M4.5 Think about it/Group Exercise

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 on this endeavor. Perhaps the creation of a tribunal for those underserved.

From a more local level, the article by Barnes et al., (2010) hit the nail on the head. It has to do with education. Specifically, the Environmental Risk Reduction through Nursing Intervention and Research (ERRNIE). It comes down to us as practitioners and public health advocates to make sure law and impactful evidenced based research is used and is continued. As Barnes et al., (2010) mention, over one-quarter of the global disease burden is attributable to environmental exposures.  They also go on to mention the most important point about the future I believe. Outdoor air pollution has been strongly linked to chronic lung insufficiency and mortality in infants (Barnes et al., 2010).

I think air quality, the air quality index (AQI), will be one of the most important scales moving in to the next decade of environmental protection and improvement.

Comments

  1. Sandy TanSeptember 21, 2018 at 10:09 AM

    Hi Dan,
    Since public health is preventative health, would the nurses you are describing be public health nurses?I agree with you that public health professionals need to pressure people in power to pass laws that are evidence-based in order to be effective.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hugo FGSeptember 23, 2018 at 9:53 PM

    Hey Dan,
    I totally agree with you in that we need the right people in the right positions for change to happen. It seems now that big companies are mass producing all these harmful products without caring about the effects they may have on the public. I also agree with you about air quality becoming one of the most important issues in the decades to come.

    ReplyDelete

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