry about those that can't make decisions for themselves in this world or struggle to do so. Homeless, mentally impaired, elderly and the animals of our world. We are destroying everything in our path right now and leaving the frail and dependent behind.  The greatest attention needs to be fixing the carbon emission problem and relying less on fossil fuels, single use plastics, and chemical use for our everyday life. I think these three should be eradicated in the next decade or so.  I would start by explaining how we got to this point. How civilization, automation, and industrial revolutions shaped our world. Some things were terrible years ago, like dumping waste in to creek and soil. Laws were passed to prevent this. Others were gr...

Asb estosis is the disease due to the inhalation of asbestos. Asbestos is the exposure and is regulated by OHSA and the EPA. I chose this one because it is a silent killer especially to lower income classes as they typically live in areas and apartments that most likely have not been improved and updated to today's standard code per OHSA. Asbestos still lives in the walls and on the ceilings with children and families inhaling it all day every day. It is also in pipes and vinyl floor tiles. You can find the information here https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/asbestos/ OHSA has three standards for addressing asbestos exposure. 1. General industry work: 29 CFR 1910.1001.  2. Shipyard work code  29 CFR 1915.1001 . 3. Construction work code  29 CFR 1926.1101 . These are coeds and guidelines that assist in asbestos work for organizations.  Interesting material if you wish to view it is the information for asbestos on toxnet https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/...

I chose to look into the ILO or the international labour organization. Within the ILO they support the Hotels, Catering, and Tourism sector. I thought this was a good one to look in to as it directly affects me and any person who travels, eats food, and stays in hotels. This sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world but lacks the structure it needs. Reasons include being a fragmented industry, seasonalized employees, low skills needed, and low wages. I specifically looked in to social protection of the employees. Typically, the hours are of non social working hours, meal prep etc. Difficulty working conditions lead to high turnover and low career stability. Additionally, seasonal tourism effect employment and wages. This is important to us as the low wage, typically migrant employees, are the ones cooking our food, changing and cleaning our rooms typically go unnoticed per the ILO. Should this sector of the industry fail or show signs of weakness, people will stay les...

I work for a company called Medtronic. We make all sorts of medical device equipment. The one I thought was the most dangerous does warn heavily against radiation exposure. I could not locate the specific document (MSDS) but this link will show you what type of radiation exposure if given out during different settings. It is called the Oarm. https://www.medtronic.com/us-en/healthcare-professionals/products/neurological/surgical-imaging-systems/o-arm/dose-considerations.html This is a Radiological safety hazard. It requires those that operate it, Rad Techs, to wear lead lined aprons and thyroid collars. All those that don't operate it leave the room when the device is doing a 3D spin (Xray). PPE is very important for this device. Sine I was not able to locate the specific MSDS I could not compare it to the ToxNet database. Here is the link for occupational hazards for xrays. PPE is very important! https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search2/f?./temp/~hSs0Wm:3

What I find most interesting about the Needlemen lead article is that is caused the following: ADHD, aggression, and delinquency among children. For adults, lead poisoning over time lead to an increase in Alzheimer's risk. What also stands out to me is that lead poisoning or at least the concern that it could cause issues occurred in Australia back in 1892. It took almost 100 years to ban lead in paint as it was as a known metal exposure to humans. The Nigeria article shocked me that this still occurs. Well, maybe not. Social injustice occurs all over the world and until something like this happens it does not get fixed unfortunately. Quite staggering numbers to have that many children die so young. I am very happy that MSF was able to treat the remaining sick children and bring the serum levels back to a healthier level. Hopefully, the gold artisanal ore processing company was heavily find or covered the cost for the healthcare.

First, watching the video, I assumed everyone had heard of the great pacific garbage patch. They either fixed the interviews or I am wrong in assuming people know where their garbage can end up. I have not heard of green chemistry before. I have heard of reducing pollution at the molecular level was something we wanted to do but did not know there was a term for it. I participate in remediation and think this is important but the real winner is green chemistry. For me, I don't know if there is anything around me that has used green chemistry. The EPA has a great website dedicated to it; find it here https://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry Biofuels seem to be the biggest hope of the EPA. As well as removing solvents from the chemical process for chemicals. They even list what they consider the benefits to the 12 steps. https://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/benefits-green-chemistry

After watching the introduction video it saddens me that one government body is capable of regulating industry. You would think someone was watching and regulating what amount of chemicals and what type go in to our products. I am so glad companies like this, the green science policy institute care enough and are here to help spread the word. I chose to focus on antimicrobials as I tend to use these products often. When I am at work, I use antimicrobial alcohol to was my hands in the operating room probably 10 times a day. I wonder if triclosan is in it. I will check at work tomorrow. If so, I am shocked it's in a hospital. At home, we have all the fragrant soap you can think of. Bath, sink, and dishwasher all contain some form. I will have to change that up.

