Kathleen's Environmental Health Blog

1. Indoor air quality can affect health outcomes in that it can contribute to allergies, asthma, COPD, and cardiovascular illness. The EPA video discussed the issue of mold - which is naturally occurring and can be harmless, but if in excess can be extremely harmful and even fatal. Poor ventilation in homes contributes to poor health outcomes. It's important for people to dust, vacuum, open windows to increase ventilation, and clean their bedding and pillows, etc. frequently. I don't feel very confident about the air quality in the clinic that I work in. It's an old building, we have peeling paint, and there are no windows for ventilation. 2. I live in a dorm at USF as part of a second job that I have. The entire dorm is filled with carpet, and the dorm is filled with 18 year olds. The carpet is pretty disgusting, and people have even vomited on the carpet before. I'm thankful that the carpet is cleaned frequently, but the entire building seems like a concern for havi...

1. I knew that air pollution greatly affects sensitive populations (elderly, very young, asthmatics, people with COPD...), but I didn't recognize that they can increase the chance of cancer. In terms of how to reduce air pollution, choosing to use public transportation, carpool, bicycling, or walking is a much better choice than driving your own car. It's also important to think about online shopping - especially from places that have one or two day delivery (like Amazon) that place stress on the environment and create excess pollution. Being intentional about where we buy products from, and attempting to buy locally as much as possible in order to decrease pollution due to transportation, are important methods of attempting to reduce our footprint. 2. Scorecard's website was down for maintenance when I tried to look at it, but I did pull up the EPA's search tool. I live at USF and so I searched USF specifically - there wasn't a lot of information on USF but one t...

I'm a firm believer that environmental justice is racial justice is gender justice is healthcare justice is education justice, etc. Essentially, all of these justice issues are relation and intersectional. Hunter's point in San Francisco - which has high amounts of pollution and is also considered a food desert - is a great example, given that the population is largely African American. I recently visited New Orleans and was heartbroken and angered to learn about many members of the African American community were left to fend for themselves after Hurricane Katrina, and that the most poor neighborhoods were the most devastated. I also worked in Malawi in a refugee camp on the Water Sanitation and Hygiene team, and the ways in which I viewed environmental justice there changed everything for me. Access to safe waste disposal, clean drinking water, toilets, and adequate space for playing, etc. were huge issues for the community. As climate change continues to worsen, the glob...

1. Communities are forced to pay for environmental health issues due to increased rates of asthma, cancer, neurodevelopmental disorders, etc. One of the most frustrating aspects of this is that certain communities are disproportionately affected by these issues - and those usually are impoverished and minority communities. I worked in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland in a community health clinic, which is known for having high amounts of lead in the neighborhood's dirt and buildings. We were very careful to screen patients for lead, and especially children due to the effects that lead can have in their development. 2. I have always heard that mercury, lead, etc. can affect neurodevelopment disorder, but I didn't realize the gravity. It was interesting to see the millions of dollars that neurodevelopment issues cost society - and it's devastating to think of the affects that it has on people's lives. The idea that flame retardants, which are everywhere - includi...

1. I've never heard of body burden before but was pretty fascinated in watching Anderson Cooper's special on body burdens. It was also interesting to see Anderson Cooper's lab results and see that he was positive for DDT. In Module 5, there was a video that discussed that fetuses do not have a blood-brain-barrier, meaning that any chemicals that their mother has circulating in her blood are fair game for reaching a fetus' brain. When thinking of the amount of chemicals that we are exposed to, it's frightening to think of what we do not know yet in terms of how these chemicals affect our own bodies, as well as the bodies of children whose brains are developing. 2. It's not surprising that there are chemicals in the body that do not have safe levels. It's alarming to think that we do not know the effects of certain chemicals. I can imagine that if patients knew about the possibility of these tests, many people would want to get them, which at the end of the ...

1. For my household products search, I looked up Clorox disinfecting wipes and Windex glass cleaning spray. I was nervous to look these up, because I imagined they would be quite toxic, but neither had major toxicity risks listed (besides the typical avoid contact with eyes and skin in case of irritation). Neither were listed as carcinogenic. I was surprised by the lack of toxicity listed for these two products. 2. I also took the quiz on toxic chemicals listed in the module and was surprised to learn that many household cleaning products contain formaldehyde. I was also shocked to learn from that quiz that mattresses and couches contain flame retardants which have been linked to low IQ in kids and early puberty. 3. There need to be huge changes in the ways in which we look at environmental policy. The fact that formaldehyde is a carcinogen and is also a major component of many products in the United States is so hard to wrap my brain around - and governmental regulation agencies l...

Blog 4: I was most interested in the fracking module. I have learned about fracking in the past, but never knew how much water it uses per frack, as well as how many opportunities for error there are (such as leaks of oil and gas as well as damage or contamination of aquifers). I was interested in seeing that fracking is taking place in Monterey - an area that I love. I did some further research on this and found that the Trump administration is attempting to expand the amount of acres used for fracking in California - including Monterey. An added concern of this is that fracking sites using holding areas for waste water which can potentially spill over, which is alarming given the incredible biodiversity (the majority of the reason that I love Monterey) that could be affected by fracking waste. In the article that I found regarding expanding fracking land in California, the governor apparently gets a say in if fracking access will be expanded, and it will be interesting to see how is...

Blog 3: I've been aware for years that certain cosmetic products are problematic (not to mention the fact that the packaging wastes so much single-use plastic). Watching Stacy Malkan's talk was engaging and encouraging in the sense that there are products on the market that are not as hazardous to the environment, which is great, but I appreciate that she notes that we cannot 'shop our way out of this problem'. Not enough knowledge or attention is given to these issues and the ways in which they affect our patients, or the environment that we all share. It's also important to think about the fact that the containers that these products come in, once disposed of, will sometimes be transported to developing countries where trash piles up - affecting the health and safety of vulnerable populations, and allowing the global north to act as though our trash just disappears. Comprehensive education for patients and our communities, as well as reducing the amount that we c...