Skip to main content

M5.2 Safe Drinking Water


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. 

Comments

  1. KJOctober 7, 2019 at 2:07 PM

    Yes stronger policies would be great, as well as following our current policies that are in place. Cities, counties and states need to be more accountable for the water that is available in their jurisdiction.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

M3.2 Vulnerable Populations

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

M4.6 Radon

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

M10.2 Blog about MSDS and ToxNet

Obtain a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) from your workplace or from the workplace of a family member or friend.   Material Safety Data Sheets are chemical information sheets created by chemical manufacturers that all employers are required to obtain and keep for any potentially hazardous chemicals in the workplace. For this blog post, I tried to find a material safety data sheet (MSDS) from UCSF. The MSDS I found is for "Equi-soft Foam Antimicrobial Handsoap"  Here is a link to the MSDS:  https://cleanhands.ucsfmedicalcenter.org/docs/Product%20information/Arichive/Equi-soft_Foam_MSDS.pdf Review  the MSDS and answer the following questions: What are the health risks associated with this chemical? There are four chemicals in the antimicrobial handsoap:  2-methylpentane-2,4-diol; amines, coco alkyldimethyl, n-oxides; Polyethylene Glycol; and benzalkonium chloride.  The health risk associated with these chemicals is they can cause eye irrita...
Post a Comment
Read more