I chose the Department of Energy (DOE) to look in to and how this branch of service might affect our environment. This division is almost solely responsible for getting us away from fossil fuels. I think this division has incredible responsibility with rising temperature and the number of hurricanes increasing in count and strength. The DOE can shape our new world through energy efficiency, renewable energy, and innovation around these topics. An interesting topic and solution from the DOE is STEM. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. It is here that the future of climate change exists. The belief that these strong subjects, taught to young kids, can hopefully foster innovation and engineering feats of tomorrow.

My hometown of Danville, CA in the EastBay has one small little page dedicated to health. It wasn't hard to find but it wasn't easy to locate on the website either. Here is the link: https://www.danville.ca.gov/303/Health-Services Danville lists a bunch of health issues and services but only a few that I would consider environmental. Restaurant inspections, communicable diseases, hazardous material monitoring and homelessness. Other than these bullet points on the website there is no real mention of environmental health, links, or information to assist the community. 

My topic is BPA and miscarriage. I wanted to find out if there is a direct link between BPA exposure and miscarriage. There is a collection of information readily available on my initial searches within peer reviewed article databases such as PubMed and Toxnet.  There is no real regulatory body that governs miscarriage. Mainly information is housed on some database or reasons why miscarriage may happen. Some main bodies that monitor maternal and infant health are Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) , the National ART Surveillance System (NASS), and the  Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System (PMSS). The links are attached to the text and are within the CDC. 

I would like to see chemical and pesticide policy parallel that of radiation policy in hospitals. I routinely have to monitor my radiation exposure by wearing a badge wherever I go. I visit many hospitals throughout the week for work. This badge, with my control badge at home, I send in every three months to measure the amount of radiation it picked up; hence what I picked up and absorb while working over the past three months. This level is measured at a facility in MN and sent back to me indicating what level of exposure I have had over the three months. This in turn shapes how I work. If we could develop something similar, where we could monitor all the farm workers remotely, and then provide feedback on exposure I think this would go a long way to helping those who are exposed to chemicals. If a farm worker was high for one chemical we would remove that worker from that field to allow the exposure to dissipate. We would also know what farm it was and penalize that farm in some mone...

I chose to read the sixth option, protection of workers and communities who are exposed to chemicals/pesticides. I thought this was an important one for our own bay area has we have a ton of people who work the Salinas/Monterey valley and are exposed to a number of chemicals. This valley produces all varieties of berries, lettuce, and artichokes. The surrounding communities, castro valley, seaside, and Watsonville are therefore exposed to a bunch of chemical run off to stream, dirt, and workers from their shoes and clothes. As mentioned in this article, the main issue is environmental justice. The best berries in the world come from this land but we treat the surrounding area terribly. There is not one really decent hospital. The closet one is Dominican in Santa Cruz. What are the companies doing for their workers. As an outsider, I cannot really tell. But the companies are Dole and Driscoll's to name the big companies. I wonder if they are implementing the hierarchy of health ...

The India pesticide movie was pretty difficult to watch. The workers have zero protection and work with the worst chemicals in the world for a couple bucks. Well, the last meal I had was spaghetti and marinara sauce. My wife and I make our own sauce from produce purchased from Safeway. I thought for sure this would be a pretty safe bet for pesticide cleanliness. Although somewhat right, I still didn't like the fact that a neurotoxin was found to be in tomatoes. The specific pesticide was methamidophos at found 2% of the time. It is also a high bee toxin. I wanted to look up a another meal I commonly have and that is sweet potatoes and peas. Sweet potatoes are loaded with carcinogen pesticides! It is (dicloran) found 42% of the time in samples. So disappointing. Would organic help? Since I could not locate regular peas, I used baby food peas. Not much going on with peas. There was a 0.3% finding for Myclobutanil which is a reproduction and hormone disruptor.

