Kera's Environmental and Occupational Health Blog

What do you personally find most troubling about climate change?  I think the thing I find most troubling about climate change, is the lack of belief and action of individuals who have the most influence to enact change. Because of lies and an uncooperative  administration, climate change has resulted in so many different disasters just within the United States. Having an administration that rejects the idea or lacks any motivation to do anything about it is a very troubling scenario.   As a public health professional, what do you think needs the greatest attention right now ? As a public health professional I think acknowledgement about climate change by the current administration is crucial. Not acknowledging that climate change is happening is a major barrier to getting any action or remediation plans enacted. I think getting support from all levels of government is crucial for the dissemination of attention throughout the United States.  If you were ...

Watching Lauren's TED Talk I began thinking about the waste that I produce in my household. Even though it is only my husband and myself, I realized that we do produce a large amount of waste relative to our household size. Since we moved out of a 6 person household with his parents and grandparents, we have become more conscientious about what and how we are disposing of our products. We have begun to recycle and compost more than we ever did before and using the trash bin less and less. However, compared to Lauren's life style, I think we can do more. Going Zero Waste seems like a huge tasks and commitment, but I think that her suggestions were easy to follow. We should do little changes through out our lives that can have a big impact and become more conscious about the waste we produce and how we can minimize it. I think beginning to wane down the use of plastics will be a great first step in my household since we already use reusable bags. I also think it would be fun to ...

Because my workplace does not deal with chemicals it was very difficult for me to find a MSDS. However, my husband works at the US Geological Survey and works with chemicals all the time. When I asked to see his MSDS, he said "Which one?". We chose to look at Hydrofluoric Acid (HF). He uses this substance about 5 times a month.  The potential dangers that we found with this chemical is that: 1) Severe acidic burns  2) Seeps into skin 2) Toxic fumes 3) Could cause heart attack if left untreated 4) Readily available neutralizer- Calcium Glutimate Precautions:  1) full acid suits 2) fume hood 3) Cannot have BPA-has to be pure nalgene type plastic Was the MSDS an adequate tool for a worker to use to gain an understanding about the potential health risks and how to protect him/herself? (Consider that the general public reads at a reading level at or below 6th grade, and that's if English is their first language.) Looking at my husband's MSDS, it is not an...

The occupationally-related disease that I chose to look into is  Silicosis. My husband is a geologist and works a lot with silica dust. The US Geological survey takes many different precautions when it comes with working with the material, but I wanted to take a look to see what the specific regulations would be regarding exposure to it. When I looked up OSHA regulations, it said " To protect workers exposed to respirable crystalline silica, OSHA has issued two respirable crystalline silica standards: one for construction, and the other for general industry and maritime ". My husband is not in construction, but I wanted to see what both of the regulations did.  1) Construction:  Establish and implement a written exposure control plan that identifies tasks that involve exposure and methods used to protect workers, including procedures to restrict access to work areas where high exposures may occur. Designate a competent person to implement the written exposure control...

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is an organization that is within the Center for Disease Control that works to study how we can reduce worker related illnesses, injury and improve the well-being of all workers. Through this research they promote safe and healthy working conditions via interventions, recommendations, and capacity building. They also collaborate around the world to inform and improve working conditions for all. This organization related to my health and safety, because the research that they have done previously has lead to better working conditions for a lot of people and have paved the way for future research in this field to promote even safer working environment. 

At the VA, we have a lot of various types of workplace issues depending on what you do. In my line of work (research), we are rarely exposed to high levels of radiological, biological, or chemical hazards because we are not located in the main hospital-we are in our own building for psychological research. However, because there is a lot of computer time there are many issues with Ergonomics. Because of the high use of computers, the VA requests its new employees to take an hour long ergonomic class where they provide you with valuable information and ergonomic tools depending on what your needs are. They are very helpful when it comes to preventing workplace injuries when it comes to ergonomics. Using the hierarchy of controls, I would address the issue by: removing any equipment that might promote poor ergonomic motions, replace them with better ergonomic ones, educate people on how to prevent ergonomic injuries, implement policies that promote better ergonomic work places, prov...