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Environmental Health Website Review
Environmental Health
In today's technologically complex society we are all exposed to potentially harmful agents at work, home, school, and in the great outdoors. Tracking the levels of exposure in the United States is the responsibility of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but other non-governmental organizations have been formed in response to this concern and are providing complementary information to the public. This essay examines the online information that is available concerning environmental agents that pose a risk to human health.
Federal Agencies
The CDC has been tracking the levels of 219 known or suspected toxic chemicals, or their metabolites, in the blood and urine of a cohort of American citizens, for the purpose of determining toxicity levels and potential associations with negative health outcomes (2011, National report on human exposure). The information thus gathered will be used to alter official policy, so that exposure levels are reduced and associated health risks reduced. An agency within the CDC, the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry, maintains a complementary website that provides information on toxic agents and associated diseases (2011). This site provides information on specific toxic substances, related government reports, information for both the public and medical professionals, press releases concerning current environmental contaminations, and emergency response recommendations. The CDC also maintains a webpage providing information...
The built environment can be a source of toxic agents, such as radon, mold, volatile chemicals, and high CO2 levels, or provide protection against a radioactive release or biological attack. Accordingly, this webpage provides information on what has been found during inspections at a number of locations, as well as guidelines for building designers to protect future inhabitants.
The EPA home page contains links and information concerning environmental issues and disasters of national or regional concern (2001). Links to press releases, popular issues, laws and regulations, and related scientific findings are provided, and the information can be selectively geared towards persons with different levels of expertise, such as students, scientists, or medical professionals.
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), which is an institute within the National Institutes of Health (NIH), maintains a website that provides news, reports, research grant information, and scientific findings for medical professionals and scientists engaged in toxicology or environmental research (2011). The National Library of Medicine (NLM), which is also a part of the NIH, maintains a website called "Tox Town" (NLM, 2010). This site is intended to provide information about environmental toxins, where the risk of exposure is greatest, and current concerns, primarily for children.
The Department of Energy (DOE) maintains two websites concerning environmental health. The Office of Health, Safety and Security (HSS) provides information to the…
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. ATSDR.cdc.gov. Retrieved 11 Dec. 2011 from www.atsdr.cdc.gov
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). National report on human exposure to environmental chemicals. CDC.gov. Retrieved 11 Dec. 2011 from http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). Workplace safety & health topics: Indoor environmental quality. CDC.gov. Retrieved 11 Dec. 2011 from http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/indoorenv/
Center for School Mold Help. (2007). The Center for School Mold Help: Comprehensive school mold prevention, education, & solutions. SchoolMoldHelp.org. Retrieved 11 Dec. 2011 from http://www.schoolmoldhelp.org/
Conservation International. (2011). Measure your eco-footprint. Conservation.org. Retrieved 11 Dec. 2011 from http://www.conservation.org/act/live_green/Pages/ecofootprint.aspx
National Institute of Environmental Health Services. (2011). Your environment, your health. NIEHS.NIH.gov. Retrieved 11 Dec. 2011 from http://www.niehs.nih.gov/
National Library of Medicine. (2010). Tox Town: Environmental health concerns and toxic chemicals where you live, work, and play. ToxTown.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 11 Dec. 2011 from http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/
LD50 values are not always given on the pesticide label; rather, the relative toxicity of a pesticide product is exposed by one of three signal words: DANGER, WARNING, or CAUTION. The rationale for signal words is to alert the user to the level of toxicity of the product. The signal word is usually assigned based on the pesticide's inhalation, oral or dermal toxicity, whichever is the most toxic" (Lethal
Environmental Science In the late 1970s and early 1980s after her son, James Anderson, was diagnosed with leukemia, Anne Anderson discovered that a number of other children in her neighborhood also had the disease. Concerned about what seemed like an unusually high number of leukemia cases, Anderson and other Woburn, Massachusetts families set out to find a possible source of their children's illness. In 1986, personal injury lawyer Jan Schlichtmann and
Environmental Health Administration The objective of this study is to examine methods of controlling agents that cause disease, communicable disease control, wastewater treatment, swimming pool guidelines, solid waste management insect and rodent control, radiation control and environmental management. Environmental health is described as "the art and science of protecting against environmental factors that may adversely impact human health or the ecological balances essential to long-term human health and environment quality." (Gordon,
Environmental HealthProgram evaluation refers to the systematic assessment of data on outcomes, characteristics, and activities of a program with the aim of improving the effectiveness of the said program (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n. d.). Program evaluation can also help demonstrate the impact of a program in order to make decisions about the program. Different stages or aspects of a program are assesses by various types of evaluation.
$145 Billion proposed for a federal trust fund, 600,000 lawsuits filed, 10 to 20 million people exposed in industrial settings, 30,000 to 50,000 new lawsuits filed a year and scores of bankruptcies. A single case may have thousands of plaintiffs and hundreds of defendants with a settlement value of $600,000,000.00" (Model asbestos case management order, 2005, ABA, p. 15). Potential strengths and weaknesses, what could the group contribute or withhold:
There is a link to order a test kit if someone were in need of one. There is also information for those who have already tested and need help in interpreting their results. There is also link to check the county where one lives to see what the radon levels are. The next section has to do with radon test kits. This area explains what the test kits consist of