The first article is great. It paints a nice picture of what type of foods are sourced, how they are sourced, and what public health and hospitals are aiming for. The articles main points are; Local foods provide a decrease in climate change (reduction in travel miles for the food), able to increase food safety as local farmers aren't in the main stream and will not harm the main food supply, competitive prices, taste, and you support you local community. All great examples of what is possible. Farming around the bay area is well known. Looking at the websites provided on the pdf, a ton of berries, artichokes, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, garlic, and flowers are all grown in the central coast. Monterey, Salinas, Watsonville, and Santa Cruz to name a few. All the local growers, even though they may be large companies like Dole, ship to local stores. I don't consider these 'local' farmers but it does count for us. They don't have to ship inventory very far. Its the s...

Well, the first pdf was disheartening. I am disappointed to learn that ground turkey had the most AR bacteria in the meat. I thought I was doing good by eating less red meat (which still may be true) but overall turkey is the worst for AR bacterial ingestion and absorption for humans. The red meat was the best! So, I just don't know anymore. The only thing that seems save is organic naturally grown veggies and fruits from the dirt. I'm sure we'll learn something bad about organic soon though. Ha. MRSA is a serious issue that has been around for many, many years. I started hearing about it in hospitals about a decade ago when we saw patients becoming resistant to antibiotics. This is an alarming issue that we need to figure out. The fact that animals are now having MRSA and resistance is not good. The antimicrobial soaps, lotions, and hospital furniture can be summed up in one sentence, I think. Why are we using chemicals to kill off normal flora on our hands and bodies?...

What an informative movie. I enjoyed learning about wine, dirt, ecological systems for agriculture, and enjoyed a bit of culture too. I like the humming bird story. Not just the story, but it is a story that is taught to children of their communities. The idea and culture behind it was nice. There are a few farming areas near me but none in my county. Solano county has a cattle farm, the entire central valley seems to be all dairy farming. Pig farming is concentrated in san joaquin and Stanislas counties in the central valley. And finally chickens, again, tied to the central valley. The dirt and resources needed in the central valley must be absurd. Bees have been a major story, I think for the past year. I have heard about it in the news and on television. I have heard of bees being stolen, rented, leased, and dying due to climate change. Who would have thought such a small piece to the puzzle of dirt and food could cause such an issue. I rarely compost. I usually just happen to...

For contra costa county, the treatment plant is in Martinez, CA. It processes 34-54 million gallons of sewage water a day. Waste water moves through the plants 1,500 miles of pipes throughout the county. The website for the treatment plant is located here: https://www.centralsan.org/treatment-plant

If I were to run a campaign against bottled water companies I think the slogan would be "Back to the Tap." I would basically have public service announcements, billboard ads, bus stop ads, radio and T.V. commercials spots saying the same things the video did. Tap water is just as good if not cleaner than bottled water and is free! It saves the planet from using fossil fuels to make the bottles and saves India from our garbage.

For contra costa county (East Bay MUD) you can find the CCR here: https://www.ebmud.com/water/about-your-water/water-quality/water-quality-report-english/ Quite an interesting pdf that contra costa has put together. I had no idea the water I drank all my life came from a river. Almost all of EBMUD’s water comes from the 577-square mile watershed of the Mokelumne River on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. I just assumed it was from a mountain source like Mt. Shasta or Lanier. For chemicals within the water, surprisingly, most amounts were all well under the federal requirements. So, I am pleasantly pleased that my drinking water is not bad. Most of the chemicals within the water are from fertilizer and surface run off. These include chromium and vanadium. Aluminum was surprising to me. I was surprised that was there. The amounts were tiny and they list is as due to erosion of natural deposits and due to the water filtration process. However, as toxnet states, aluminum can cau...

Well, I am certainly surprised to see that the earth is composed of 366 Quintillion gallons of water and we are only able to use .007% of it. I thought for sure we had more than that based on what the second video shared in that each person in the U.S. uses 151 gallons a day just living. Farming by itself uses 53 billion gallons a day. The importance of the water act cannot be underestimated. If it weren't for the act all rivers, lakes, and streams would be polluted, no doubt. In fact, I bet most pollution today is from non point sources like cars, small businesses, and individual household draining chemicals and toxins in to the sewer system and nearby grass lands. What the act does is really help control the large companies responsible for a lot of waste to dispose of properly and for that I am glad exists. What I am also glad about is that filling requires a permit. For a company to rid a lake or small river just to build homes and the like does not sit well with me. We need t...

