Environmental Health

Where are the sewage treatment facilities in your community?  The Water Quality Control Plant is located at:  195 Belle Aire Rd, South San Francisco, CA 94080.  Browsing the website, I learned that this specific sewage treatment facility also provides treatments to two other neighboring cities in the area and even SFO- which I had no idea prior to do research about the sewage treatment facility in my community. This is something I never really gave a second though, or paid close attention to, but i've come to realize I take sewage, plumbing, etc for granted and I should be more aware of the things i have access to that protect my health and well being. 

If I were to develop a nationwide campaign to get people to drink tap water instead of bottled water, my campaign would be "The Basis is Life can be Accessed from your Tap: Tap Water." Most people do not know that tape water is less regulated than tap water. The biggest myth is that bottled water is "cleaner" and "more filtered" than tap water. However, tap water is tested multiple times a day and contains even more nutrients. I think pushing out facts about tap water and the benefits to consuming tap water (accessible, testes regularly, cost effective) will help encourage others to drink more tap water. 

What is the source of your drinking water?   Where does your water ORIGINATE?  (It is treated at a water treatment plant, but what watershed or aquifer is the sources of the water?) Cal Water System  What chemicals were found in your water that were higher than expected? Fluoride- I understand it is necessary to add fluoride, i guess i never realized how much was really added to drinking water  What chemicals did you NOT expect to find in your water? Microbial contaminants: viruses and bacteria (can come from sewage treatment plants, septic systems, agricultural livestock operations, and wildlife) - super shocked about this- had no idea this could be a thing! Where does your water come from? The source! Track it from the source to your tap. South San Francisco system includes 144 miles of pipeline, 12 storage tanks, one collect - ing tank, and 21 booster pumps What did you discover about your water quality? The city of South San Francisco tested ...

As mentioned in the video, water is the basis of life, therefore it is our duty and responsibility to protect and advocate for access to clean water globally.  What people tend to forget is that it is one of our primary responsibilities to keep out water clean- if we choose to pollute our water, we are putting many lives at risk. With the Clean Water Act, we are taking a step towards creating regulations and guidelines that will help the general public, business owners, manufactures, etc. understand the importance of keeping our water clean, and to ensure we are contributing to improving our water supply, rather than causing more harm by polluting our water, making it unsafe for the general population to use and consume.  

How might you develop and implement a fragrance-free policy in a hospital, school, or other institutional setting? Consider how you would deal with the fragrances that are in employees’ personal care products.  I think implementing Fragrance-Free "zones" in any public setting would be extremely impactful and beneficial, particularly in schools and hospitals. In order to implement fragrance free zones, data must be presented to board of directors for school districts and hospitals explaining the health effects related to fragrances. By doing so, they will become more aware of the harmful effects caused by fragrances, which will then leads to the next step of swapping out soaps, lotions, cleaning products, supplies, etc to fragrance-free products. After 6 months, an evaluation should be conducted to determine if there are any positive health outcomes in relation to the fragrance free zones and ways in which an institution can sustain these fragrance free zo...

Given that there are an estimated 21,000 excess deaths from lung cancer associated with exposure to radon,   how would you develop a national awareness campaign?   Name some of your potential collaborators (stakeholders). I would develop a national awareness campaign by implementing some sort of community outreach/community participation campaign. By getting the community involved and having them be apart of such a movement, it will inspire their neighbors/families/friends to test their homes and community centers for Radon. This will also provide the greater community with additional support and foster greater community cohesiveness.  A group of community  members can go door to door and offer their  neighbors with either free or cost effective Radon (depending on funding), in which the community leaders will help conduct the Radon tests. For those homes that do have unsafe Radon levels, the department of public health will send out a radon professional ...

