Chemical Policy Reform

Background Paper #1 - Require Safer Substitutes and Solutions

I agree that the best step to take when dealing with dangerous chemicals is to find alternatives that are safer. I find that it is good that this is part of the Louisville Charter. However, I understand that it's one endeavor to find alternatives and another one to transition from the current dangerous chemicals to safer ones. A lot of politics goes into it, and, of course, this can make the whole research and implementation process take longer than needed. The background paper lays down the steps that government should take to meet the need for safer alternatives. Much like finding safer alternative forms of energy, there is a great need to find safer alternative chemicals and substances before it's too late.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 5, 2018 at 6:14 PM

    While I totally agree that we need to transition to safer chemicals, but what happens when the chemical we transition to is still dangerous. What should we do then and how do we transition to more safe products?

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 19, 2018 at 5:49 PM

    Yes! finding alternatives is always the best options. I really like this paper because it discussed various steps that should be taken by government to meet the need for safer alternatives. I think it may be hard for people to transition from current products to new products simply because they are used to them. I think a lot of education needs to take place to teach the public about their current hazardous substances.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think About It - Website Exploration

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.
Read more

Occupational Safety and Health Organization

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.
Read more

An Occupationally-Related Disease

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.
Read more