All three articles were interesting. All three articles provided great information on pollutants, air quality, and fragrance. I don't know that we can rid all these pollutants but we can suppress and reduce them to a level that is healthy enough for adults as well as children. Unfortunately, big business will continue to churn out products that have pollutants in them unless governed by law to remove the substances so I believe it starts here. New policy starts with the right people. We need the right lobbyists, the right environmental leaders, and the right EPA divisions backing the lobbyists to get things changed. I know we have home health RN's for those in need but what about home health RN's for preventative needs. Im sure they exist but I have not heard of them. Perhaps, a policy brief on a new tier of nurses is introduced within the EPA. Nurses specifically hired at hospitals whos sole job is preventative health in certain counties. Hospitals and counties collaborate...

That was a nicely organized website with great information. I enjoyed learning about the Dose/Response S curve and NOEL specifically, in the toxicology section. I am a big believer in compounding exposures over time that lead to cancer, not necessarily one terrible week or two of exposure to some chemicals/toxicity. One stat that really surprised me was dry cleaning. Unbelievable that 2.2million pounds of perc were drained in to our drinking water/environment. That number today, 10 years later, I am sure has doubled. For specific searches on urea formaldehyde and bleach on ToxNet, I found the following information below. Bleach is not really considered toxic. However, exposure to bleach can cause irritation to the eyes, mouth, lungs, and skin. Individuals with asthma or other breathing problems are particularly susceptible to having issues. Sodium hydroxide, bleach, can also cause non-allergenic asthma. I recommend finding alternative ways when cleaning. Lemon juice, vinegar, baki...

First off, I had no idea Radon was the #2 cause of lung cancer. I honestly would not have guessed that. I would have said pollution/inhalants/chemical type inhalation issues from a job or years on a specific job. Randon is certainly a silent killer that many don't know about. My campaign would most definitely involve the EPA, NIH, Cancer.org, and local state governments who are responsible for tenancy rights within apartments communities. Nationally, the EPA and the NIH would work hand in hand during the radon educational campaign. These two have the information needed regarding radon, how to test for it, and how to mitigate it. The NIH can then be solely responsible to educate the public on which types of health screenings are needed for those that come back with a unhealthy radon environment score. Cancer.org can assist in the screenings and education for signs and symptoms of radon exposure. Finally, the tenant association of all the apartments for every city in America should...

Interesting to read there is a tool that could help practitioners in the  Transportation and Health Tool (THT). I did not know this existed until now. This could help a lot of practitioners in cities.  In my own personal experience there are far too many cars, busses, and semi trucks on the road today. There is constant road work and work trucks dumping out loads of smog. I understand to get where we need to be we need to build and expand. The muni/salesforce tower and bus lines are finally complete, and this will help. SF is expanding van ness but all I breathe in our fumes from the concrete and endless amounts of smog from the traffic delays. I am seeing more and more walkers but I can't get past the number of uber and lyft cars on the road contributing to increased traffic and air pollution. Scooters and bikes which contribute very little to air pollution should be the norm. I feel like SF is a great place to live but there is certainly an expanding list of cons.

I know Martinez was a major hitter with the refinery but shocked that it was this bad. My top 3 polluters are: Rank Facility City Pounds 1 SHELL OIL PRODS. U.S. MARTINEZ REFY. MARTINEZ 1,142,142 2 TESORO REFINING & MARKETING CO. MARTINEZ 1,064,658 3 CHEVRON PRODS. CO. RICHMOND REFY. RICHMOND 999,328 Only 1% of houses in my county, Contra Costa (94526), have lead based paint. Contra costa county's worst toxic waste site (aka Superfund Sites) are: Who Is Polluting Your Community? Superfund Sites in Your Community 1 CONCORD NAVAL WEAPONS STATION 2 GBF, INC., DUMP 3 UNITED HECKATHORN CO. With only 3 Superfund sites in our county, we are among the best in the nation for being the cleanest. We sit at 20% while the national average is about 50% clean. For Air quality, it is not great. They are ok on some pollutants but others we are terrible. Carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, PM2.5, PM10, Sulfer dioxide, and volatile organic compounds we are ove...

I am not surprised by the facts presented on Canvas. The US and its Caucasian leaders continually turn a deaf ear towards issues that don't effect them. I am really glad Bill Clinton signed the Environmental Justices in to practice. I also enjoyed reading the Environmental Justice Strategy. Seems just right that we involve aspects of the ACA and CDC. It's strategy statement is "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people..." This is the way it should be. Equal across the board.

