Environmental Public Health Commons^™

An Industrial Hygiene Assessment Of Lead In Potable Water Outlets At Rowan University, Tyra Thomas, Rosemary Roberto, Thomas Boyle

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

The Office of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) discovered lead in the water of a number of buildings on the Glassboro campus. This finding triggered the need for a comprehensive study to determine if lead was in the drinking water on the main campus.

Rowan University then partnered with an independent consultant to create a Lead Sampling Plan, collect water samples and to find a certified laboratory to provide water sample analysis.

A comprehensive plumbing survey of the campus also took place to determine how water is supplied to campus and how it is distributed to and throughout each building. …

Hour-Level Resolution On Consumption Pattern Of Substance Abuse, Jarrett Mauk, Rhiannon Huffines, Brittney Nelson, Tara Croft, Bikram Subedi

Scholars Week

Conventional survey-based approaches of determining the consumption statistics of drugs in communities are suffered from non-response biases, and typically underestimate the actual consumption. Time and cost-intensive conventional approaches, therefore, can’t be utilized to determine high-resolution temporal variability in drug consumption. In this study, the temporal trend of consumption of 10 illicit and 26 prescribed neuropsychiatric drugs was determined at hour-level resolution utilizing wastewater-based epidemiology. The hourly composite raw wastewater (every 10 minutes) samples were collected for three consecutive days in a typical week (total of 72 samples), analyzed for target drug residues using UPLC-MS/MS, and back-calculated the consumption rate of …

Ecological Determinants Of Respiratory Health: Examining Associations Between Asthma Emergency Department Visits, Diesel Particulate Matter, And Public Parks And Open Space In Los Angeles, California, Jason A. Douglas, Reginald S. Archer, Serena E. Alexander

Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles

Los Angeles County (LAC) low-income communities of color experience uneven asthma rates, evidenced by asthma emergency department visits (AEDV). This has partly been attributed to inequitable exposure to diesel particulate matter (DPM). Promisingly, public parks and open space (PPOS) contribute to DPM mitigation. However, low-income communities of color with limited access to PPOS may be deprived of associated public health benefits. Therefore, this novel study investigates the AEDV, DPM, PPOS nexus to address this public health dilemma and inform public policy in at-risk communities. Optimized Hotspot Analysis was used to examine geographic clustering of AEDVs, DPM, and PPOS at the …

Yielding To The Necessities Of A Great Public Industry: Denial And Concealment Of The Harmful Health Effects Of Coal Mining, Caitlyn Greene, Patrick Charles Mcginley

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

In the mid-nineteenth century, coal mined in Central Appalachia began to flow into industrial markets. Those mines and the coal they produced provided jobs, put food on family tables in coalfield households, and even provided housing for hundreds of thousands of coal miners and their families. The bounty from America’s expanding coalfields fueled the Industrial Revolution and powered the nation’s steel mills, factories,steamboats, and railroads. It powered America’s defense through two World Wars and later military conflicts. Coal-fired power plants generated more than half of the electricity used in the United States in the latter quarter of the twentieth century. …

Evaluation Of An Educational Campaign To Improve The Conscious Consumption Of Recreationally Caught Fish, Corey A. Krabbenhoft, Susan Manente, Donna R. Kashian

Environmental Science and Geology Faculty Research Publications

Consumption guidelines are a common way of improving conscious consumption behaviors in areas where game fish are known to contain contaminants. However, guideline information can be difficult to distribute, and effectiveness difficult to measure. To increase the distribution and effectiveness of guideline information for the Detroit River, an educational campaign was launched in 2010, which included distribution of pamphlets with consumption information, posting of permanent signs at popular fishing locations, and hiring River Walkers to personally communicate with anglers. In 2013 and 2015, we conducted in-person surveys of active shoreline anglers to determine the effectiveness of education and outreach efforts. …

Improving Access To Clean Water In Rural Ecuador: The Connection Between Willingness To Pay And Population Health, Micalea Leaska

Capstone Collection

Climate change is affecting social and environmental determinants of health through access to safe drinking water, safely managed sanitation systems, and access to health care services and the ability for individuals to break free from unsuitable circumstances. Ecological disturbances such as those caused by climate change can cause a shift in host vectors or a change in habitat that results in a greater likelihood of the pathogen coming in contact with humans. Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services and their accessibility to populations can directly impact a community’s vulnerability to diseases and limiting factors to increase economic growth. If rural …

Mid-Atlantic Oil Spill Workshop: Are We Ready? A Regional Workshop As Part Of The National Academies And Sea Grant Collaborative Workshop Series, G. Walker, M. Covi

