MPH 632 Environmental Health Blog

In San Francisco, there are 3 sewage treatment facilities. There is the North Point Wet Weather Facility located at Bay Street and the Embarcadero. It was built in 1951 and it is important to note that this facility is only active during wet weather, which I find is very interesting since it barley rains in SF. There is also the Oceanside Treatment Plant which was built in 1993. it receives about 20% of the cities flows. The last one is the Southeast Treatment Plant. It was built in 1952 and treats the other 80% of the cities flows. Needless to say, the Southeast Treatment Plant is much larger than the others and does the bulk of the cities wage work for SF residents.

Tap Water, because Bottled Water really isn't that good.  Bottled water manufacturers have done a good job at scaring the public into thinking that their tap water isn't safe to drink. Their campaigns have made people think that the water in the tap is somehow inferior to their "filtered" bottled water, when it reality it is not. Tap water consistently rates in higher quality than bottled water, and people are starting to catch on. In recent years, many people including myself have purchased reusable water bottles. I take mine with me on the road, to work, and to the gym and refill it as necessary. Id like to think Im doing my part in reducing environmental waste, but humans still continue to discard way too much plastic from empty water bottles. My campaign to reverse the water bottle trend would revolve around proving those campaigns from water bottle manufactures wrong. I would want to inform the public of the benefits behind drinking tap by stating it is cleane...

Water provided to most of the San Francisco residents (San Francisco Regional Water System), comes from spring snowmelt flowing down river which ends up in the Hatch Hetchy Reservoir. The main chemicals found in the water are Chlorate, which can cause harm to the Thyroid, Radiological Contaminants and Total Trihalomethane's, both of which can cause cancer. There are other naturally occurring contaminates in the water as well. I was not expecting to see radiological contaminants in the water. The overall water quality is actually very good and well within governmental standards. At home, we do use a water filter in the refrigerator. I would say that in using the water filter, we would hope to filter out any bad contaminates in the water that could accidentally be there. It just feels safer to use the filter. I do use water bottles, but mainly for convenience. I know that it is bad for the environment, and I have recently purchased a refillable bottle that I carry around me to reduce...

Could you imagine what would happen to the world if it stared to run out of clean drinking water? Entire countries would crumble within minutes. It is more important than ever to protect and regulate the water that we have. Too much of it is wasted without any regard for its importance, especially here in America. We consume more clean water in a day than all of Europe and Sub Saharan Africa combined. What could be done so that we can reduce water consumption? We could make water more expensive, but that would just hurt lower income populations. What needs to change is the culture around water. We need to stress its importance because one day it will run out. With the development of the Clean Water Act in 1972, we started to look at water a different way. Before this point, we were dumping chemicals, and toxins into the water literally making it flammable and lifeless. This piece of legislation marked the day that we started to take water more seriously. We all started making people ac...

I honestly had no idea the number 2 leading cause of lung cancer was due to radon exposure. I would guess that most people didn't know that, and would not be aware of the threat to its exposure. In building an awareness campaign, I would need to invest in, and air television ads while also investing in ads on local levels to help spread awareness. Another good idea would be to put up signage within hospitals and clinics in order to reach as many people as possible. Since the kit is inexpensive and pertains to a health risk, I would see about getting radon kits included in medical health coverage plans. That way everyone will have access to them. Some potential stakeholders would be local and federal government and hospital employees.

Urea-Formaldehyde - Commonly found in household materials. It is used for insulation and as an adhesive. Exposure to urea-formaldehyde can cause increased cancer risk when exposures are high. Common symptoms due to exposure are respiratory irritation, wheezing, coughing, watery eyes, rash, allergic reactions, and so on. Bleach - Although it is technically not considered corrosive or toxic, exposures to bleach can cause a number health effects. It can cause irritation to the eyes, mouth, lung, and skin. It can also burn human skin (internally if ingested, and externally if it comes in contact with the skin). The more concerning product of the 2 is urea-formaldehyde because it is used within the home and used within buildings. I personally can decide to use or not use bleach, and if I do, I can limit my exposure to it. The urea-formaldehyde composes the makeup of the home. Therefore, technically you could be exposed at anytime within the home.

In San Francisco, a lot of us rely on public transportation. It is easily accessible, and practical being that there is so much traffic in this area. I use bus and subway system within San Francisco and I think they have done a great job. Most, if not all of them are zero emission vehicles. Also San Franciscans and the surrounding areas tend to be more environmentally aware, chasing to have electric vehicles or hybrid cars. All of this will contribute to improving air quality. Overall, emissions from vehicles used in transportation would be the biggest concern, but if we can reduce the amount we are emitting, and make the emission process cleaner through manufacturing, then we can begin to reduce the overall air pollution.

