Environmental Public Health Commons^™

Assessing Coastline Recession For Adaptation Planning: Sea Level Rise Versus Storm Erosion, Roshanka Ranasinghe, David P Callaghan, Fan Li, David J Wainwright, Trang Minh Duong

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The Sixth Assessment report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states with high confidence that most sandy coasts around the world will experience an increase in coastal erosion over the twenty-first century. An increase in long term coastal erosion (coastline recession) along sandy coasts can translate into massive socio-economic impacts, unless appropriate adaptation measures are implemented in the next few decades. To adequately inform adaptation measures, it is necessary to have a good understanding of the relative importance of the physical processes driving coastline recession, as well as of linkages between consideration (or not) of certain processes …

The Impact Of The Tobacco-Free Policy On The Auc New Cairo Campus, Fatimah Badawy

Theses and Dissertations

In 2019, the American University in Cairo (AUC) conducted a research study on campus attitudes towards tobacco use and smoking behaviors within their community, in light of the then newly enforced tobacco-free policy. They found most campus members in support of the policy, with higher rates of disapproval from the smoking community. In 2021, this research aimed to follow-up on changes in attitudes towards the policy as well was smoking behaviors. It hypothesized that over time, levels of support to the policy would increase, smoking habits would be positively impacted and that positive health behaviors would correlate with policy support. …

Building Sustainable Environmental Activism Programs For Youth, Aminah Habib

Master's Projects and Capstones

As the negative impacts of climate change become more and more common across the United States, many youth are experiencing eco-anxiety or other negative mental health impacts due to the state of the environment. Engaging with activism has been named as a potential mitigator of the negative impacts of climate change among youth, but the relationship between activism and youth well-being is an emerging area of research. To explore this relationship, this scoping review explored and synthesized available literature to inform the next steps. In addition to the community-level and society-level contributions that come from youth activism, there are also …

The Use Of Therapeutic Gardening In Addiction Recovery, Sophia Agne

Master's Projects and Capstones

Problem: Numerous recent studies have emerged detailing the benefits of horticultural therapy on mental health and wellness. Despite this, substance use disorder treatment facilities rarely include an outdoor component in their programming. The project seeks to examine the advantages of incorporating therapeutic gardening as a complementary part of addiction treatment.

Context: The microsystem where the study was conducted was at a 32-bed residential substance abuse treatment facility for adult men who have previously been involved in the criminal justice system. The treatment approach employed at the facility aligns with the Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment (IDDT) curriculum, which emphasizes mental health-informed …

Comparing Particulate Matter Exposures During Two Work Shifts In A Large University Dining Commons Kitchen, Shalom Emmanuel, Atin Adhikari

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

Objective: Cooking emits a huge concentration of indoor air pollutants, including particulate matter (PM). Exposure to PM can lead to long-term adverse respiratory effects among workers engaged in cooking. Only a few studies have measured cooking-related air pollutants in large school cafeterias where young student workers are frequently employed. The objective of this research was to compare stationary exposures to PM from cooking during two work shifts at a very large university dining commons kitchen.

Methods: Number concentrations of PM of varying aerodynamic sizes (1, 2.5, 5, and 10 µm) were measured at the back kitchen, DC grill, and …

Access To Burn Care: A 10 Year Perspective Of Burn Centers In The U.S, Elle Lovick, Jeffrey Carter, Herbert Phelan, Randy Kearns, Bart Phillips, William Hickerson

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

55th Annual Meeting of the American Burn Association, ABA 2023, May 16 - 19, 2023, Dallas, TX

The Rising Use Of Fire As A Weapon, Jason Woods, Jeffrey Carter, Kathe Conlon, Carl Flores, Randy Kearns

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

55th Annual Meeting of the American Burn Association, ABA 2023, May 16 - 19, 2023, Dallas, TX

Characteristics Of Verified And Designated Burn Centers, Jeffrey Carter, Randy Kearns, Elle Lovick, Erica Murata, Bart Phillips

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

55th Annual Meeting of the American Burn Association, ABA 2023, May 16 - 19, 2023, Dallas, TX

Small Community Water Systems Have The Highest Prevalence Of Mn In Drinking Water In California, Usa, Miranda Aiken, Samantha C. Ying

