...Environmental Affects on Human Health Principles of Health and Wellness/SCI 162 October 25, 2012 Yolonda Agnew While there are many things we do daily to keep ourselves healthy, many environmental factors can adversely affect our health: the air we breathe, the land we live on, and the water we drink. Bad air quality can irritate our eyes, throat, and nose, cause breathing problems, aggravating asthma and other respiratory problems. In addition, breathing bad air for extended periods can cause more severe health problems, such as heart disease, and can increase the chance of developing cancer. The elderly and young children and people with health problems are affected more often from bad air quality than healthy adults. While the United States is among the safest water in the world, we are still at risk. Any substance that leaks into the soil can enter the water supply; polluting the water, causing us to become ill. Drinking polluted water can cause stomach cramps, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting. There are times when communities in the United Sates will issue boil-water alerts, asking residence to boil their water before using it to cook or drink, showing that our drinking water is at risk and can become infected. A large amount of the pollution that ultimately infects our water starts out polluting the land we live on. Soil pollution can be the cause of many illnesses, starting with headaches, fatigue...
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...course of study is Integrated Education and Health Service Administration. These Environmental Health courses provide me with ample opportunity to apply relevant knowledge to everyday life in my home and community. Being a lifelong resident of the Ohio River Valley exposes me to many of the issues that we become concerned with on a daily basis. In recent years, issues concerning point-source pollution, water-quality issues, toxic waste, and occupational health have been commonplace. Our region is and has been an industrial center, often to the detriment of local citizens. The regions’ many power plants expel pollution into our air, and expose communities downwind to acid rain and other effects, including cancer and other health issues. Sometimes, nearby communities are torn apart, as was the case in Cheshire, a small community in Gallia County. Most of the residents were bought out by AEP, which operates a large power plant that looms over the community. Higher than average rates of cancer and other health issues in Cheshire prompted the buyout. The Ohio and Kanawha Rivers are lined with chemical industries, one of which (DuPont) recently settled a water contamination suit for millions in damages. Several large oil refineries occur in the area, discharging a multitude of pollutants into our air. Coal facilities dot the area, as do natural gas facilities. These two industries have the potential to negatively impact our health, as proven by the Martin County, KY coal slurry...
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...Environmental and Global Health Issues Laralee Shaffmaster Western Governor’s University Environmental and Global Health Issues This paper on environmental and global health issues in community health nursing will discuss and analyze the communicable disease measles. It will present epidemiological data, causes, manifestations and the route of transmission for measles. A graphic representation of the measles outbreak will be presented to discuss the international pattern and movement of the disease. A discussion of how the measles outbreak could affect the community will also be presented. Next, this paper will present the appropriate protocol that a community health nurse will follow to report a SARS outbreak in the community. The last subject this paper will discuss is how a community health nurse modifies their care of clients with respiratory diseases during a time when the air quality index is poor. A. Measles Rubeola or measles is a respiratory disease. Measles is a virus that normally grows in the throat cells that line the back of the throat and lungs. Once infected, measles causes runny nose, fever, cough and a head to toe rash that occurs 14 days after exposure (CDC, 2013). A1. Outbreak In the year 2000 measles became eliminated in the United States. Elimination means the disease is no longer native to the U.S. and cases are not reported for a twelve month period in endemic proportions. Outbreaks occur when people travel to countries where the disease...
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...Environmental Issues on Global Health Seven Environmental Issues Complete the following chart by identifying seven environmental issues that affect global health. In the second column, describe in complete sentences how the issue affects global health. Environmental issue How does the issue affect global health? Overpopulation The Earth’s natural resources are already being consumed at an unsustainable rate. Many of these resources are required to support world health and human life (Donnatelle, 2010). Human population is expected to increase dramatically over the next decade. This, alone, is the greatest threat to life on our planet. Air pollution Air pollution affects everything from agriculture and ecosystems to human health, on a global scale. The five major air pollutants are ground-level ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide (Donnatelle, 2010). A majority of these pollutants are the result of human action. One example being coal power plants. These plants release greenhouse gas emissions and particle air pollution. The burning of the coal creates pollutant byproducts. Other forms of industrial pollution, exhaust fumes, burning wood, and several forms of indoor air pollutants result in air contamination. The combination of various air contaminates can be extremely toxic. The pollutants irritate the lungs and may even cause respiratory diseases and cancer in humans (Donnatelle, 2010). Ozone Layer Depletion / Global...