In San Francisco county San Francisco, the top polluters are San Francisco Drydock Inc., Chevron, and PGE. Only 7% of houses are at high risk of lead hazards. In 2004, San Francisco county ranked among the cleanest 10% of all counties in the US in terms of number of superfund sites. Super fund is a United States federal government program designed to fund the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants. We have the Treasure Island Naval Station annex as our super fund site. It was originally used and apart of the Navy in the early 1900's. I found out that our county is among the worst 10% in the US among its air quality and I also found out that are water could be much better as well as it lies under the national average. Our low income communities and communities of color are more likely to suffer greater impacts of environmental degradation making it no better than the rest of the country. Basically, there are a lot of things that San Francisco county c...

After reading up on the information about environmental injustice,  the only thing, and most recent example of this, would be the Flint Michigan water crisis. The United States has a long way to go in terms of equality. This country was basically founded on racism and one can find the evidence even through legislation throughout the years. In terms of Flint, one also has to think that if the water were to be found toxic in a white area, the issue would have been resolved immediately. Since Flint happens to be predominantly black, they still to this day don't have clean water. This is absolutely unacceptable to me. Within the black community, there is a distrust for the government and health officials, and who can blame them? They have been lied to, fooled and mistreated so many times over the years that now it is a cultural thing within the community. The only way to fix this is over a long time while bridging the gap of equality.

The statistics given by the CDC about 1 in 69 children will be diagnosed with autism is so sad to me. What has our world come to, where we just disregard the health and well being of those most sensitive. I personally believe those bearing children make decision based on their Childs safety before making decisions for themselves. People want only the best for their young ones, but the issues come from not being educated, and from all of these exposures to chemicals from massive companies. I recently came into contact from a couple I knew in college. They had told me that they had become pregnant but ended up losing the baby. I felt terrible for them, but the only thing I could think of is "Could this have been prevented?" I know women will blame themselves in this circumstance which makes the entire situation even worse, but all I can do is wish them the best for their future. I just hope that more and more people become educated and work to get these toxins out of our pantry...

Finding toxic chemicals in my body would be a very disturbing thing. My first thoughts would be "Where did this come from"? "What did I do wrong"? "How did this get in my body"? Basically, I would be full of questions and concerns, and if I found out that these toxic chemicals entered my body through something I was eating or a product I was using, I would be infuriated. To me, companies seem to not be concerned about people and only concerned about making money. I have never tested my body for chemicals because I feel and think I am relatively healthy. In fact, I think I am healthier than the average person. I have changed my mind on that though. I will definitely be getting tested for chemicals because I will not allow myself to be ignorant about what is in my body.

After watching the videos and in particular, the one with Ken Cook, I could not help but be angry. Angry at the how greedy corporations can be, all for money. One of the more powerful messages I got from Ken in the video was that there are several laws in place that protect companies, but we need laws that protect people. This could not be more true and why isn't there being more done to protect people. Seeing the incidence of birth defect and diseases continue to rise years after years, one can only come to the conclusion of chemical imbalance. This is the only thing that makes sense. I just hope that people continue to educate themselves, voice their opinions, and influence government with data and knowledge.

This blog post is similar to the blog post about personal care products. This time, I looked up 2 different household products which I use on a regular basis for everyday things like cleaning. After my findings from the personal care products, I was bracing myself for even worse scores on the products we use around the house. I mean after all, we aren't putting these products on our bodies. I was definitely expecting way worse. Turns out, both of the products I decided to look up (Scrubbing Bubbles Antibacterial Bathroom Cleaner, and 409 Multipurpose cleaner) received a score of 0 on the HMIS scale. This means that the level of severity to acute exposures yields only a minimal risk. Needless to say, I was extremely surprised. The only score that did give me a cause for concern was the level of flammability the Scrubbing Bubbles scored. Out of 5 it scored a 4 which means it is severely flammable. I believe that the risks involved in handling these products should be common knowledge...

If there is one thing I am beginning to learn, it is to not trust major companies, even when they advertise for safe, clean products. Stacey Malkan's video brought that to light. It makes me wonder how is it possible in this day and age, and within the United States to continue to put products out there that can harm our bodies? Why use these harmful chemicals when these same products can be made without them? Is it less expensive to do so? Knowing the information I do now lead me into a little research. Using the safe cosmetics database I was able to find some useful information about some of the personal care products I use on a daily basis. I decided to hone in on things I use on a daily basis. The first product I looked up was my Dove Men's body wash. On a scale of 1-10 it was given a 6, a moderate hazard. It turns out, I have been putting a carcinogen on my body everyday for about 2 years now (since I found this body wash I have solely been using this). The even bigger con...