Environmental Health

What I've learned from the course is something that I will refer to for the rest of my life. Learning about the environment and how it affects our health has opened my eyes to all that surrounds me. The good and the bad all play a huge role in the development of certain diseases and conditions that I used to associate to other factors like genetics and accessibility to certain resources. A few highlights from this semester include: learning about environmental justice and the large number of individuals working to challenge the industry on providing healthier and less chemically filled products; learning about my chosen topic of noise pollution and the ways in which this kind of newly understood pollution is effecting our health; and lastly learning how to articulate this information to friends and family. The small group blogging was beneficial in viewing other members interactions with the environment from their home towns and how they are changing their habits from what we hav...

I looked through my hometown of Fontana, CA for their disaster preparedness plan and was able to find a few resources on their website with a program called ReadyFontana . The city of Fontana offers trainings and outreach, family planning activities, and a few other great resources for citizens to be prepared. Learning about this website and resource page made me wonder why it isn't widely discussed and utilized for the general public. With all these natural disasters that have begun to cause issues among communities vulnerable to fires and earthquakes, we should make sure everyone knows how to prepare in case it happens to them. I remember when I was younger we would have earthquake drills in school and taught about what foods to have and water saved in case of a disaster, but I feel there could be much more done to help communities be as ready as possible for anything. At least what is most likely to occur in that area or county.

When I think about climate change and how much we are really starting to see the effects, I get worried most about those who truly do not believe it to be real. With the science being disproven by large corporations and governments lobbying for their best interest is causing a divide where misinformation is being sold as the truth. We can already see how this is happening when our president tweets about climate change not being real and appointing those in office who believe the same thing. As a public health professional our greatest attention needs to go toward efforts to prepare vulnerable populations to be prepared by going out and educating those in the community and providing tools to have kits at home for emergencies. This would include preparing those vulnerable to fires and earthquakes with supplies necessary for that category of disaster; preparing those vulnerable to floods and hurricane/sea level rising with supplies and barricades; preparing those vulnerable to extreme t...