Good videos on a great topic. I like the ideas of physicians getting more involved and asking bigger and broader questions will help. What are we doing about educating the patient? The patients health ultimately falls on the patient themselves. Physicians are with patients for maybe 30 minutes a year. We need to educate in doctors offices and with more public service announcements by trusted sources throughout the year and especially within vulnerable communities. Bus ads, pamphlets, posters around convenience stores etc...

Well, initially, I would want to know how to rid myself of all these chemicals. After a few weeks of this class, these lab results do not shock me although it is still bad. Only until I am maybe, 60 years old, would I see lasting change or effect as a result of the chemicals. The best way is to live life but be cognizant of what you eat and use.

Well, that was interesting to say the least. Shocked, really. I was as silent as the crowd was when he stated the blood for the 10 Americans were from fetuses. I expected the blood to be from middle age people on how the effects of living in our world harmed our body. How could we possibly be that polluted in our blood and birth healthy babies? And to hear some of the chemicals were banned nearly 30 years ago! Unreal. I really like the Care Act for the kids, it was absolutely needed. And to see the rates of poisoning go down after banning thinks like lead is great news. Like he said, we can’t live under rock. We need to clean up our world. Ban substances until proven safe. Cleaning up our world can make an impact.  

The products I chose are Resolve Carpet Foam Cleaner, because I used it last night, and Windex window cleaner as I tend to clean the windows once a month. My inclination says that Resolve foam cleaner is terrible for humans since it has the ability to clean stains. However, after looking at the product online it is actually quite OK. It has a health rating of one (which is slight) on a scale of one to five. It has a flammable rating of one on the same scale and a zero for chronic health hazard rating. It has a zero because it hasn’t been studied or is just that safe over time. There are no issues with skin, eye, lung, or ingestion; states no know significant effects or critical hazards. Honestly, I am shocked Resolve is not more hazardous and I will continue to use it. Windex, was surprisingly OK as well. It clearly states on the website, “ This product does not contain hazardous chemicals at or above a reportable level as defined by OSHA 29 CFR 1910.120 .” I feel much better a...

For my personal care product breakdown I chose to look more closely at my shaving cream and my face lotion. I wanted to pick personal products I use a majority of the week. Going in to the search of what is included in these products I was expecting a serious health hazard to be located based on what I had been reading. I was pleasantly surprised, in fact, relieved to know that at least one of the products I was using was generally safe. Almost every ingredient for both products contained some sort of evidence to support an allergy or toxicity and this was concerning.  The lotion I use, Aveeno, contained generally safe ingredients. There was one ingredient that got a moderate warning at level 5. This ingredient is Benzyl Alcohol. This serves as a preservative and is also naturally occurring. Allery/immunotoxicity is the main concern for this ingredient. For my Edge Shaving Cream, one ingredient registered as highly unsafe. It had a ranking of 7 on the unsafe scale. The ma...

In the home assessment, why did we want to know about the age of your home? ·      For a few reasons I suspect. Depending on the year of the home it will determine the type of material used when building the home. Materials used back in a certain date and time period may have been deemed safe then but with more sophisticated testing and years of data on people and health to date, it may now be unsafe. Specific examples would include lead paint, asbestos, ceiling and insulation material. Another reason to know the age of the house is that it could not have proper radon mitigation should radon levels be really high or built over an area approved in the past but is unsafe now. Or perhaps the house was approved to be built on polluted soil many years ago and is now unhealthy per new housing codes. Why would we want to know if someone lives in the basement?  ·      As a reason stated above, radon levels in the past may not be what the...

Looking around at my home, following our first course, I could not help but notice all the exposures we talked about. Chemical exposures seem to dominate my household. Deodorant, hairspray, lotions, shampoos, plastics and creams in the bathroom to Windex window cleaner, herbicides/pesticides, and carpet cleaner stain remover in the kitchen. Radiological exposures are just behind chemical exposures. This list at my home includes one wireless printer, wi-fi, TV, four computers, two phones, one I-pad, one microwave, and one propane space heater on the wall. We also have one UV light lamp for our tomato plants. I am almost sure this is not a good idea now since the UV light is most likely not controlled well enough. It is almost disheartening to know that the possibility that almost everything in this world could cause cancer. How do you live without exposing yourself to carcinogens?