Blog 20

1. I imagine that part of the problem with food waste is that people do not realize that food waste contributes to methane gas release, a powerful greenhouse gas. Nurses, as a trusted profession in the community, can and should make an effort to educate patients on the environmental harms of contributing to food waste and how it effects the environment, in addition to the fact that wasting food is problematic when thinking about people who go hungry. Nurses should be checking in with patients regarding their nutrition choices, especially in the primary care setting, and as part of that discussion they could bring up a point about reducing food waste.

2. The issue of pharmaceutical waste is another issue where I imagine there isn't much knowledge or recognition by the public of the issue. Given that pharmaceutical waste is so harmful, especially to groundwater, nurses have a responsibility of educating their patients on what to do with medications they are no longer taking and their safe disposal, as well as lobbying for less pollution by pharmaceutical companies in the first place.

3. I'm incredibly impressed by the Ted talk and the fact that this woman has been able to live a zero waste lifestyle. The fact that she has reduced her waste to a mason jar full of trash is incredible. I appreciate that she learned how to make products on her own - something I'd like to learn more about. I've recently started using bars of soap instead of plastic bottles of shower gel which I'm excited about and feel has a positive impact on the environment. I'm trying to seriously reduce my use of single use plastic and find it pretty disgusting that single use plastics are so prominent. I'm also starting to bring my own containers to restaurants for when I have leftovers to take home, instead of using their single use packaging to take leftovers home.

Comments

  1. Janna LinNovember 17, 2019 at 12:48 PM

    Hi Kathleen,
    I was too very humbled by that TED talk. It really drives home the point that what we think of as unachievable or unattainable, which in this case is living a zero waste life, it ultimately has to do with how committed we are in affecting levels of change. Single-use plastic is horrible yet so conspicuous, it's like we've accepted its rampant usage as normal. This goes back into how we can be programmed into thinking and accepting things that cause us harm as being innocuous part of daily life.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog 21

1. I found some news on California's law that new homes must have solar panels on their roofs for energy sources. In Sacramento, local government is determining if homeowners can receive solar from off-site solar generators, or if it has to be from the homeowner's own home. If Sacramento approves off-site solar, it's likely that other cities would follow. One consideration is that on-home solar provides benefits of: extra energy bill savings per month, ability to keep lights on during a blackout, as well as less money invested overall into external off-site solar generators. The fact that solar panels can create energy that allows for power to be on during black outs (which could become more and more common as climate change makes fire season longer and more challenging) has an immense impact on health. For one, people that rely on refrigerators to keep medications like insulin cool, or who need CPAP machines to be plugged in, would greatly benefit from clean energy that ca...
Read more

Blog 25

1. I learned a lot from this module - I had no idea that exposure to latex gloves increases the chances of asthma later in life, and that nurses and custodians are the most greatly affected by that. One solution to think about is purchasing latex free biodegradable gloves. This would be better for nurses, as well as for the environment. Nurses go through pairs of gloves so quickly - and I understand that it's important for both nurse and patient safety - but sometimes it's so frustrating to see piles of gloves being thrown away that cannot be recycled. Biodegradable gloves would at least address part of the issue. 2. I looked into becoming a climate champion on the envirn website. I'm planning on learning more about how to be a climate advocate at my work. Environmental news:   I've been hearing a lot about flooding in Venice lately and have been curious as to what its future will be as sea levels continue to rise. I found an article about this issue on NPR - Venice rec...
Read more

Blog 26

1. When I looked up information on my phone, I found that it stated it met all of the safety criteria that the United States lists for it. After this module, I think it's important to be aware of radiation risks from our phones, and to use them in intentional ways. Sometimes I'll stick my phone into my waist band to keep it there and it's directly touching my skin - which is something I should work to not do. It all speaks to a greater issue of how we're likely too dependent and attached to our phones (I'm sure that I am guilty of that) and probably need to take a step back from phone use as a whole - for physical and mental health. 2. Nurses should certainly provide holistic education regarding phone exposure and children. This also relates to the fact that kids should probably have limits on screen time in general - I saw an article about how kids have slower brain development if they have high levels of screen time. Regardless, nurses should definitely educate ca...
Read more