environmental health

RECENT POSTS

August 9, 2012 | 2:17 PM | By

Richmond Refinery Fire: 8 Health Questions Answered

Monday night's Chevron Refinery fire as seen from the Berkeley Hills. (Daniel Parks: Flickr)

Monday night's Chevron Refinery fire as seen from the Berkeley Hills. (Daniel Parks: Flickr)

Contra Costa Health Services has posted a succinct “Frequently Asked Questions Related to the Chevron Fire on August 6, 2012.” [PDF] It’s good information — cleaning fruits, vegetables, avoiding groundwater, health impact, etc.

I republish it here, in its entirety:

1. What are the health impacts from the refinery fire?

Smoke can cause throat and eye irritation, though it generally is not serious
if the exposure is limited. These symptoms should resolve on their own after a few days for most people. Exposure to smoke can be more serious for people with pre-existing lung disease, such as asthma, and they may experience wheezing or have trouble breathing. As of August 8, more than 1,700 people have gone to the emergency room with nose, throat or eye irritation or respiratory issues, although none have been hospitalized.

2. What chemicals were released into the air and how dangerous are they? Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Place Matters, environmental health, Richmond Refinery Fire
August 9, 2012 | 11:46 AM | By

California Heats Up and That Means Health Risks

Map from the National Weather Service shows the areas of 'excessive heat' alerts in California.

Map from the National Weather Service shows the areas of 'excessive heat' alerts in California.

The rest of the nation has sweltered this summer, but California has escaped extreme heat — until now. The National Weather Service may not have high-end graphics, but its map tells the story. The San Joaquin Valley, starting south of Modesto, is colored a brownish-red and that means excessive heat warning. Temperatures are expected to exceed 100 degrees every day until Tuesday. The bright pink areas indicate a heat “watch” (click here if you don’t know the difference). This kind of heat is not just a weather story, it’s a significant health and environment story too.

High heat is hazardous to people, pets and livestock. San Joaquin County Public Health Services warns people to drink plenty of water, stay cool in an air-conditioned room and wear loose-fitting clothing. And, please, do not leave children, seniors or pets in a parked car for any period of time, even with windows cracked. The interior of the car can heat up very fast — to deadly levels — within minutes.

Those at highest risk for heat stress are children under age 4, adults with disabilities, anyone with a chronic illness and the elderly. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Place Matters, Air Quality, environmental health, Heat
August 7, 2012 | 1:11 PM | By

Chevron Refinery Fire: Health Impact

Smoke from the Chevron refinery fire blanketed Richmond and surrounding communities Monday night. (Jeremy Brooks: Flickr

Smoke from the Chevron refinery fire blanketed Richmond and surrounding communities Monday night. (Jeremy Brooks: Flickr)

Since Monday’s fire erupted just after 6pm, more than 600 people have been treated in emergency departments at Kaiser in Richmond and Doctors Medical Center in nearby San Pablo for symptoms caused by the Chevron refinery fire.

One of them was Point Richmond resident Cheri Edwards. “The smoke was kind of like an oily smell, it was an oily smell, and I have asthma really bad. And right now I’m at the bus stop trying to go to Kaiser because I have been having respiratory problems.”

Besides breathing problems, people also reported symptoms including sore throats and watery eyes. These symptoms are consistent with exposure to “a full toxic soup of hundreds, probably thousands, of combustion products and byproducts,” Greg Karras, senior scientist with the advocacy group Communities for a Better Environment, told a Forum audience Tuesday morning. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Place Matters, Chevron Refinery Fire, environmental health
May 17, 2012 | 2:54 PM | By

Candy is Bad for Kids … Because It Might Be Laced with Lead

Yes, a candy named "Toxic Waste" was recalled. (Image: California Department of Public Health)

By Lyssa Rome

Just like that, the number of children at risk for lead poisoning jumped five-fold yesterday as the Centers for Disease Control announced that it cut its threshold for lead poisoning diagnosis in half. The new diagnosis will occur at five micrograms per deciliter of blood. The former threshold was 10.

Health advocates have worked to alert the public to the risks of lead in paint, toys and even jewelry. But lead can also be found in – of all things tempting to children – candy. Candy with high levels of lead may not taste unusual. In fact, some kinds of lead even taste sweet.

Lead is a major environmental health risk. It affects almost every system in the body, including the brain and other organs, but the symptoms aren’t always obvious. For children, exposure to even minute quantities of lead can cause long-term developmental problems, including lower IQ, and the damage may not be reversible.

“It is not entirely clear where the lead in many of the products is coming from.”
California’s Department of Public Health began testing candy for lead in 2007 and has done 5,700 tests since. Over the years, it has issued warnings [PDF] not to eat 188 different sweets.

Most of those candies are imported, mainly from four countries: Mexico, Malaysia, China and India. That’s where the candies come from, but what about the lead itself? Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Policy, Children's Health, environmental health, Lead Poisoning
March 16, 2012 | 10:07 AM | By

Doctors Expect Climate Change to Worsen Lung Diseases

In some parts of California air quality is already a big issue.