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...Touro University International BHE314 Module 4 Case: Environmental Health and Safety Lead is a naturally occurring metal found in the earth's crust. Lead can be found everywhere, because of human activities such as burning fossil fuels, mining, and manufacturing. Lead is a soft, heavy, toxic metal. Lead is found in many products we use every day, it is even found in toys. It is also in the paint in many houses and in some dirt and dust. Lead Poisoning means having lead in the body in an amount that can cause serious health and development problems. It is much more dangerous for children than adults because it affects kids’ developing brains and nervous systems. The younger the child, the more harm lead can cause. Lead can cause serious health effects: kidney problems, anemia, hearing loss, development delay and growth problems. The only way to know for sure if you have lead poisoning is to have blood test. People who are most at risk of harmful effects from lead in their body include (Risk Factor, 2010): Babies and children under 6 years of age. Infants and young children are more likely to be exposed to lead than are older children. They may chew paint chips, and their hands may be contaminated with lead dust. Young children also absorb lead more easily and sustain more harm from it than do adults and older children. Children living in older homes. Although the use of lead-based paints has been banned since the 1970s, older homes and buildings...
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...Health Care Environmental Checklist Student Name University Health Care Environmental Checklist After reading and preforming the health care environmental checklist I selected supervision of non-licensed personnel is by professional nurses, staffing requirements are based on acuity levels and optimum staffing models, and nursing leadership and management as areas I would address as a nurse manager. As a registered nurse you are responsible for the supervision of unlicensed direct care staff in the performance of nursing tasks and activities. It is the responsibility of the nurse manager and the company to ensure that all staff is adequately trained regarding the elements of supervision and delegation of duties. As a nurse manager address the following will help improve quality of care for patients. The initial training of the task or activity, and periodic inspection of the actual act of accomplishing the task or activity are important for proper patient care. The amount and type of nursing supervision required will be determined by the registered nurse responsible for supervising the task or activity, and will depend upon the complexity of the task, the skill, experience and training of the staff, and the health conditions and health status of the patient (Potter & Kuhrik, 2010). The purpose of delegation is to gain work efficiency, which can only be achieved when registered nurses and patient care technicians work together in partnership to manage the changing...
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...Title: Environmental Epidemiology (Chapter 2 – Policy Brief) Policy Message: How to Value Environmental Benefits? Putting a monetary value on environmental assets is particularly challenging, not because the benefits frequently do not have a market value and are not tangible – how can you measure the value of a beautiful view, or a less noisy street? Two broad approaches can be applied to determine the value which people place on environmental assets: revealed preferences and stated preferences. Valuing Hedonic Pricing: * Specific value associated with an intangible asset embedded in prices * Bundling the values attached to different characteristics * For instance, a house next to a busy street which is exposed to high noise levels would lose part of its value compared to similar houses further from the highway. * This price difference can be used to determine the “cost of noise” * Alternatively, travel cost methods can be used to determine how much time and money people are willing to spend to gain access to an intangible “good” such as a protected wildlife area. * If people buy bottled water to avoid exposure to water pollutants, or double-glazing to reduce traffic noise, they reveal the value they place on avoiding accidents and noise. * Cost of illness methods can be used to measure impacts on human health of air or water pollution. * The value of increased medical costs in treating associated illnesses, as well as lost wages and profits...
