Environmental Health Equity

Where are the sewage treatment facilities in your community?  The only sewage treatment facility in Oakland is the East Bay Municipal Utility District or East Bay MUD.  

If you were to develop a nationwide campaign to get people to drink tap water instead of bottled water, what would be your campaign slogan? My slogan would be "Tap into the best." I think it is clever and catchy and is an easy reminder that you should drink TAP water. I am hopeful that people have already begun to recognize that tap water is better than bottled water and begun to make the switch. I see many more reusable water bottles than I used to when I was younger.

The following are answers regarding my drinking water in Oakland, CA (East Bay Municipal Utility District): What is the source of your drinking water?   Where does your water ORIGINATE?  (It is treated at a water treatment plant, but what watershed or aquifer is the sources of the water?) Mokelumne River on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada  What chemicals were found in your water that were higher than expected? There were no chemicals found in our water that were higher than the federal standards. What chemicals did you NOT expect to find in your water? I did not expect to find aluminum or chlorate in our water. Are there associated health risks with the chemicals found in your water?  (sources for this last question include the EPA, CDC, ATSDR and the National Library of Medicine's ToxNet program. Yes, there are health risks with any amount of aluminum and lead. It is absurd that federal standards do not coincide with healt...

Safe drinking water is one of the most essential needs of our health. Safe drinking water is a universal basic human right that every person should be guaranteed. It is my view that this is the least our government should be able to guarantee for us. The Clean Water Act has such profound public health significance because it regulates the discharge of pollutants into all our country's lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands, coastal areas, and other surface waters. Under the Clean Water Act, the EPA sets national standards for water quality and defines water quality criteria, including the specific levels of various pollutants that are allowable under these criteria. The Clean Water Act is a vital step in the right direction, but we need stricter standards and evidence-based criteria for water quality. We need stronger advocacy for policies that protect all our water. 

Given that there are an estimated 21,000 excess deaths from lung cancer associated with exposure to radon,   how would you develop a national awareness campaign?   Name some of your potential collaborators (stakeholders). Developing a national awareness campaign would be challenging because I think people generally don't like to pay attention to environmental exposures and associated health risks unless they have been directly affected by the toxin in question. For a national awareness campaign regarding radon exposure, I would collaborate with the following organizations: American Lung Association Lung Cancer Foundation of America Lung Cancer Alliance American Cancer Society American Public Health Association American Medical Association American Nurses Association Home Depot, Lowes and other local hardware stores (a campaign for them to sell more radon testing kits) First Alert (makers of radon testing kits to include them in a campaign to sell kits) I think th...

Given that there are potential health effects associated with the fragrances in our personal care products, how might you develop and implement a fragrance-free policy in a hospital, school, or other institutional setting? Consider how you would deal with the fragrances that are in employees’ personal care products. My Ideal Chemical/Fragrance Policy: Upon doing a search of the fragrance policies at UCSF and other clinical and school settings, I found an academic article published this year in Building and Environment titled, " Ten questions concerning fragrance-free policies and indoor environments" that I found particularly relevant to this question. Steinemann describes the need for a comprehensive fragrance policy because of the many health problems associated with these indoor air pollutants, as well as lost workdays and societal impact of restricting access to vulnerable people who are sensitive to such toxins (such as asthmatics) and have a higher risk of negativ...

Health Effects of Exposure to common chemicals Using the National Library ToxNet database (specifically the HPD and HSPD databases), I was able to find out a lot about the negative health effects associated with exposures to urea formaldehyde, which is found in pressed board- a common building material that I had never even heard about, but that most of us are exposed to almost daily. One health effect associated with urea formaldehyde exposure is cancer of the nasopharynx and leukemia. Additionally, a study of female workers in the garment industry showed that exposure caused an increased incidence of menstrual disorders,  inflammatory disease of the reproductive tract, sterility, anemia, and low birth weights among offspring. Using the National Library ToxNet database (specifically the HPD, HSPD, and TOXLINE databases), I was also able to find out a lot about the negative health effects associated with exposures to bleach, which is a common cleaning product th...