Farming in the Central Valley contributes to the poor air quality there. (Photo: Getty Images)

As if there wasn’t already enough to worry about, now doctors are predicting that climate change will harm people’s respiratory health. The American Thoracic Society is so concerned it filed a report with two goals. The Society not only wants to raise awareness with doctors so they can take preventive measures with their patients but also is enticing researchers to take on the question for further study. They found that climate change has a direct impact on air quality. A hotter climate, wildfires, more pollen in the air and rates of airborne diseases are worsening respiratory health worldwide.

Climate change will likely affect different places in different ways, but in California it could mean hotter summers and more wildfires. The itchy eyes and sneeze-inducing allergies that plague many people during pollen season could also hang around longer if weather patterns continue to change. All of that is bad for asthmatics, children and the elderly, but also for poor people – as it turns out.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Place Matters, Policy, Air Quality, climate change, environmental health
February 14, 2012 | 9:12 AM | By

Can Air Pollution Contribute to Dementia, Too?

By Susanne Rust, California Watch

(Mark H. Anbinder: Flickr)

(Mark H. Anbinder: Flickr)

It’s well established that dirty, sooty air is no good for your lungs and probably not great for your skin. But new research indicates it can damage your brain, too.

A study in the journal of the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that air pollution accelerates cognitive decline in women.

And with a new federal report showing Southern Californians are at the highest risk of death due to air pollution, this study adds to the growing body of grim evidence showing air pollution and healthy bodies don’t mix.

“We keep learning about more adverse effects (from pollution) than we thought possible,” said Jean Ospital, health effects officer with the South Coast Air Quality Management District, who was not involved with the current research.

“I’m not sure I find these results surprising,” he said, “but I’m also not sure I would have expected them if you’d asked me 10 years ago.” Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Place Matters, air pollution, Demential, environmental health
February 9, 2012 | 5:54 PM | By

California Gives Hair-Straightening Product “Caution” Label

Patricia Davis straightens a clients hair at her salon in Oakland.

Patricia Davis straightens a client's hair at her salon in Oakland. (Photo: Shuka Kalantari)

Oakland salon owner Patricia Davis leans over her client to get a better angle on the flat iron that’s clamped to her hair. Steam rises up from the woman’s hair and a spinning fan above spreads the steam throughout the room and out the windows. Sometimes, formaldehyde gas, a known carcinogen, is in that steam. And if that product is called “Brazilian Blowout,” then formaldehyde is definitely in there … despite the fact that it says “formaldehyde-free.”

In a recent settlement agreement with the California Attorney General, GIB, the company that makes the popular Brazilian Blowout hair straightening treatment, will drop the claim that they’re formaldehyde-free. They also have to add a caution label to their product.

“California laws protect consumers and workers and give them fair notice about the health risks associated with the products they use,” said Attorney General Harris. “This settlement requires the company to disclose any hazard so that Californians can make more informed decisions.”

But salon owner Davis says the controversy is overblown. “I think it’s much ado about nothing,” she says as she continues flat-ironing her client’s hair.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Policy, You're the Boss, environmental health
January 31, 2012 | 3:57 PM | By

If We Build It, Will People Be More Healthy?

(Image: from "Designing Health Communities")

(Image: from "Designing Health Communities")

It’s called the “built environment” and if you’re a public health whiz, you know exactly what that means. If you don’t, Dr. Richard Jackson, Chair of UCLA’s Environmental Health Sciences Department believes it’s critical you do.

“By the built environment,” he explains, “we mean everything around us that was changed by human activity, homes, building, streets that we’re surrounded by.” In other words, it’s where we live our lives, work, or go to school. When the car came along, the built environment seemed to build up on its own without any thought to health impacts. “We’ve made it hard to walk,” he says. “We’ve engineered physical activity out of our daily lives.” Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Place Matters, Built Environment, environmental health
December 7, 2011 | 9:00 PM | By

And The Environmental Causes of Breast Cancer Are…?

Suspicious mass on mammogram. (KristieWells: Flickr)

Suspicious mass on mammogram. (KristieWells: Flickr)

Seventy percent of women who develop breast cancer have no known risk factors. For years, advocates and activists have trumpeted the need for more research into possible environmental causes of the disease. Today, the prestigious Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a much anticipated 360 page study, Breast Cancer and the Environment. But it unfortunately was unable to give women or their doctors any new environmental clues.

As the New York Times reports, most of what the IOM did recommend is already known and might not have much effect anyway.

The most consistent data suggest that women can reduce their risk by avoiding unnecessary medical radiation, forgoing hormone treatments for menopause that combine estrogen and progestin, limiting alcohol intake and minimizing weight gain, the report found. (Controlling weight appears helpful only in preventing postmenopausal breast cancers, not those in younger women.) Overuse of CT scans, which deliver a relatively high dose of radiation, was a particular concern, but the report stated that women should not be deterred from having routine mammograms, which use a much smaller dose. …

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Policy, You're the Boss, Breast Cancer, environmental health