OES Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) In 2017, the Gulf Research Program (GRP) and the Health and Medical Division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a workshop to prepare for and respond to major marine oil spills. To address gaps identified at the workshop, GRP reached out to the Sea Grant Oil Spill Science Outreach Program to host a series of regional workshops. The Sea Grant Oil Spill team, based in the Gulf, partnered with state Sea Grant programs across the country to plan and deliver regional workshops in 2018-2019. The goals of the workshops were to raise awareness of …

The Ecology Of Fecal Indicators, Dennis A. Gilfillan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Animal and human wastes introduce pathogens into rivers and streams, creating human health and economic burdens. While direct monitoring for pathogens is possible, it is impractical due to the sporadic distribution of pathogens, cost to identify, and health risks to laboratory workers. To overcome these issues, fecal indicator organisms are used to estimate the presence of pathogens. Although fecal indicators generally protect public health, they fall short in their utility because of difficulties in public health risk characterization, inconsistent correlations with pathogens, weak source identification, and their potential to persist in environments with no point sources of fecal pollution. This …

Toxic Effects Of Lead Disposal In Water: An Analysis Of Tri Facility Releases, Patrick Koval

Economics Department Working Papers

Using county-level TRI data from 2003 to 2016, I find evidence that lead emissions in water adversely affect birth weights within the emitting county, especially with respect to the percentage of births considered low birth weight within that county (less than 2,500 grams). I find that a one percent increase in lead emissions per square mile increases the proportion of low birth weights by 0.27 percentage points. For a county with an average number of births in a particular year, this one percent increase in lead per square mile translates to an additional $475,000 in hospitalization costs from complications with …

A Case Study Of The Ethanol Cleancook Stove Intervention And Potential Scale-Up In Ethiopia, Megan L. Benka-Coker, Wubshet Tadele, Alex Milano, Desalegn Getaneh, Harry Stokes

Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

Approximately 80% of Ethiopia's energy consumption is dominated by woody biomass fuel use, resulting in 91.2 million tons of firewood and 4.2 million tons of charcoal consumed annually. Ethiopia's dependency on non-sustainable energy, especially for cooking, has been a major concern for the nation for the past 30 years, contributing to deforestation, climate change, and adverse human health impacts.

Objectives

Our objective was to document the work of Gaia Association and the implementation of the ethanol CleanCook stove in the refugee camp and urban settings of Ethiopia. We then assessed the potential for the scale-up of ethanol as a …

Source-Specific Pollution Exposure And Associations With Pulmonary Response In The Atlanta Commuters Exposure Studies, Jenna R. Krall, Chandresh N. Ladva, Armistead G. Russell, Rachel Golan, Xing Peng, Guoliang Shi, Roby Greenwald, Amit U. Raysoni, Lance A. Waller, Jeremy A. Sarnat

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Concentrations of traffic-related air pollutants are frequently higher within commuting vehicles than in ambient air. Pollutants found within vehicles may include those generated by tailpipe exhaust, brake wear, and road dust sources, as well as pollutants from in-cabin sources. Sourcespecific pollution, compared to total pollution, may represent regulation targets that can better protect human health. We estimated source-specific pollution exposures and corresponding pulmonary response in a panel study of commuters. We used constrained positive matrix factorization to estimate source-specific pollution factors and, subsequently, mixed effects models to estimate associations between source-specific pollution and pulmonary response. We identified four pollution factors …

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim …

Advancing The Understanding Of Environmental Transformations, Bioavailability And Effects Of Nanomaterials, An International Us Environmental Protection Agency—Uk Environmental Nanoscience Initiative Joint Program, Mitch M. Lasat, Kian Fan Chung, Jamie Lead, Steve Mcgrath, Richard J. Owen, Sophie Rocks, Jason M. Unrine, Junfeng Zhang

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Nanotechnology has significant economic, health, and environmental benefits, including renewable energy and innovative environmental solutions. Manufactured nanoparticles have been incorporated into new materials and products because of their novel or enhanced properties. These very same properties also have prompted concerns about the potential environmental and human health hazard and risk posed by the manufactured nanomaterials. Appropriate risk management responses require the development of models capable of predicting the environmental and human health effects of the nanomaterials. Development of predictive models has been hampered by a lack of information concerning the environmental fate, behavior and effects of manufactured nanoparticles. The United …

Regulation Of Radioactive Fracking Waste, Elizabeth Ann Glass Geltman, Nichole Leclair

Publications and Research

Natural gas extracted form shale reached record production totals in 2015 in the United States and the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts natural gas production will continue to increase. Wastes from shale gas extraction can contain the radioactive isotopes radium-226 (Ra-226) and radium-228 (Ra-228), which decay further into radon (Rn). Exposure to radon, a form of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM), is the leading cause of lung cancer in the United States, after smoking. This article explores how states handle the disposal of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) and/or NORM waste from oil and gas operations to …

Extreme Smoke Events: Climate Change And Human Health In Western Montana, Sarah Luth

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Abstract not available.