I really enjoyed reading this article as it dove into the past, present and future of environmentalism. Prior to taking this course and reading this article, I knew very little about environmentalism and the social movements associated with it in the past so I appreciate how fairly thorough this article was about environmentalism. Standing Rock was a topic of interest for me, personally, yet I did not stop to think that it was somewhat related to environmentalism, which this article helped me realize. Social movements such as Standing Rock are so much more than what meets the eye or what others are exposed to in the media- it has to do what this earth and land truly mean to us and how we must protect the land that we call home.

"Improving public transportation not only links people to these goods and services, but also helps communities achieve public health benefits. These include increased physical activity, reduced pollution, reduced fatalities and injuries on our transportation networks and greater community cohesion." I absolutely agree with this statement! I believe there are many benefits associated with have cost effective and accessibly transportation because it gives individuals the opportunity to interact with others in the community, be physically active and have access to greater resources throughout the community. We are lucky to have various mode of transportation within the bay area, making it pretty easy to get from place to place. I think the major priority in terms of public transportation in the bay area is to make it safe and affordable. Within the past 5 years, there has been many incidents, including several fatalities, that have taken place at bart stations and other means ...

Who and what are the top polluters in your zip code? Discovery Partner Intl. Chemrx  Equilon San Francisco Terminal  Simpson Coatings Group Inc. What percent of the homes in your zipcode have lead-based paint? Only 1% of homes have lead based paint which means we are heading in the right direction  Are there Superfund sites in your zip?  (In your BLOG, make sure to tell us what a Superfund Site is) Superfund sites are  any parts of  land in the United States that have been contaminated by hazardous waste. Thankfully, there are no superfund sites in my zip, considering that they can be super harmful to individuals' health.  What can you tell us about the Superfund sites that are near where you live? According to CBS SF Bay Area, the superfund site in Hunter's Point will be tested by the US Navy for radioactive contamination. Its is said that the shipyard was once  used for experiments using radioactive material and...

How and why on earth was it ever ok to target communities that mostly consists of  people of color for hazardous wastelands?! This line alone: "The newly-formed Commission for Racial Justice found that race was the strongest variable in predicting the location of waste facilities," makes chills go up my spine because it goes to show how cruel the government and system really is. This totally reminds me of the  Tuskegee syphilis experiment which makes me sad because did we not learn from this?! We have a long way to go and I hope things change sooner rather than later because this honestly makes me so sad...

I never really thought about how exposure to toxic chemicals during pregnancy can have a huge negative impact on the overall health of the women and the fetus. After reading the article and watching the clips, I am in awe and disbelief that exposures to toxic chemicals and be life threatening and soo harmful, yet it is a topic that is not given much attention to- why is that?!?! It makes me really sad that such topics are not given  the time and attention is deserves considering that c hemical manufacturing is expected to grow fastest in developing countries in the next five years, according to FIGO, which could certainly effect the overall health of those living/working in close proximities of chemical manufacturing sites, increasing the likelihood of being exposed to even more harmful chemicals. 

I thought it was really interesting how the parent tested her children to determine if they showed signs of being exposed to the same chemicals- come to find out, the children were exposed two to three to four times as many chemical exposures!! I thought this was absolutely mind-blowing. Also, I thought it was super scary to think that if we consumer meats that have been exposed to certain chemicals, we would then have those chemicals in our body. I know this might seem like common sense, but it is something I never really thought about or reflected on when consuming foods and produce.

Ken Cook mentioned that "Women use about 12 personal care products a day...that exposes them to over 160 chemical ingredients a day," which is something we do not reflect on because we have been so fixated on the idea that we must follow a certain “grooming/hyenine” regimen in which requires us to utilize products that are in fact very toxic, yet continue to use them because it is part of the “norm” and “socially unacceptable” if we were to steer away from following a specific personally hygiene regimen. Of course, there is the option of purchasing natural products, but those who are a part of the working class many not be able to afford such products, leading them to rely on products that contain more toxic chemicals. What also really caught my attention was the fact that the exposure to such toxic chemicals negatively impact fertility rates, which is something I never thought of or reflected on prior to watching this video, and it is a topic of great conce...