Because Patients

Blog #15 As per your local drinking water provider, what is in your drinking water? Are there potential risks at the levels of the contaminants found? There were quite a few inorganic chemicals, radioactive, unregulated and secondary chemicals located in a recent water report from Monterey County. The ones that shocked me the most, were number one seeing that radioactive material is present in our water supply: Gross Alpha Activity and Uranium. The reports states that this occurs as a result of erosion of natural deposits; the levels are low enough to be traced, but not high enough to be labeled as a contaminate. Secondary chemicals include Aluminum. Copper, and Sulfate. And unregulated chemicals are listed as Boron and Chromium.  I was shocked to see the names of these chemicals and also the label of Radioactive material; but all levels were within an acceptable level for the county. Not too acceptable for me. I think it is important to remember that we have daily exposure t...

Blog #14 How can you ensue that the surface and ground water in your area is safe? I live in an area where is this isn't as much concern as with the farms that are 20miles away from me. In Castroville, Salinas and Watsonville; I would assume they have stricter policies to keep the surface and ground water safe for their residents. You drive for miles following farms and fields. Every time pass through, you now wonder how they are feeling, are they being safe, are they keeping their communities safe, by being diligent with laws and standards to protect their water? These blogs truly make you appreciate just how fortunate you are! I also wonder as our community ages, well really some areas are already well seasoned, how our sewage system looks- this frightens me more! What resources in your community could you rely on? Monterey has an amazing EPA, Coast Guard and Aquarian staff. All these resources are vital to the preservation of our community and the co...

Blog #13 Given that there are an estimated 21,000 excess deaths from lung cancer associated with exposure to radon in the US along, how would you develop a national radon awareness campaign? Consider you potential collaborations (stakeholders). To develop a national campaign I would begin by working with companies to develop a program for free tests. These should be handed out to neighbors to test their homes and gain a better understanding of where they stand. Once we have free tests that have been disseminated to communities, taking these results and working with local community leaders, state leaders and asking the federal government for action. I believe that local/ community and state leaders could make a huge impact. I feel blessed to be in a state that takes environmental concerns so seriously, but the rest of the county needs to jump on board; and I am sure that California has its faults. Monterey is so heavily invested in the health of the environmen...

Blog #12 Do the schools in your area have an environmental health team or some equivalent? Are the school or community health nurses involved? Since I am not a Pediatric Nurse or work with Pediatrics; I chose to focus on our local college. I am a clinical instructor at MPC for 2nd semester nursing students. The college is older and thought it would be perfect to speak about in this Blog. Monterey has the Unified School District that has Health Services and Wellness pages.  This page mainly focuses on health related topics such as signs and symptoms to watch for and rationale for keeping your children at home.  The guidelines make it easy to follow and assess if your child should stay home; I think this tool is very helpful and may even ease the burden on medical professionals with unnecessary ER visits. How would you assess indoor air quality in your local schools? I currently teach second semester nursing students at our local college. So I though this woul...

Blog #11  How can public transportation planning affect illness and injury in a community? I used this Metro station- a part of me misses living in a big city! In regards to illness and injury. It is easy to see how lower income communities live closer is not on major beltways, roads and streets. Transportation is a source of pollution generating, air, soil and water pollutants leading to negative health outcomes that range from respiratory to cardiac problems.  For transportation planning this seems bias that commonly most are located in lower income communities. These communities also do not have the best access to health care, so how many people must suffer with everyday pollutants from these public transportations. Injury not only meaning accidents, either as a driver or passenger, but also injuries that occur by not paying proper attention to safety rules i.e. wearing safety belts. When planning for a transportation, safety belt education would be important in scho...

Blog #10 1) How does indoor air quality contribute to health outcomes?      I actually have first hand experience with this. I was renting a condo in Monterey located on a maurine layer belt. Almost every evening the maurine layer would come up from the ocean and we would be engulfed- such a cool experience and it smells so amazing! But these condos were built some years ago and refinished, but not properly. The condo was located on a ledge and the underneath side of the condo was not properly insulated. As a result years (before I moved there) salt water exposure lead to a break down in the structure. For three year I lived in damp, cold and mold; but my views were just incredible. It was common for us to see circular black mold patterns on the frames of our sliding doors, our towels and clothes never dried and everything had a stale, musty smell. It was challenging to keep under control, but after two de-humidifiers and running our heater consiste...

Blog #9 ·       What health effects are clearly caused by common air pollutants?  o    Lung disease a huge one! Asthma comes to mind first and foremost; there is an increase in childhood asthma as we learned last module. o    Were you aware of the effects on the immune system?  §   I was, one piece of information that I guess I knew, but really helped to place into perspective was the presentation on Outdoor Air Pollution and the diagram of the strand of hair. Seeing the grain of sand measurements compared to that of the hair strand really helps to illustrate how theses toxic chemicals make it past our basic defense system (nasal hairs). §   Another point was how the primary pollutants then create secondary pollutants in the forms of acids. Our environment is being attacked from all sides; much like how cancers and viruses mutate and attack our systems, these chemicals change depending on the conditi...