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...Environmental Health Media Assignment 11/14/14 This article is basically discussing on how many kids are being diagnosed with lead poisoning. That state has decided that they will reduce the safety threshold for lead in children’s blood, making a standard level not normal anymore. More kids will be diagnosed with lead poisoning, and there house will undergo abatement measures. The city is going to get ahold of the families with children who have elevated lead levels at the lower threshold, ask questions about their living conditions and advise them on what steps to take. Some of these homes are going to lose a lot of these materials such as Lead-contaminated objects that are porous or materials that may suffer damage from water may not be able to be sufficiently decontaminated should be discarded. The City health inspectors as stated in the article will be assessing 250 homes over three years that are suspected of having lead-based paint. The federal government banned lead in paint in 1978. Lead poisoning doesn't only occur in children, but adults too. Adults can get it from leaded soldering fumes, lead tainted soil or heroin. It takes more lead to poison adults than children because an adult's body has formed and is prepared for such things unlike children who are still growing. Some common symptoms of lead poisoning in adults are fatigue, depression, heart failure and high blood pressure. “Exposure to high levels of...
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...The Health, Economic and Environmental Impacts of Urbanization in the Philippines Introduction As described by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) (2007), “The world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth.” More than half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas. This global phenomenon is happening across different regions and development levels in the world. Richer countries in Europe and the Americas already large percentage of their population live in towns and cities, while developing countries in Africa and Asia, still a large percentage of their population lives in rural areas, however urbanizing faster than developed countries. The landscape of human settlement is changing due to these global trends, with significant effects on health, living conditions, the environment, and development across the world. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the health, economic and environmental impacts of urbanization in the Philippines. What is Urbanization? Urbanization is defined as “the process by which an increasing proportion of the population comes to live in urban areas” (Yassi et al, 2011, p. 293). Many theories of development view urbanization and industrialization as interdependent processes of modern economics. However, according to Gollin et al (2013, p. 2), these two concepts are not synonymous, and they argue that there is not a strong association between urbanization and industrialization specifically among developing countries...
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...Employee Environmental, Health and Safety Guidebook An EHS reference guide for Dell employees 1 Dell EHS Reference Guide My Site Emergency Information My site EHS contact or designate My site emergency number My outside relocation (muster) point My inside relocation area My manager’s name & number Please collect the information requested above during a meeting with your manager after your arrival on campus 2 Dell EHS Reference Guide Table of contents My site emergency information Environmental, Health & Safety Violations Purpose of the EHS Guidebook Safety moments Environmental, health and safety responsibilities Emergency preparedness Injury and illness reporting Hazard recognition Office safety & ergonomics Environmental actions Critical links Dell’s Global Safety Policy Dell’s Global Environmental Policy New employee safety checklist 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Environmental, health & safety violations Each employee is expected to comply with all environmental, health and safety rules and practices whenever working for Dell. Failure to do so is taken seriously, and EHS violations will follow the HR Progressive Discipline policy. Based on the severity of the violation, Dell may decide to move directly to a higher level of discipline, including termination. 3 Dell EHS Reference Guide Purpose of the EHS Guidebook This guidebook, created by Dell’s Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) team, describes actions all employees...
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...propellant for aerosols; and then realize it's only inert on the ground. Once it's bombarded by UV ray in the upper atmosphere it releases a highly destructive ion that wreaks havoc on the protective ozone layer shielding us from those same deadly UV rays, creating a hole in the layer allowing the radiation through, increasing cancer and other genetic defects. We build rockets capable of going into space and breaking the earth's gravitational pull; and then immediately start to pollute this new environment with spent rockets and boosters along with other miscellaneous particles of debris (Curran and Haw 3). The need for environmental health studies is important to avoid these potential disasters within the population and to reduce unseen health risks and concerns to workers and the environment. Even though we continue to advance in the field of public health, major additions have been implemented which have...
