Environmental and Occupational Health Issues in Public Health

There is a call for volunteers to support clinics in Daly City among other areas, as posted by the San Mateo Medical Center. As far as volunteering for disaster response teams, there is nothing on their website as of now. I was unable to look at the Disaster Healthcare Volunteers website since it was under maintenance, so I was unable to check if they have ways to provide healthcare training and experience to individuals who do not have them but show a willingness to volunteer. I think providing opportunities to educate and train more people to provide health care in emergency situations would be more beneficial than to wait for people with prior health care training and experience to come up and volunteer.

I find how some politicians and industries (oil and coal unsurprisingly) are doing so much to undermine the science behind climate change to be the most troubling. It has been proven that while we are slowly bringing us closer to our own demise, it is very much ramping up to get there even faster. It's frustrating that people still choose something as temporary as money over making the right and necessary changes to address climate change. In relation to this, I think the greatest work we can do as public health professionals is to bring the information to the people. One of the videos emphasizes that we have the biggest role in addressing these issues by speaking up. If more and more people become informed, more and more people can voice their concerns about climate change. The more we talk about it at the grassroots level, the more we can work towards positive change in relation to climate change. I would use scientific information and do my best to present it in a way that ord...

Much like how Lauren Singer described herself, I am one to be super sentimental with things. For example, I kept a plastic water bottle we bought from Stanford University because, well, it was a water bottle from Stanford University. At the end of the day, it's just a plastic water bottle, and Stanford University is just an hour or so drive away. Back home in the Philippines, we would keep the plastic bags we get from grocery shopping (or wherever else) to be used again. I would bring them when I go to overnight events to keep my dirty or wet clothes in. As for working towards a zero waste life, one thing I need to practice here is using my own reusable bags or containers when I go grocery shopping. We would always bring our reusable bags back in the Philippines. However, I don't do a lot of my own grocery shopping since most of our food at home is provided. I also think focusing on only what's necessary product-wise is an important step I have to take. While I don't co...

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? Our use of cleaning products is our only chemical exposure at work. I find it difficult to find biological and radiological issues in a restaurant. As far as ergonomics is concerned, the one thing that I can think of is the cash register is located on a lowered counter. It's not a big hindrance to me even as someone who is tall. However, I think it would be better if it were higher so I wouldn't have to bend over or sit down to use the register effectively.  2) What might be the barriers to workers exercising their rights to a healthy and safe workplace? I think not knowing what their rights are is a big hindrance for workers to remain healthy and safe in the workplace. I can see a lot of people just accepting...

Byssinosis or brown lung disease primarily affects workers in the cotton, hemp or flax industries. It causes asthma-like breathing difficulty and can lead to lung damage similar to that caused by irreversible chronic obstructive lung disease. In the 1960s, the disease was deemed nonexistent in the United States. It was not recognized by the scientific community in the United States until 1970. IT was after this point that the Occupational Safety and Health Act was developed to address byssinosis as well as other occupational diseases. The OSHA recognizes cotton dust as a hazard. As of now, the OSHA proposes having a cotton dust manual to solidify the policies and procedures to enforce the manufacturing operations. They also have a paper that talks about the effects of cotton dust exposure and lays down several options that can be used to reduce illness.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has a public safety program that focuses on reducing or elimination injuries, illnesses, and deaths among public safety workers. Fire service, law enforcement, corrections, emergency medical service, and wildland fire service are all under this program. They cover many areas for public safety workers, which include 1) cancer, reproductive, cardiovascular and other chronic disease prevention, 2) immune, infectious and dermal disease prevention, 3) respiratory health, 4) traumatic injury prevention, and 5) health work design and well-being. One thing the site takes note of is that addressing these issues for one population is essentially addressing them for the entire community. Even though I am not a public safety worker, I can be certain that all the research going into making public safety workers safer and healthier will also be utilized to make me safer and healthier as well.