Environmental and Occupational Health Issues

Hello! This week I will be writing about a local organizations that health professional volunteers can seek if a natural disaster were to occur. In my search I found two local organizations that are ready to help during a natural disaster.  The Sacramento County website also featured these organizations. Even though, the second organization is not exclusively for health professionals I think that they are a well-rounded organization with a great cause. Sacramento Medical Reserve Corps engages medical professionals who want to donate their time and expertise to prepare for and respond to emergencies. This organization also trains, deploys, and retains volunteer health professionals. If you are interested in joining the Sacramento Medical Reserve Corps you can do so by going to www.SacMRCfoundation.org and filling out an application. The Regional Center for Volunteerism Hands on Sacramento is an all-inclusive coalition of faith and community based organization. The coalition co...

Hello! This week I will be discussing what I find most troubling about climate change, what I think needs the greatest attention now, and how I would describe climate change and its threats to someone.  I want to start off by mentioning that I find it very disturbing when people say they don't believe in climate change. It's astonishing that with the overwhelming amount of information people still have the audacity to say it's not true. Climate change is very real and happening at a very fast rate. As inhabitants of earth we need to do a better job of addressing this issue and slowing down the progression of it. The most troubling issue I find about climate change is the insane amount of plastic! I see pictures and documentaries of rivers filled with plastic items and it breaks my heart. How is it that we have let this problem get so big? Why didn't we try to prevent it?  Seeing sea animals die due to the ingestion of plastic because they mistake it for food is simpl...

Hello! The thought of Zero Waste Life sounds amazing but then I have my doubts. I start to think about the difficulty of living waste free. Never the less, there are many new habits that I can start working on. I looked over Lauren Singer's blog and she has great tips for beginners. There's plenty of changes I can make that would make living waste free an easy transition. The first change I can make is shopping at a farmers market. I could also support local farmers while making that change. Additionally, I need to be more mindful of packaged items and avoid packaging. The second thing I can do is recycle properly and compost. Trash is for Tossers has an informative post about composting and provides useful resources. Watching the video's in module 11 and seeing all the waste in places like Indonesia created more of an awareness for me. I think that at times people don't think it's a big issue because we are not seeing it first hand. Learning that by 2050 there w...

Hello, In this blog assignment I will be reviewing the MSDS and answering the following questions: Ethanol What are the health risks associated with this chemical? The health risks associated with ethanol are eye irritation, skin irritation, and specific target organ toxicity.  Is the chemical a carcinogen? Ethanol is a chemical What personal protective equipment or special precautions should be taken when working with this chemical? When working with this  chemical eye/face protection like wearing chemical safety googles and face shield should be used. Skin protection like wearing chemical protective clothing (gloves, boots, apron). Respiratory protection like wearing a NIOSH approved air-purifying respirator with an organic vapor cartridge should be used.  If this is a chemical found in your workplace, what training/education were you given about any risks associated with this chemical? I don't work with this chemical now, but I have in the p...

Hello, The prompt for this assignment was : 1) Consider your workplace or a workplace of one of your family members. Are there chemical, biological, radiological or ergonomic issues? Using the industrial hygiene hierarchy of controls, how might you address the issues? How are they being addressed in reality? 2) What might be the barriers to workers exercising their rights to a healthy and safe workplace? After watching the video, I felt more informed with workplace issues. I find that my workplace does a great job of providing training for chemical, biological, radiological, or ergonomic issues. We have mandatory trainings to help reduce the risk of health and safety issues. One issue I can identify is not having a seat. My office space is an unused lab and tall chairs are not available; this is an ergonomic issue. At times I get tired of standing all day and would like to sit but don't have a chair. I know it's typically the other way around and employee...

Hello! In this post I will be writing about the history of Pneumoconiosis that I have found through the American Public Health Association and its history of public health campaigns, current status of the disease, and related occupational policies.  Pneumoconiosis is referred to a group of fibrotic lung diseases caused by the retention of dust in the lungs. The term "black lung" has been coined because coal workers were most exposed to this condition. The first case of black lung was reported in 1831. Black lung is an irreversible interstitial lung disease that results in chronic inhalation of coal dust. As mentioned workers exposed to coal dust are most at risk to a range of chronic lung disease conditions. Blackley, Halldin, and Laney (2018) found that black lung is on the rise since 2000. While there was a decrease in the US from the 1970s to 1990s, 6.5% to 2.1%, prevalence of black lung has increased from 1990's to the 2000s. This increase has been from 2.1% to 3.2%...