M1.4: List of Environmental Exposures

By -

I've never thought of the chemical, biological, and radiological exposures that I face at home, school, the workplace, and in my community.

Through class collaboration, there appeared to be overlap of numerous exposures in all 4 categories. Overall, I would have considered my home to be a place with the least amount of exposure since I consider it a place of comfort and safety.

How could I be more wrong?

Out of all the four settings, we were able to identify the most exposures in the home setting.

Our clothes, our beauty products, cleaning products, even our food have chemicals that we absorb and ingest creating adverse side effects. Ingredients such as BPA (from plastics), glyphosate (from insecticides, etc), parabens (from deodorant), and so much more are in our everyday use products.

Not much thought is given to these exposures and we do not realize the harmful effects they can have on our body. I feel more conscious of the exposures we face, but the real question is: how can we avoid these exposures given that we use these products on a daily basis?

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 28, 2018 at 10:18 PM

    Hi Daisy,
    I thought the exact same! I did not realize how many things we are exposed to in the one place you would think we were safe in. The important thing to know is that we are able to control most things that we put in our homes and being more mindful/cautious about those things. We should also be mindful of the things we can't control, such as, ground water contaminants from pesticides that other people may be using etc. Great post! I really related to your reaction when you found out about the number of hazards in the home, community, work, and school.
    -Kera

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 2, 2018 at 12:24 PM

    Hi Daisy,

    Like yourself and Kera, I was also amazed at the long list of environmental exposures we came up with as a class. Strange to think that there are so many harmful products we're exposed to on a daily basis. Given our current market trends on organic foods and products, I'm sure we'll see more environmentally-friendly products in the future.

    Carmen

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownSeptember 2, 2018 at 2:09 PM

    Hi Daisy,
    I agree that it is a scary thought that we are exposed to most chemicals and hazards while we are at home. I look forward to learning more about the products we use on a daily basis and how we can limit our exposures to certain products that are most harmful. With the information we learn we can become smart consumers and educate our families and communities.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

M10.1: Video! - The Workplace

By -
As I think of a workplace, I think about my mother's previous job. It is a job that I do not want her to return to - she was working as a mushroom packager. There were mostly chemical and ergonomic issues that my mom had to face. Every day, she would be exposed to the cleaning chemicals used for rinsing the mushrooms before being packaged. She would also have to deal with the cold temperature when she would be in a freezer for a whole work day. I remember her telling me how she would be working so fast that she would sweat so much it would drench the clothes that were supposed to protect her from the cold. My mom was always on her feet and and her hands always moving, and she would be carrying heavy crates full of mushrooms to fill the orders. I always feared my mom would get a lung problem - she most certainly got feet problems from the intense work routine.  Considering this is the agriculture business, the industrial hygiene hierarchy of controls does not seem like it cou...
Read more

M8.3 Pesticides

By -
Image
For my last night's meal I had a chicken sandwich -- comprised of a bun, chicken patty, ketchup, and lettuce - along with a bottled water. I focused on both lettuce and water. I was shocked to see that there were 52 pesticides in our lettuce. The areas I was more concerned about were the probable carcinogens and and hormone disruptors. As someone who tries to eat vegetables, knowing that there are these many chemicals makes me hesitant to buy healthy vegetables. This shows just how different organic food can be for one's health since there aren't (if any) any chemicals impacting overall health. I was also surprised by the bottled water, I expected it to be worse given that there are many chemicals in the plastic container, however it does have less pesticides that finished water. Once again, given that water is needed for survival, I think it's concerning that our water isn't protected even more. In terms of public health, we should be supporting organically, lo...
Read more

M6.4: Industrial Farming

By -
Image
Your thoughts about the vanishing of bees (what else have you heard/seen about this issue?) New information that I learned about bees was that they are key players in roughly 35% of global food production and responsible for 40% of the world's supply for vitamin A and folate. I had already heard that bees were dying out and also heard that if we were to do nothing, the human population would seize to exist since there would be no food available for consumption. One of the reasons that bees die is because of pesticides, specifically herbicides. The herbs/weeds are the target, however the harsh chemicals such as Round-Up fly in the air and impact surrounding plants as well, thus killing bees as they fly to other flowers which they pollinate and try to obtain pollen for their hive.  My significant other's mother and father buy bees so that they can use their honey for mead. They were experiencing the same scenario mentioned in the "Vanishing of the Bees" where the h...
Read more