MPH - 632 kbscherer

M6.7 Obesogens: An environmental to Obesity Locally grown and seasonal in my area:  I know California is a big ag. state, so it was really cool to use the Seasonal Food Guide finder to really see all of the things that can be harvested just at the end of September within our state, such as avocados, bok choy, chard, kiwi, and strawberries. While there are many local farmers markers that come into the city, like the Ferry Building Saturday market, there are really no major commercial food sources within the county. However there are a large amount in neighboring counties like Brentwood, Marin, Santa Rosa, Dixon and Davis. The city also makes it really easy to buy local ingredients at local store fronts to make it easy to access. However there is still a higher cost for many of the local and organic products. So even though they are much more affordable than other locations that source in the CA local produce, for a city that is quickly widening the income gap, these fresh, or...

M6.6 Use of Antibiotics Antibiotics Resistance 101:  The lack of regulation on a known public health issue like antibiotic resistance (AR) seems ludicrous to me. This non-therapeutic use of antibiotics within our factory farms has known and well studied impacts to humans, so much so that other nations like the EU, Sweden and Denmark have all put in legislation to prevent continued harm for their constituents. I feel like it is again a play where the gov't is listening to the people with the most money, like those from the pharmaceutical industry or the factory farming industry, as opposed to the health and needs of the majority of the population. As opposed to implementing surefire mechanisms to prevent AR's from being regulated, like banning the use of non-therapeutic use, they instead promote suggestions and guidance for the factory farmers to follow, with no major repercussions if guidelines are not followed. It is then up to the knowledge of the consumer to know to bu...

M6.4 Industrial Farming Vanishing Bees: I have heard of this crisis in the past and about colony collapse disorder (CCD) but did not previously know to the extent or the reason why it might be happening. I think that the most surprising notion of the film and the issue in general was the silo'd nature of important information about CCD or "bee death", which France used to describe the same issue. France went through the same issue in the 90's in dealing with the synergy of systemic pesticides which had enough of an impact that the government had to make stricter regulation. However, the U.S./CDC/EPA did not know or follow suit on those regulations, so the same issue just happened again, even though we had the know how, the science, and the precedent to stop it. Dirt! The Movie: I never would have thought that there would be so many people just emphatically into dirt. It was really interesting to be able to get into all of the levels and structures of dirt. It ...

M5.7 Sewage Facilities There are 3 sewage facilities that support San Francisco. 1. North Point Wet Weather Facility (NPF) - Fisherman's Wharf 2. Southeast Treatment Plant (SEP) - Between SF Zoo & Lake Merced 3. Oceanside Treatment Plant (OSP) - Bay View/Hunter's Point I live in the Richmond District of San Francisco and am served by the Oceanside Treatment plant, which is the newest of all of the wastewater plants built in San Francisco. Unlike NPF and SEP, which were built in 1951 and 1952 respectively and are currently functioning with out dated equipment, OSP was built in 1993 and is the all weather treatment facility for the west side of the city. It was largely built underground however, because of its proximity to the ocean it is subject to a faster rate of corrosion so does require regular repairs and updates in order to maintain seismically reliable.

M5.5 Campaign for Tap Water My campaign to drink tap water as opposed to using bottled water would be "Tap It Up". The slogan would be based off of providing campaign sponsored water bottles and/or stickers that could go on reusable water bottles that would be connected to the "Tap it Up" app. The app would be informational about where individuals local water source came from and about the levels of safe or unsafe contaminants within their water system. But it would also be a tool that individuals would be able to scan the code on the campaign sponsored water bottles and/or campaign sticker that would go on their reusable water bottle each time they filled up their reusable water bottle. Each time they refilled their reusable water bottle they would learn how much gas emission reduction they were contributing to and the money that they were saving and that number would continue to go up the more they used their reusable water bottle. The number of times they ...

M5.4 CCR and Water Quality What is the source of your drinking water?   Where does your water ORIGINATE?  (It is treated at a water treatment plant, but what watershed or aquifer is the sources of the water?) The water I drink from the San Francisco Regional Water System comes from the Hetch-Hetchy Reservoir which is filled by spring snowmelt from the Tuolumne River The water is treated at potentially 2 local treatment plants Sunol Valley Water Treatment Plant or Harry Tracy Water Treatment Plant which are sourced from watersheds and/or other reservoirs in the area.  A small amount of ground water is also added to surface water supplies to diversify the drinking water.  What chemicals were found in your water that were higher than expected? 3 contaminants were found to be higher than expected  Chlorate - which can harm the thyroid Radiological contaminants - which can cause cancer Trihalomethane - which are also cancer causing agents What...