Developing, Piloting, And Factor Analysis Of A Brief Survey Tool For Evaluating Food And Composting Behaviors: The Short Composting Survey, Jennie Norton

All Master's Theses

Composting on a university campus may take a variety of forms. Sustainable approaches to waste management can be taught and supported through educational programs, peer-to-peer behavior modeling, and composting program interventions. Although peer-reviewed research on composting interventions is somewhat lacking, student interest in the topic is demonstrated by a range of exploratory senior projects and pilot interventions conducted at colleges across the United States and abroad. The purpose of this study was twofold: conduct an educational compost intervention pilot study and develop a survey tool to measure participant attitudes surrounding food behaviors and composting. The Compost Project pilot study focused …

Examining The Issue Of Compliance With Personal Protective Equipment Among Wastewater Workers Across The Southeast Region Of The United States, Tamara L. Wright

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Wastewater workers are exposed to different occupational hazards such as chemicals, gases, viruses, and bacteria. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is a significant factor that can reduce or increase the probability of an accident from hazardous exposures to chemicals and microbial contaminants. The purpose of this study was to identify wastewater worker’s beliefs and practices on wearing PPE and protections offered by PPE through the integration of the Health Belief Model (HBM). Participants were workers in the wastewater industry, which included wastewater operators, laboratory analysts, maintenance workers, wastewater collection workers, equipment operators, managers, and supervisors (n=272). The instrument was a self-administered …

Temporal Trends In Human Vulnerability To Excessive Heat, Scott C. Sheridan, Michael J. Allen

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Over recent decades, studies have examined various morbidity and mortality outcomes associated with heat exposure. This review explores the collective knowledge of the temporal trends of heat on human health, with regard to the hypothesis that humans are less vulnerable to heat events presently than in the past. Using Web of Science and Scopus, the authors identified all peer-reviewed articles that contained keywords on human impact (e.g. mortality, morbidity) and meteorological component (e.g. heat, heatwave). After sorting, a total of 71 articles, both case studies and epidemiological studies, contained explicit assessments of temporal trends in human vulnerability, and thus were …

Range Expansion Of Tick Disease Vectors In North America: Implications For Spread Of Tick-Borne Disease, Daniel E. Sonenshine

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Ticks are the major vectors of most disease-causing agents to humans, companion animals and wildlife. Moreover, ticks transmit a greater variety of pathogenic agents than any other blood-feeding arthropod. Ticks have been expanding their geographic ranges in recent decades largely due to climate change. Furthermore, tick populations in many areas of their past and even newly established localities have increased in abundance. These dynamic changes present new and increasing severe public health threats to humans, livestock and companion animals in areas where they were previously unknown or were considered to be of minor importance. Here in this review, the geographic …

Evaluating And Improving The Effectiveness Of Vehicle Inspection And Maintenance Programs: A Cost-Benefit Analysis Framework, Ying Li

ETSU Faculty Works

Motor vehicle inspection and maintenance (I/M) programs are designed to identify high-emitting vehicles and mitigate their impacts on air quality and climate. I/M programs have been traditionally ranked superior among various vehicle emission control measures by the results of cost-benefit analysis, based on the assumption that these programs will achieve the targeted emission reduction outcomes. However, the actual effects of I/M programs may be greatly uncertain and when this uncertainty is taken into account, these programs may become suboptimal. This study develops a new a cost-benefit analysis framework that links various program design consideration, such as program participation rate, identification …

Effects Of Global Warming On Work-Rest Routines For Crop Workers In Appalachia, Ken Silver, Ying Li, Emmanuel Odame, Yuqiang Zhang

ETSU Faculty Works

Background: Workers in outdoor occupations are expected to be at high risk of increased morbidity and mortality, and diminished productivity, as a result of global warming in the 21st century. A previous modelling study of geographic variations in heat-related mortality risk in projected U.S. populations mid-century showed the states of Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina to be highly vulnerable. Methods: Under both the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 emissions scenarios of IPCC AR5, we evaluate the effect of future warming on estimated Wet Bulb Globe Thermometer (WBGT) temperatures using model-simulated future climate variables that were dynamically downscaled by a regional meteorology model …

Comparing Urban And Rural Vulnerability To Heat-Related Mortality: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Ying Li, Emmanuel A. Odamne, Ken Silver, Shimin Zheng

ETSU Faculty Works

Studies of the adverse impacts of high temperature on human health have primarily focused on urban areas, due in part to urban centers generally having higher population density and often being warmer than surrounding rural areas (the “urban heat island” effect). As a result, urban areas are often considered to be more vulnerable to summer heat. However, heat vulnerability may not only be determined by heat exposure, but also by other population characteristics such as age, education, income, baseline health status, and social isolation. These factors are likely to increase vulnerability among rural populations compared to urban populations. In this …