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Manganese (Mn) is currently regulated as a secondary contaminant in California, USA; however, recent revisions of the World Health Organization drinking water guidelines have increased regulatory attention of Mn in drinking water due to increasing reports of neurotoxic effects in infants and children. In this study, Mn concentrations reported to California’s Safe Drinking Water Information System were used to estimate the potentially exposed population within California based on system size. We estimate that between 2011 and 2021, over 525,000 users in areas with reported Mn data are potentially exposed to Mn concentrations exceeding the WHO health-based guideline (80 μg L …

The Threat Of Hospital Wastewater: An Evidence-Based Call To Action, Ann P. Nguyen

DNP Qualifying Manuscripts

Introduction: Hospital wastewater carries a unique composition of pollutants, a burden that includes high chemical and biological residuals. These pollutants are discharged into sewage treatment plants and natural environments where they contaminate human water sources and larger ecosystems. Water treatment plants are not designed to treat the high loads of biomedical waste and persistent organic compounds found in hospital wastewater and therefore pollutants survive in conventionally treated water. Evidence of contaminated soil, municipal wastewater, surface water, ground water, and even drinking water have been demonstrated in studies conducted around the world highlighting the ubiquity of the problem. Hospital effluent as …

Language Barrier Contributions To Food Insecurity In Spanish-Speaking Populations, Amin Khan, Leeza Kumar, Edanur Kilic, Stephen Acheampong

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Food insecurity refers to a household or individual’s inability to access adequate food to obtain a healthy lifestyle. This contributes to health concerns such as birth defects, low nutritional intake, anemia, cognitive problems, mental health disorders, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. Low-income rural community members lack access to full grocery stores and often turn to convenience stores with unhealthy, expensive, and fewer food options. The aim of this study was to determine how language barriers affect Spanish-speaking populations with limited English proficiency. The research for this project was obtained from Google, Google Scholar, and PubMed. Keywords included “health disparities,” “Spanish-speaking,” …

Colonizing And Virulence Factors In Enterotoxigenic Escherichia Coli From Peru, Fulton P Rivera, Anicia Medina, Maribel Riveros, Theresa J Ochoa, Maria J Pons, Joaquim Ruiz

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) ranks among the most relevant diarrheagenic pathogens. Efforts to design vaccines to fight ETEC have been focused on colonizing factors (CFs) and atypical virulence factors (AVF). An effective vaccine must account for differences in the regional prevalence of these CFs and AVFs to be truly effective in a given area. In the present study, the presence of 16 CFs and 9 AVFs, as well as the heat-stable (ST) variants (STh or STp), was established by polymerase chain reaction in 205 Peruvian ETEC isolates (120 from diarrhea cases and 85 from healthy controls). Ninety-nine (48.3%) isolates were …

Qualitative Chemical Analysis Of Elf Bar E-Liquids And Their Effect On Phenotypic Characteristics Of Arabidopsis Thaliana, Genevieve Neuwirth

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

After their initial market introduction in 2003, the popularity and use of e-cigarettes have exponentially increased. There are three main components that have contributed to this: marketing, ease of access, and emerging flavors. The marketing industry uses claims that ecigarettes are a ‘safer’ and ‘healthier’ alternative to cigarettes as a way to entice previous smokers into using this product. With the increase in popularity, there is also an increase in demand, which has led to the creation of stores designed to target customers and sell e-cigarettes and similar products at convenient locations. Finally, the emerging flavors have enticed many nonsmokers …

Program Evaluation: Utilizing Health Department’S Community Health Needs Assessment Data To Improve Emergency Preparedness Plans, Kathleen Gottschalk

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Public health officials conducting emergency response plans must know how to easily identify the vulnerable populations in their community or jurisdiction. It is beneficial for access and functional needs appendices to include information and resources directed at the identified vulnerable groups before an emergency event to improve health outcomes. Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNA) can provide population-level statistics and information needed to easily identify vulnerable or at-risk groups. This report aims to evaluate the use of the CHNA data to guide the development of inclusive emergency response plans that account for vulnerable populations in local health department jurisdictions. The 2021 …

Assessing The Impact Of Ebola Virus Inoculum Size On Likelihood Of Infection, Joseph Lukowski

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Background: Indirect transmission of Ebola virus disease (EVD) is not uncommon but is poorly understood. Improving the understanding of the potential risk of EVD transmission from fomites should result in new or updated prevention or control measures for suspected or confirmed EVD cases or outbreaks.