M5.2 Public Health Importance of Safe Drinking Water The importance of safe drinking water, I feel like, is easier to argue than that of unwanted chemicals in my make-up and cleaning supplies. Water is a necessity of life and having clean and safe drinking water is a matter of life and death. The Clean Water Act is a demonstration of that right and the steps that our government is doing in order to protect that right. Unfortunately companies, cities, and individual's do not have the knowledge or the understanding of the big picture of what their individual actions do to a specific body of water, whether or not that is waste disposal into a larger body of water or washing ones car in their driveway. There are consequences to those actions that impact the larger population and put our health at risk due to the pollution of our water sources and strict regulations need to be enforced by our collective government in order to ensure that safety.

M4.6 Radon Campaign The first step to developing a national awareness campaign around the dangers of Radon would be to first understand the audience that we are trying to target. If we were trying to target officials or decisions makers to create more restrictive radon exposure policies, we may focus on the fiscal implication of chronic radon exposure. By highlighting personal and state/federal costs from prevention of disease specifically lung cancer costs, we could leverage making smaller reformative changes at a lower cost to prevent larger the cost of health care burden. If our targeted audience was the general public, then an effective campaign would focus on individual symptoms that could point to chronic radon exposure or easy to understand ways to test and make changes to someones living or working space to reduce their radon exposure. Unfortunately, radon exposure does not cause a lot of immediate and physical symptoms, however its long term chronic exposure can be deadly,...

M4.5 Indoor Air Quality Air quality is significantly impacted by the pollutants that mankind has introduced into our environment. The pollutants can be even more apparent within the confines of ones on home without the proper ventilation or education about how to create a safer and healthier environment. I think the first step in developing a chemical/fragrance free policy is a school, institution or hospital would be education. Education of the students, the employees, or other staff members to ensure that they felt empowered to take their health, and the health of their colleagues or peers into their own hands. Additionally, regular meetups and inspections should be completed by an air quality monitor, whether that is a consultant or a volunteer from the staff, to then act as a second pair of eyes to ensure the safety of the work space and continue the culture of constant positive environmental updates. They would have a working relationship as well with the local gas and electri...

M4.2: National Library TOXNET Urea Formaldehyde: Exposure for the common public through the air from pressed wood products, cigarette smoke, and poorly vented gas stoves.  Short term exposure can cause irritation of the skin, throat, nose and eyes Those that have allergies, are allergic, or are more sensitive may have additional or worse symptoms from the toxin.  Long term exposure can cause cancer such as myeloid leukemia and nose or pharynx cancer Bleach (non-concentrate amounts of Sodium Hypochlorite) Bleach is commonly found in cleaning products like Clorox and is commonly inhaled through vapor or skin contact.  Bleach can cause a variety of different health conditions, mostly pain and inflammation if ingested. Additionally it can cause vomiting or pulmonary edema.  I think this tool was interesting to use when looking up toxicology on products like this, but I found its user interface lacking and where the most beneficial information dis...

M3.2 Vulnerable Populations Why are we still ONLY focused on sedentary lifestyles and diets when addressing obesity in the US?  Why are we not also looking at ways to decrease exposures to those chemicals that may be contributing to the epidemic? I think that our perpetual focus on sedentary lifestyles and diets to address the obesity epidemic is because of the clear and visible correlation that a sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle can result from. Additionally, it is much easier to blame an individual, as opposed to a system for their health issues. "Fat Shaming" has made individuals that are seen as overweight and obese the scapegoats of those exploited by health disparities due to mostly environmental conditions, and again we can focus much of the intervention on personal choice and behavior, as opposed to system changes.  Where toxic chemicals are the invisible killers, effecting negative health effects in an insidious manner. These chemicals long term effects on...

M3.3 Environmental Justice To learn about the fundamental disregard for minority communities in the initial legislative efforts to push environmental agendas is no surprise. I feel like it is America's prerogative to "other" people until there are grass roots movements to stand up against the noise. I also found that the traditional environmental movement definitely was a movement to try and get what they could get done as fast as they could get it done, which did mean reducing the scope of environmental protections to communities that needed the most support and vocal representation. However, it was interesting to learn that environmental justice ideals were common place in some of the original ideals about environmental protection, specifically those coming from Senator Ed Muskie of Maine. Additionally, I found the hardest thing to understand about mainstream environmentalism was its obsession with elite supporters. This inherently misrepresents communities that ...

