M9.4: Heavy Metals

By -
Lead Poisoning ~ Herbert Needleman
It is no surprise that lead in older homes is the single major remaining source of lead. It is interesting that in our current lives we are more likely to experience no symptoms from low dose lead exposure. This is of concern given that if there are no symptoms, we might feel less inclined to do anything towards reducing the exposure. I think lead exposure should not be hidden from the general public and when there is an incident (such as the Flint Water Crisis) it should be addressed in a better/faster timeline like it was done in Nigeria compared to what the state of Michigan is currently doing.

An environmental health response to a severe outbreak of childhood lead poisoning in Nigeria ~ Casey Bartrem

 In 2010, there was an outbreak of childhood lead poisoning in Nigerian villages which lead to more than 400 deaths in children under 5 years of age. I found this information to be disheartening because multiple organizations and agencies are aware of the adverse health effects of lead exposure, and yet, it took hundreds of children's death to lead towards change. On a more positive note, I find that assisting local governments to fix homes is a positive motion towards protecting the population health. In addition, it is great to see that people in the communities were able to lead these motions to prevent future crises through their involvement in design, implementation, and management. This shows that the communities' expertise is critical in developing changes pertinent to the environmental exposure.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 30, 2018 at 7:58 PM

    Hi Daisy,
    I like your point about not hiding lead exposure to the public. I think that people who feel sick and experience other negative health effects, might not realize that they could be getting them from lead poisoning.
    Great post!
    Kera

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownOctober 31, 2018 at 2:39 PM

    Hi Daisy,

    Thank you for a great summary of the articles regarding heavy metals. I agree that lead exposure should not be hidden from the general public. The flint water crisis is a great example and it was sad to see that those in the community were doing more than the EPA to spread awareness and fight for a quick change. Which leads to your point about the importance of community awareness and action in regards to the lead poisoning in Nigeria.

    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