BLOG about your personal experience regarding transportation and its implications for your health and the health of your communities and air quality. When I lived in San Francisco, my commute to UCSF was very short and I often would just call an uber to and from work, which is very bad for the environment. Now that I live in Oakland, I actually use public transportation much more because of the heavy traffic on the Bay Bridge. I take BART and MUNI every day to commute to and from work and school. I think my health is slightly better because  I get much more physical activity due to using public transportation whereas before I would get picked up and dropped off at my destinations and never walk more than a few steps. I also feel better knowing I am not contributing to increased air pollution by using private vehicles and contributing to the already horrific traffic in the Bay Area. I just wish public transportation in the Bay Area was more affordable, convenient, and predic...

GO TO :  www.scorecard.org  (Links to an external site.)  and to the EPA's EnviroFACTS website:  http://www.epa.gov/enviro/  (Links to an external site.) Using your zip code (or the zip code from your family home, find out the following and  enter info in your BLOG.  My zip code is 94612 in Alameda County.  Who and what are the top polluters in your zip code? The top polluter in my zip code by far (499,459 lbs.) is New United Motor MFG in Fremont, CA. Second place with only 44,985 lbs. is Arch Mirror West in Newark, CA. New United Motor is an automobile manufacturing company and Arch Mirror West is an architectural glass and aluminum fabrication and distribution company. After these polluters are (in order) Pacific Galvanizing (23,455 lbs.), Acme Fiberglass (14,147 lbs.), and U.S. Pipe and FNDY (13,995 lbs.).  What percent of the homes in your zipcode have lead-based paint? 3% of homes in Alameda County have a high risk...

In my understanding, environmental justice fits into the umbrella of structural racism and trauma. Environmental justice is one way to identify and address some of the inequities that contribute to the social determinants of health. I believe that environmental justice is an important goal but that we are far from accomplishing environmental equity. The rapid gentrification of San Francisco and Oakland's neighborhoods that were historically dominated by communities of color are perfect examples of the disproportionate ways resources are allocated that benefit the richer, whiter residents of our cities. Many of these neighborhoods have seen not only a rapid rise in new, expensive housing but also with the influx of richer, whiter residents, these neighborhoods have quickly cleaned up and become important to local governments. There is a greater investment in keeping the streets clean, bringing in better businesses and revitalizing the community areas. Suddenly there is greater att...

Why are we still ONLY focused on sedentary lifestyles and diets when addressing obesity in the US?  Why are we not also looking at ways to decrease exposures to those chemicals that may be contributing to the epidemic? I think one main reason we are focused on sedentary lifestyles and diets instead of exposures is that the U.S. has a very strong individualistic culture that is biased towards making every problem about individual responsibility. It feeds into the narrative that we are individually responsible for our welfare and success and are able to determine our health based on the individual choices we make. Another main reason for this focus, and for this culture more generally, in my opinion, is that it is in the interest of major U.S. corporations to distract us and blame individuals for their poor health rather than take responsibility for the ways in which the chemicals they are exposing us to are contributing to this epidemic and others. Their interest first and f...

The following chemicals were found at levels for which there are no “safe” levels: Chemical(s) Potential Health Effects  Dioxins Carcinogen, endocrine disruptor, cognitive disfunction DDT  Reproductive toxicant Organophosphate (pesticide) neurotoxicant, Parkinson’s Lead Neurotoxicant, kidney toxicant, insomnia, impotence Solvent Liver toxicant, neurotoxicant PCBs Carcinogen, toxic to immune, neuro, and repro systems Phthalates Repro toxicant (infertility), testicular damage, endometriosis, endocrine disruptor If I received the above lab results, my first thought would be to wonder what having an unsafe level of these toxins in my body means for my health now and longterm and what it means for my future children's health if I decide to have them one day. My initial feelings are hopelessness and sadness because it feels like there is nothing I can truly do to avoid these toxins if I want to live in this country and in the densely populated Bay A...