Objective: This study aims to compile and understand pertinent data from peer-reviewed literature, establish the dose-response relationship between inoculum doses introduced to mucous membranes, and finally estimate the risk of EVD transmission from fomites.

Methods: A literature search was conducted through PubMed to obtain relevant data. This study employed this data to perform Poisson regression …

Emerging Tick-Borne Diseases In Northeast Tennessee, Jacob Schultz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tick populations have been immigrating into northeast Tennessee from east Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and North Carolina. Counties in states bordering northeast Tennessee harbor tick species associated with human illness. Human diseases transmitted by ticks include ehrlichiosis, spotted fever rickettsial group diseases, tularemia, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Lyme disease, alpha-gal syndrome, Heartland virus, Powassan virus, and southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI). These diseases cause morbidity and mortality in human populations and may pose a high risk to individuals, wildlife, and livestock. The Cherokee National Forest covering the east Tennessee border provides a permissible environment for ticks to immigrate and thrive. Residents of northeast …

Updated Analysis To Reject The Laboratory-Engineering Hypothesis Of Sars-Cov-2, Fuqing Wu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

A clear understanding of the origin of SARS-CoV-2 is important for future pandemic preparedness. Here, I provided an updated analysis of the type IIS endonuclease maps in genomes of alphacoronavirus, betacoronavirus, and SARS-CoV-2. Scenarios to engineer SARS-CoV-2 in the laboratory and the associated workload was also discussed. The analysis clearly shows that the endonuclease fingerprint does not indicate a synthetic origin of SARS-CoV-2 and engineering a SARS-CoV-2 virus in the laboratory is extremely challenging both scientifically and financially. On the contrary, current scientific evidence does support the animal origin of SARS-CoV-2.

Qualitative Chemical Analysis Of Elf Bar E-Liquids And Their Effect On Phenotypic Characteristics Of Arabidopsis Thaliana, Genevieve Neuwirth

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

After their initial market introduction in 2003, the popularity and use of e-cigarettes have exponentially increased. There are three main components that have contributed to this: marketing, ease of access, and emerging flavors. The marketing industry uses claims that ecigarettes are a ‘safer’ and ‘healthier’ alternative to cigarettes as a way to entice previous smokers into using this product. With the increase in popularity, there is also an increase in demand, which has led to the creation of stores designed to target customers and sell e-cigarettes and similar products at convenient locations. Finally, the emerging flavors have enticed many nonsmokers …

Transforming Monterey Counties Food Environment, Geovanni Miron Solis

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Blue Zones project was brought to Monterey County due to the high prevalence of type 2 diabetes. Nearly fifty percent of Monterey county are pre-diabetic or diabetic. The Blue Zones Project of Monterey County is a well being improvement initiative that works with local schools, worksites, restaurants and organizations to educate and promote healthier habits. The food sector of the project consists of individuals who work with restaurants and grocery stores here in Monterey County. The project serves Marina, Seaside, Monterey, Salinas, Pacific Grove, Gonzalez, King City, Soledad, Castroville, and Chular. A major issue the project wants to address …

Please Romaine Calm! A Multi-Disciplinary Investigation Of A Cyclospora Outbreak Among Hospital Employees, Jocelyn Love Mph, Amber Erickson Drph, Mph, Hope Dishman Mph, Carla Coley Bs, Rehs

Georgia Public Health Association Annual Meeting & Conference

Background

On July 8, 2022, North Central Health District (NCHD) was notified by a local hospital of a possible Cyclospora outbreak among hospital employees. The hospital noted the employees had eaten at the hospital’s cafeteria, particularly the salad bar. An investigation was conducted to test this hypothesis and determine which salad bar ingredients were the cause of illness.

Methods

An electronic survey was shared with all hospital employees through their email distribution system. Employees were asked to complete the survey regardless of illness or exposure history. Lab- confirmed cases were interviewed using the Cyclosporiasis National Hypothesis Generating Questionnaire. Environmental health …