Background According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (2018), chronic kidney disease is one program that Environmental Health and Safety professionals are examining more closely to better understand how environment factors into the onset of the disease. Chronic kidney disease is characterized as the failure of the kidneys to filter waste and excess fluid from the blood (Mayo Clinic, 2018). Without the efficient use of the kidneys, the body’s stability and health are threatened. Heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and anemia are all possible outcomes that an individual may experience as a result of kidney failure. As there are more than 200,000 cases of chronic kidney disease every year (Mayo Clinic, 2018), this is a serious problem that is deserving of study—especially as the etiology of chronic kidney disease is still somewhat unknown. One project funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (2018) that focuses on understanding chronic kidney disease is a research study titled “Longitudinal Study of Risk Factors for Mesoamerican Nephropathy among Agricultural Workers in El Salvador, Central America.” The purpose of this program is to study how environmental factors impact the health of agricultural works in El Salvador, particularly how exposure to herbicides impact the kidneys. This is a particularly important study because of the extent to which herbicides have become such a staple of the modern agricultural industry. If herbicides are an environmental threat to human health and safety, some form of regulation will be required to protect people from the flagrant use of these chemicals in agriculture.

Importance of the Topic

The topic is important because one in seven Americans is likely to be impacted by chronic kidney disease. Some 30 million Americans currently suffer from chronic kidney disease (American Kidney Fund, 2018). These numbers indicate that this issue is incredibly important and deserves more attention from public health officials, who are, to a large extent, informed by the health literacy that is spread their way by environmental public professionals. They are the ones who can relay the facts of a disease to those who set policy and can make a difference in the lives of those in a community.

Additionally,...

These issues are, moreover, impacted by other variables—such as diet, exercise, smoking and so on. Still, many researchers believe there are external or environmental factors that could serve as risk factors in the spread of chronic kidney disease.
Chronic kidney disease commonly develops alongside diabetes and/or high blood pressures. Patients who suffer from either are at risk of also developing chronic kidney disease. This is because high blood sugar can cause damage to the kidneys in the same way that a car exposed to wintery weather conditions is impacted by the salt that the city will...…the risks of spreading chronic kidney disease—whether those risks stem from dangerous chemicals or from one’s exposure to poor diets. The point of view of the environmental public professional can be, moreover, essential to the health of the community because the professional will have a particular and essential understanding of the factors and variables that contribute to diseases and how the community can best work to prevent the spread of those diseases. The professional is also likely to understand how diseases and co-morbidities correlate and feed off one another. For example, the environmental public professional will understand the relationship between herbicides and chronic kidney disease if there is one; they will understand and be able to communicate the relationship between a diet of fast food and high sugar beverages like soda pop, diabetes, heart disease and chronic kidney disease risk.

By considering the point of the view of the environmental public professional, the community is in a better position to take steps to engage in preventive care and stop the spread of diseases like diabetes and chronic kidney disease, which are related by the impact of external, environmental factors that contribute to people’s poor diet choices and ultimately to their poor health. Communities can benefit substantially from the knowledge that environmental public professionals bring, as that knowledge can lead to greater awareness, the formulation of public safety plans and policy, the spread of health literacy, and the inculcation of…