How Useful Is Gsv As An Environmental Observation Tool? An Analysis Of The Evidence So Far., Katherine Nesse, Leah Airt

SPU Works

Researchers in many disciplines have turned to Google Street View to replace pedestrian- or carbased in-person observation of streetscapes. It is most prevalent within the research literature on the relationship between neighborhood environments and public health but has been used as diverse as disaster recovery, ecology and wildlife habitat, and urban design. Evaluations of the tool have found that the results of GSV-based observation are similar to the results from in-person observation although the similarity depends on the type of characteristic being observed. Larger, permanent and discrete features showed more consistency between the two methods and smaller, transient and judgmental …

Trends In The Environmental Health Job Market For New Graduates, Jason W. Marion, Timothy J. Murphy Phd, Anne Marie Zimeri Phd

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The question of whether the job market can support future graduates of environmental health programs remains an important and difficult question for environmental health programs, current and prospective students, parents, and other stakeholders. Our previous report using 2014 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics demonstrated anticipated growth and higher than average pay in the profession through at least 2022 for baccalaureate degree holders (Marion & Sinde, 2015). Growth in the profession does not necessarily translate into job availability if the market is saturated with job candidates. While university programs produce graduates, local health departments (LHDs) have suffered tremendous …

Lyme Disease And Youtube™: A Cross-Sectional Study Of Video Contents, Corey H. Basch, Lindsay A. Mullican, Kwanza D. Boone, Jingjing Yin, Alyssa Berdnik, Marina E. Eremeeva, Isaac Chun-Hai Fung

Environmental Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

Objectives: Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease. People seek health information on Lyme disease from YouTubeTM videos. In this study, we investigated if the contents of Lyme disease-related YouTubeTM videos varied by their sources.

Methods: Most viewed English YouTubeTM videos (n = 100) were identified and manually coded for contents and sources.

Results: Within the sample, 40 videos were consumer-generated, 31 were internet-based news, 16 were professional, and 13 were TV news. Compared with consumer-generated videos, TV news videos were more likely to mention celebrities (odds ratio [OR], 10.57; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.13–52.58), prevention of Lyme disease …

Environmental Health, Tessa Oliaro

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

There is a very important intersection between the environment, public health, and socioeconomic factors (Braveman, 2014). These include waste disposal, water use and quality, road safety, ecosystem services, and many more. Environmental health stresses, “the health impacts of physical, chemical, and biological agents in the environment and workplace, and learns to develop strategies to measure and control major environmental health problems both locally…and in settings around the globe” (UC Berkeley School of Public Health, 2017). This overarching umbrella can have emphases in environmental epidemiology, exposure science, climate change, ergonomics, home and industrial hygiene, and molecular epidemiology. Exploring each of these …

Trap-Neuter-Return Programs And The Importance Of Associated Public Awareness, Nicolette Sliwa

Biology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

The focus of this paper is to describe a typical Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program and highlight the major pros and cons surrounding this somewhat controversial method of managing the overwhelming free-roaming cat population. The effects of the species’ overabundance on the environment and human health are also discussed. Citing studies completed on TNR programs around the globe as well as mathematical models, the effectiveness of this method is compared to other, currently used alternatives. Finally, it has been suggested that the general awareness level a neighborhood possesses about the true goals of TNR programs has a potentially significant impact on the …

Persistent Organic Pollutants And Mortality In The United States, Kristiann Fry, Melinda Power

GW Research Days 2016 - 2020

Background/Objectives: Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are environmentally and biologically persistent chemicals that include polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), per- and polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and organochlorine (OC) pesticides. Currently, there is limited data on the association between exposure to POPs and the risk of mortality in the general US population. The objective of this study was to determine if higher exposure to POPs are associated with greater risk of all-cause, cancer, heart/cerebrovascular disease, or other-cause mortality in persons aged 60 years and older.

Methods: The analyses included participants aged 60 years and older from the 1999-2006 National Health and …

Water, Sanitation And Hygiene In Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement, Katelyn Bergl

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

No abstract provided.

Malta : Natural Freshwater Resources, Lisamarie Pereira

Global Public Health

The aim of this paper is to discuss Malta’s struggle with limited natural freshwater resources. Malta currently uses aquifers to obtain natural freshwater. For over a decade, aquifers have been under pressure from over-abstraction. Due to this issue, Malta has not been able to obtain enough natural freshwater for agriculture and basic living. The biggest risk due to over-abstraction is retrieving a smaller volume of freshwater. In Malta’s attempted interventions, the biggest issue is the Maltese government’s misconceptions. The Maltese government believes the country has unlimited natural freshwater resources. Due to this misconception, nothing is being done to actively fix …