Final Blog!

I did enjoy the course! Environmental and Occupational Health course provided me with a much deeper understanding of the environment I live in, my surroundings, political situation regarding the environment, toxins, pollutants and many more. Towards the end of the course, I feel equipped with practical knowledge and tools, which have helped and will help me in the future. I am using a cosmetic database for personal needs and told my friends and relatives about it. I also know more about recycling, its importance and I have definitely improved my behaviors. Another important aspect of the course is that it changed my attitudes towards the environment and brought my attention to the elements I can personally change. The class made me want to make positive changes in the environment I live in. Before I started this course I had not thought about the situation, environmental health and its components that much.
I liked blogs and that we were assigned to small groups. This gave us an opportunity to share our personal thoughts and experiences. I have learned from my group members a lot! The only downside I couldn't have mentioned is the technical difficulties we all experienced with blogs. Otherwise, blogging worked for me, and I hope reading my blogs was interesting for my classmates.
Additionally, I wanted to mention that I really liked the last class activities when some of us were assigned to a particular role in a given situation.

Climate Change

What do you personally find most troubling about climate change? 

I personally feel that there is no less critical problem related to climate change. To me every outcome of climate change is vital. However, I would consider the improportional impact on vulnerable populations as the most pressing. After reviewing the module materials, video lectures and the readings I arrived at a conclusion that all outcomes of climate change multiply when it comes to vulnerable populations. 

As a public health professional, what do you think needs the greatest attention right now?

I believe that we do need to address disparities and discrimination issues right away. Doing that and decreasing inequalities and discrimination will put this world on another higher level. Of evolution. I may sound somewhat idealistic, romantic and abstract. But we are definitely capable of making changes, and that would dramatically increase our chances of surviving and growing healthier and more ethical (moral) generations. Regarding climate change, it will help with disaster preparedness and epidemiological outcomes. 

If you were visiting with a long-lost relative who had never heard about climate change, how would you describe it and its attendant human health and ecological threats?

I would describe climate change as global warming. Global warming in its turn is the increase of the average temperature all over the Planet. This increase negatively affects all living organisms and inanimate things. Moreover, climate change leads to changes in water (a decrease in water resources, expansion of water diseases), increase in natural disasters occurrence, deaths and extinctions of animals, negative impact on plants and crops, increase in human infection and on-infection diseases and air pollution.  Overall, climate change is one of the most pressing ecological issues, which impacts almost everything you can imagine. Additionally, the fact that humans and human actions are the primary cause of global warming and its outcomes is quite frustrating! I believe that there's something here all of us should think about. 

Zero Waste Life

This week module was quite interesting indeed and made me think a lot. After watching the Youtube video, I was fascinated at first! I think it's a huge deal to start Zero Waste lifestyle. However, I wouldn't be able to do that. I have tried organic personal care products and cleaning household products. Eventually, I found them not satisfying. For instance, I had been using natural and organic antiperspirants for a year. After doing personal research and seeing information about leading brands and best products I tried 4 different products. First of all, it is much more expensive than regular market options. Secondly and most importantly, they do not keep you fresh and dry. Some of them have a better scent, some of them are quite buttery (because of bee wax ingredient I think). But neither of them keep you dry. For me it was a critical point. I am biking a lot, and I do not like being ashamed of wet marks on my clothes, do not want to feel embarrassed lifting up my arms. When I moved to the U.S., I learned to sort my trash. However, trying a zero-waste lifestyle would be too complicated for me.
Additionally, I can't agree with the speaker on the video that it is cheaper.  After living here for 5 years, I can tell that Farmer's market is more expensive than Trader Joe's and much less convenient. Fora single hard working individual as I am doing groceries there would be hard. Conclusively, I do not exclude the possibility of trying to lead less waste lifestyle someday, but at the particular moment of my life it is not diable.  

Occupationally-related disease

I chose to analyze Pneumoconiosis (Black Lung)

Pneumoconiosis is the lung disease, which is caused by long-term exposure to coal dust and primarily occurs among coal workers and coal miners. The illness per se is similar to silicosis or tobacco smoking. 

