Environmental Health

I love eating foods when they are in season! Currently in California we have apples, artichokes, arugula (one of my favorite greens for salads), asian pears, avocados (who doesn't like avocados?!), basil, beets, blackberries, bok choy, and so many other fresh fruits and veggies were listed here . When I think about seasonal foods in relation to hospital menus, I would hope that whoever is in charge of designing and preparing the food takes into consideration the fruits and veggies in season. Having this be done creates a healthier population, especially those who are in long term care at the hospital. More often then not, I see that the food prepared in hospitals lack flavor and color. Often times being bland. Working at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General, I have learned that the foods prepared and served daily have gone through this process of being cooked, then freezing it for storage/transportation, and then reheated when time comes to serve. So much seems wrong with this proc...

Antibiotics carry a lot of weight. Reading through these articles brings up many facts and concerns I've had when it comes to the constant use of antibiotics. For so long people have discussed how the frequent use of antibiotics is leading to bacteria and viruses that can withstand these drugs leading to what one article called, antibiotic-resistant bacteria (AR bacteria). It is not only these bacteria that are becoming resistant to antibiotics, but we as humans are also. I've learned that some people will take antibiotics when they are having symptoms related to the common cold or doctors giving patients antibiotics for minor cases. What will we do when these antibiotics no longer work? This topic can be also viewed through the lens of herbicides and pesticides. With the widespread us of these chemicals we are then breeding stronger pests that can survive these already harsh and dangerous chemicals. With this comes the use of stronger chemicals leading to greater adverse healt...

When I think about the vanishing bees, I worry about what that is going to do to how plants get pollinated. Bees play an important role in sustaining human life and as we see with climate change, the loss of bees is in our near future. There was this one episode of a Netflix series called Black Mirror . In this episode the world has lost all their bees and tech company made mechanical bees to continue pollenating. It was an interesting solution to a problem we may face in the near future. I think the issue behind the vanishing bees needs to be taken more seriously and people need to be more aware about the severity. Looking at San Bernardino County there are roughly 1,608 factory farms. These factories have mostly cows and produce dairy products. I was not aware of that many factory farms being in the county and seeing this number doesn't surprise me. I remember growing up and going to a farm for a freshly slaughtered goat. Tanzanian culture has a tradition where the slaughtering...

Developing a nationwide campaign to get people to drink tap water instead of bottled water, I would first want to think about the tap water quality around the world and understand that not all places have clean tap water to drink. Conducting a needs assessment for places that are in need for water filter and meeting people where they are when it comes to clean water access. It would be important to provide education about tap water and ways individuals can work to improve their own water quality. As mentioned in the  video , many people have been told that tap water is unsafe to drink and that bottled water is cleaner and safer. Debunking this myth and changing the social norms around bottled water would be the basis of my campaign. Using the Health Belief Model to target self-efficacy toward carrying a reusable water bottle everywhere you go would be one of my main goals in promoting tap water. Another goal would be to bring awareness to the severity of bottle water usage and ho...

For this section I decided to look up the nearest sewage facility near my hometown of Fontana California. Near Fontana there are 10 wastewater treatment plants and sewage disposal. 5 miles away from Fontana is the  Rialto Wastewater Treatment Plant . Rialto produces 7-8 million gallons of sewage everyday. I remember growing up and passing by the  Regional Water Recycling Plant No. 1 , What I remember most is how awful it smelled and all the brown water I could see when we dove past the facility on the freeway. Not knowing much about what was really going on there. Watching this weeks videos on our sewage system and the amount of work that goes into cleaning out water is eye opening. This particular plant treats approximately 28 million gallons per day.

Looking up San Bernardino County, I found that most of the water comes from ground water, surface water, ground water that is under influence of surface water, and surface water purchased (not sure what that means). One of the reports I looked at was for East Valley. It is not my hometown, but it is close by and within the San Bernardino County lines. Their water originates 11% from the Santa Ana River, 11% is imported from state water projects, and 78% of the water comes from the Bunker Hill Basin. When looking at what is in the water, a lot of inorganic compounds like: aluminum (levels of 0.009), fluoride (levels of 1), nitrate (levels of 10), arsenic (levels of 0.004), and chromium (levels of -100). Since most of these chemicals are chemicals found from natural erosion or runoff from fertilizer. A few radioactive contaminates, uranium and gross alpha particle activity. While looking through the report I was not surprised by what was in the water in East Valley. Nothing was in viol...

The Clean Water Act is important because it began to regulate the discharge of pollutants into water sources that flow into surface waters such as lakes, rivers, streams, and ponds. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) put in place permits to control the discharge if industries planned to pipe their discharge into surface waters. This act helps to improve the water quality for communities that live near these surface waters and works to decrease the exposures to toxic chemicals that come from this discharge. It is important as public health professionals that we continue to uphold this act and make sure industries are acquiring permits and are regularly regulating the discharge.