Kera's Environmental and Occupational Health Blog

I looked up two products that I use everyday. The first product is my shampoo and conditioner. I only posted the data from the shampoo, but the conditioner showed similar results. For this product, I found out that the overall hazard is moderate. There is a slight cancerous hazard, but the rest were hazards relating to allergies/immunotoxicity and Use restrictions (I was unclear what the "use restrictions" were referring to). The information that I found out was that the preservatives and fragrance that the company uses in these products are the main contributors to the overall hazard of the product. Product 1: Herbal Essence- Hello Hydration Shampoo and Conditioner Moderate Hazard. The second product that I looked up was my moisturizer. All of the skin care blogs and websites suggest using this moisturizer, because it is the "best one for your skin". However, when I looked it up, it produced not so similar results. This product is a moderate hazard. Again,...

There are several different types of exposures you can come into contact with in your lifetime. You spend the majority of your time at home, work, school, and in the community. It is important to be aware of the chemical, radiological, and biological agents you can be exposed to in those areas. For example, I currently live in Half Moon Bay. In Half Moon Bay it is common to get termites and whenever a property is sold, it is required to be fumigated. When I see so many tented structures, I cant help but wonder how effective are they are sealing and preventing access to those places and what are the lingering effects of sulfuryl fluoride on the things in the home. I did some digging and found an interesting report done by the EPA on fumigation and the risks that it poses to individuals: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-12/documents/_epaoig_20161212-17-p-0053.pdf Even if you feel healthy, it is important to know that you are still being exposed to hazards. One haz...

Living in our home for about 3 years, I never thought about what things I could be exposed to. For this assignment we were asked to fill out an assessment tool for environmental health risks. With this tool I discovered that we are exposed to several different  biological, chemical, and radiological agents everyday. For example, to my knowledge I don't believe there was ever a radon test done in my home. Unfortunately the assessment didn't provide too much information on it and I had to look up what it meant to have a radon test done. Radon is a radioactive gas that comes from the natural breakdown of uranium in soil, rock, and water and gets into the air you breathe. I also found out that being exposed to radon for a long period of time can lead to lung cancer. This assessment helped put into perspective the different exposures we come into contact in our home environment, and how important it is for us to be aware of them.  After my assessment, I saw about 20 ...