My grandfather was a coal worker and heavy smoker. We, unfortunately, lost him when I was around ten. He died from lung cancer when he was 60 years old. 

 Black Lung is not a new disease. First, it was discovered about 5, 000 years ago in Bronze Age China. In 1846 Scottish physician Archibald Makellar sketched out the picture of the disease from observing coal workers, who were exposed to the dust. Makellar named the condition “black phthisis.” In 1950 thousands of coal workers heavily suffered from pneumoconiosis. In 1960 the coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP) crisis reached its pique. United  Mine Workers of America went on strike in 1968. In response to that Congress passed the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, or Coal Act for short in 1969. The Act was signed into law by Richard Nixon. At the beginning of the 1970s, the Act went into effect. Between 2000 and 2009 the number of CWP cases grew up. That led to the need of changing coal workers protection standards, strengthening safety rules and improve protection tools. Eventually, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health obliged industries to implement and assure in the quality of new standards. NIOSH also implemented the Coal Miners Surveillance Program. The program included not only Exray screenings but also lung function testing by using spirometry (how well your lungs work by measuring how much air you inhale, how much you exhale and how quickly you exhale). Researchers hope now that those early screenings and preventive measures will help in preventing miners from disabling. 

Occupational safety and health organization

I chose to look up WHO occupational health program. When I looked at their website, I saw an article "More than 90% of the world’s children breathe toxic air every day" recently published on October 29, 2018. The report provided detailed information about toxic air exposure, pressing the environmental issue and its hazard effects. Additionally, the article offered key findings, recommended actions, steps to minimize poisonous effects and BreatheLife air pollution campaign www.breathelife2030.org
I think it is an excellent example of timely response towards air toxicity issue. We all know that the air we breathe has become more and more toxic and hazardous. I am quite glad that one of the most significant organizations has addressed this problem! That does give hope for us and our next generations. 

M10.1 Video

My sister in law is a bioengineer and used to work in a molecular biology laboratory in Moscow, Russia. I know that they had all personal protective tools for protecting themselves against toxic chemical exposures. Luckily, scientists are quite professional and know enough about the importance of personal protection and most of the time follow safety rules strictly.  However, I believe one of the risk factors for them, in this case, is neglect as the most common human factor. Therefore, the only one thing I may recommend to strengthen protection is reinforcing control over workers wearing all necessary personal protection equipment. For instance, as we talked in class, sometimes people tend to neglect wearing respirators because it is not comfortable.  I think we may also consider double checking the ventilation and workplace conditions.
I think regarding barriers the main factor is the expensiveness of personal protection equipment, which makes it not available for individual purchase. As I know, sometimes workplace equipment may be old. IThus, ensuring that protective tools work well and are up-to-date (comfortable and wearable) may help to ensure lab workers safety.

Blog about MSDS and ToxNet

I was not able to obtain an MSDS from a friend or relative. I looked up USF on-line MSDS. My twin brother's wife is a bioengineer, and I looked up succinic acid on this website https://msdsmanagement.msdsonline.com/c81d1269-21dd-4be9-9d4b-d3479c784635/ebinder/?SearchTerm=&UserSearchSuggestID=0&DocumentSourceTypeID=0&DocumentApprovalTypeID=0&ArchivedStatus=A&LocationLevel=0&LocationID=0&LocationStatus=1&GroupID=0&IndexedDataTypeID=0&IndexedDataID=0&QuickFilterTypeID=0&ReturnNarrowResults=false&SmartSearchTermID=0&PageSize=100&PageNumber=1&SortFieldID=0&SortHow=desc&CustomSearchTerm=&ManualSearch=false



The chemical is dangerous to the eyes and skin. Therefore, eyeglasses, gloves or full-body suit is recommended for protection. Inhaling is also harmful. In the case of most contacts, it is recommended to rinse the exposed area. The product is not cancerogenic under appropriate doses: "No component of this product present at levels greater than or equal to 0.1% is identified as probable, possible or confirmed human carcinogen by IARC."
On the ToxNet website, all the information matched. There were more details and more description of animal studies, but nothing that might contradict MSDS.
Conclusively, I asked my sister in law, and she confirmed that she received proper training and always used personal protection against hazardous exposures.