Environmental Health Home Assessment

The environmental health risk that caught my eye the most while filling out this assessment was the "use of strong smelling cleaners" piece. A lot of the fragrances I have  in my home are not things I had seriously considered as potential environmental health risks. A lot of the fragrances in my home are not things that I have regulated in the past either. I let various cleaning products and air fresheners enter my home without thinking of the potential danger. I feel a bit ashamed about my continued use of things that I know to be "not good for me" (I'm thinking of toxic cleaners in particular) but I am looking forward to learning more about them in the near future. I think (and I hope) that education will be the thing that finally pushes me to eliminate certain cleaning products from my home once and for all!

List of Environmental Exposures

Following up on the larger discussion we had in class regarding environmental exposures, I found this exercise to be very insightful. It was interesting to see how so many of us, myself included, struggled to really understand what an environmental exposure even was. Thinking back, I think a lot of the class got stuck thinking too "big picture" and stumbled when it came to getting specific.

The example that comes to mind was when some students listed "plants" as an environmental exposure. When this was first suggested, I personally felt I understood what the students meant - and I agreed with them that "plants" seemed like a legitimate environmental exposure. However, I now have a better understanding and know that "plants" is far too wide of an umbrella term. Something more specific like "pollen" or the "toxic oils" found on certain types of plants would have been a better example - but until this exercise I did not know that.

Another thing that I found to be a stumbling block was my lack of knowledge surrounding specific viruses, bacteria, chemicals, etc. Some of the students in our class come from a stronger medical background than myself, and they were very excited to share their knowledge with the class regarding certain, specific, exposures that they knew were potentially harmful. I found their excitement to be inspiring and I look forward to learning more from these classmates this Fall. I think the best approach for me to take this semester however, might be to try and find a few environmental exposures that interest me - and stick to studying and understanding those. This way, I will not feel overwhelmed with learning about every environmental exposure around and I can obtain a solid understanding of one exposure and how it transfers to human life from start to finish. I am really looking forward to seeing what the rest of this semester is like and finding out about environmental exposures that resonate with me.

Thank you!

Environmental Health in the News!

Below is a link to an article published Environmental Health News. It discusses researchers findings regarding rising CO2 levels and the inevitable effect it has on crops and human health.

https://www.ehn.org/carbon-dioxide-makes-food-less-healthy-2598739140.html