M3.5 Transportation I thought that living in the city would reduce my driving... I was wrong. Living in the Richmond District, I drive everyday. Parts of the bay and the city are just too challenging to access without a car. The grocery store is just a little too far, class gets out too late to make the bus worth it, BART has one too many incidents on it to make it reliable. I have a million of these excuses that just make driving that much easier. I moved to the city when I worked at UCSF, living in the Richmond meant that I could run to work. So 5 days a week my commute was a 5 mile run round trip, which really benefited my physical and mental health. Now I commute to San Mateo, which is 40 min to an hour in the car each way. So I may be catching up on my Podcasts, but I am lacking (and seriously missing) the benefits that running to work really brought me. I additionally try and carpool, work from home, and take caltrain at least once a week to mitigate the negative effe...

M3.4 Air Pollution I researched the present air quality and pollutants of my address in the Richmond district of San Francisco.  Who and what are the top polluters in your zip code? The top polluters in our zipcode are (1) San Francisco DryDock INC., (2) Chevron Products (i.e. their gas stations around the city), and (3) the Pacific Gas and Electric Hunter's Point Power Plant.  The top pollutants in our community were Xylene N-Butyl Alcohol N-Hexane Benzene Toluene Copper Compounds Ethylbenzene Napthalene Mercury What percent of the homes in your zipcode have lead-based paint? 7% of housing units in my area are at high risk of lead hazards Are there Superfund sites in your zip?  (In your BLOG, make sure to tell us what a Superfund Site is) Superfund sites have been contaminated by hazardous waste and have been slotted to be formally cleaned up because of potential toxicity. While there is not a superfund site in the Richmond ...

M3.1 Biomonitoring Fining out that there is a laundry list of chemicals in my blood stream would be wildly disconcerting. Finding out that the levels are also unsafe would make me really think about massive lifestyle changes to prevent additional exposure. After receiving news about having dangerous levels of the following chemicals such as Dioxins, DDT, Organophosphate, Lead, Solvent, PCBs, and Phthalates, I would be initially relieved by the fact that I am an already fully developed adult and take solace in the fact that I also do not want to birth any children so potential chemical impact on developing organs is mute. The main issue that would make me nervous about these results are the cancerous risks associated with the chemicals that are circulating within my bloodstream. Even though I follow a relatively healthy life style where I eat healthy and exercise regularly, I feel that there would be more that I would need to filter in my life to truly refer to myself as a healt...

M1.5: Environmental Health Home Assessment I feel like I understood why the majority of the questions were asked on the Home Environmental Health and Safety Assessment Tool . The information about water safety and pest control make sense to me, however I was really surprised to see questions about a gas dryer and gas hot water heater. It was very surprising to hear that gas appliances, without the proper ventilation, can cause carbon monoxide poisoning. Additionally, it opened my eyes to my lack of emergency preparedness plan. At the moment there is all but 0 thought into what would happen in an emergency, including owning an extinguisher for any small house fires. Seeing small, and seemingly accomplishable steps, that can make my house safer, seems like a manageable task for my housemates and my own safety. I believe that my house's major risks seem to be the gas appliances, our pest issue, and the potential that we have lead pipes, however we have a filtration system ...

M2.3: National Library of Medicine's Household Products Database I choose to investigate the chemical formula of my two cleaning products: Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day: Multi-Surface Everyday Cleaner Febreze Fabric Refresher: Extra Strength In undergrad, I spent time in a chemistry lab doing hands on experiments with chemicals that could have immediate harmful effects if administered to the skin, which seemed to root a deep, and at many times irrational, fear of chemicals in me. As result, many of the cleaning products that I buy are made mostly with natural ingredients, in an attempt to not be completely averse to cleaning. The Mrs. Meyers's Muli-Surface everyday cleaner has been a long time product in my cleaning cabinet and something that I use everyday. I use it for normal cleaning purposes, like cleaning the counter, to more intense cleaning purposes, like washing blinds. I feel comfortable using the product because of 2 reasons:  1. Affordability (less th...

M2.2: Personal Care Products I have been on a mission to be a conscious consumer for awhile now, however I continually am trying to find a balance between cost, ease and environmental/health foot prints for each of the products that I use. Additionally, I have extremely sensitive skin and use clinical intervention for acne, so I try to refrain from introducing my skin to new products to prevent additional outbreaks or re-balancing of current face regimes chemicals. I review 2 products that I use daily, (1) my face wash and (2) my shampoo/conditioner (but I will be talking about the chemical composition of my conditioner). (1) Burt’s Bees’ Facial Cleanser - Sensitive with Cotton Extract usage: 2x/daily (2) SUAVE HAIR Professionals Almond + Shea Butter Moisturizing Shampoo And Conditioner usage: 1x/daily Burt's Bees market's itself as a natural product, reporting that they are a "98.9% natural" and that ...