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...between 1.6 and 5.4 episodes of malaria fever every year (WHO, 2009). Malaria is the cause of 1 in 5 childhood deaths in Africa (WHO, 2009). Malaria also has a severe detrimental effect on economic growth, with countries with intense transmission losing an average of 1.3% of annual economic growth due to the effects of malaria, compounding an already serious problem with economic growth since malaria primarily affects those living in the poorest countries (WHO, 2009). And because many of the poorest countries rely heavily on tourism for income, the perception of a locale as endemic with malaria can severely hurt tourism rates (Maartens, et al., 2007). It is for these reasons and more that malaria control is an important issue in environmental health for the United States to combat, for moral, economic, and national security reasons. Malaria control is also important for United States diplomats, their families, and other US nationals who work or visit areas where malaria is endemic. And because of the threat of reintroduction of malaria to the United States, world-wide malaria control should become a priority of the U.S. government. Malaria is a disease cause by the parasite Plasmodium (CDC, 2008). This parasite is transmitted via the bites of infected mosquitoes, and once in...
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...Research studies are done with the intention of creating a positive impact in the welfare of a group of people or individuals within a given population. The quantitative research design is a formal, systematic and objective process of obtaining information about the world or a part that can be quantified. Health effects of environmental contaminants has evinced research work in air pollution exposure and lung function in children. Another study was conducted on the relationship between domestic exposure to radon and childhood cancers. There are three major types of quantitative research methods namely; experimental, quasi-experimental and non-experimental (Polit & Beck, 2012). In the study on air pollution and exposure and lung function in children, the method applied is descriptive research. The study is important since lung function is a marker of respiratory health and a predictor of cardiorespiratory system disease and mortality. The study was carried out in five European countries with birth cohorts taken from a credible agency European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE). The study population for the analysis consisted of 5,921 children 6–8 years of age. The tabular analysis was then done for population characteristics, lung function measurements and the prevalence of low lung function according to the cohort. Distribution of estimated annual average air pollution levels, traffic indicators, and short-term air pollution exposure variables. Crude and adjusted...
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...Environmental Factors and Health Promotion Misty Hummer Grand Canyon University NRS-434V November 01, 2015 Environmental Factors and Health Promotion Pesticides have been around since the 15th century but are increasing in use as the food supply grows. Pesticides include "any substance used to kill, repel, or control certain forms of plant or animal life that are considered to be pests" (Pesticides, 2015, para. 1). There are many products that contain pesticides that people are aware of such as cleaning products and pest control. However, there are those that people are unaware of such as pesticides used on fruits and vegetables. Infants are extremely vulnerable to pesticides because of their developing body systems (Pesticides and Children, 2013). This paper will explore the teaching and learning of a young mother and how pesticides can impact the health of her baby. Nadine, who is of Puerto Rican descent, is twenty-two years old and recently had her first child. Her baby is now eight months old, a daughter named Juliette. Nadine moved to Tucson, Arizona from Brooklyn, New York because of the cost of living and the fact that she has family nearby to help her. She did not finish high school and has yet to acquire her G.E.D. She states that she would like to further her education but is unable to at this time. Nadine currently works at Jim Click Automotive Group in a customer service position. I shared the pamphlet with Nadine about how pesticides can...
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...Environmental Health Issue Analysis Discussion Analyze a unique environmental health issue or problem that is currently controversial. Your discussion posting should include: 1. a description of the problem -- its size, scope and affected population(s); stressing the available information or data that best supports the position with regard to the public health significance of the problem or issue and its relationship to, or impact on, members of the community 2. the etiologic or causative factors involved with this particular problem, including the agent(s), mechanism(s) of injury or health impact, and the transmission pathway(s); 3. the prevention or control strategies and programs -- including the statutory basis for government regulation or intervention in this area and the major agency or agencies (if any) responsible for dealing with the problem and describe the activities, procedures, etc. employed or under discussion by the agencies 4. conclusions and recommendations including a brief assessment of how well the agency is (or agencies are) dealing with the problem and your reactions/observations concerning the relevancy of the agency program/activities to community needs. The information gathered could be from the course textbook, periodic literature, government, non-governmental organizations and other websites and, the popular press. Your original posting is due on Thursday. Please respond to two peer posts by Saturday. When responding to your peers, evaluate...
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