Environmental Public Health Commons^™

How Comprehensive And Effective Are Waste Management Policies During The Covid-19 Pandemic? Perspectives From The Philippines, Geminn Louis C. Apostol, Angelina Gabrielle A. Acolola, Michelle Alexandra Edillon, Sary Valenzuela

Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health Publications

This study presents a comprehensive analysis on policies governing the management of COVID-19 waste in the Philippines, highlighting gaps in pre-existing policies and opportunities for further policy development and adaptation in the context of present and future public health emergencies. A hybrid search strategy and consultative process identified fifty (50) policy documents directly impacting the management of wastes (general domestic, healthcare, and household healthcare waste) released prior to and during the pandemic. Content analysis revealed comprehensive policy coverage on managing general domestic waste and healthcare waste. However, there remains a dearth in policies for managing household healthcare waste, an emerging …

Pfas Environmental Contamination In Central Maine, Megan H. Andersen

Honors Theses

PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are toxic, persistent, and bioaccumulative chemicals that are used in a variety of consumer products and industrial applications. Paper mills across the state of Maine have used PFAS in their industrial paper making processes, and their wastes often flow for treatment into municipal sewage treatment facilities. PFAS contaminated municipal wastewater from the general use of PFAS consumer products are also processed by these plants. Liquid waste is condensed into solid waste septage and sludge, and in what was thought to be an environmentally friendly repurposing practice, municipal sludge and septage has been spread on plots …

Recyclage Primaire Des Matières Résiduelles Électroniques Au Québec : Portrait De La Santé Et De La Sécurité Du Travail Et Appréciation Du Risque Sanitaire, Sabrina Gravel, Bouchra Bakhiyi, Joseph Zayed, Sylvie Gravel, Daniel Côté, Brigitte Roberge, Jacques Lavoie, Loïc Wingert, France Labrèche

Rapports de recherche scientifique

En raison de l’utilisation croissante de composants et d’appareils électriques et électroniques, de même que de leur durée de vie relativement courte, la quantité de matières résiduelles électroniques ne cesse d’augmenter. Conséquemment, le nombre d’entreprises spécialisées dans le recyclage électronique (e-recyclage) est en nette croissance au Québec, comme ailleurs dans le monde. Ces entreprises emploient des travailleurs qui ont pour tâche de démonter les appareils afin d’en trier les composants qui seront subséquemment valorisés ou éliminés de manière sécuritaire. Ces tâches peuvent cependant entraîner l’exposition des travailleurs à un mélange de substances potentiellement toxiques, comprenant entre autres des poussières, des …

Accident De La Route Au Travail : Qu’En Est-Il Des Travailleurs Piétons?, Marie-Soleil Cloutier, Sylvanie Godillon, Daniel Lafond, Alexandre Marois, Nicolas Saunier, François Vachon

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Les travailleurs piétons (comme les signaleurs, les brigadiers scolaires, les facteurs) occupent des emplois qui s’effectuent à pied sur le réseau routier. Ils sont à pied pour de courts moments, par exemple pour faciliter la circulation ou encore effectuer des réparations (comme les travailleurs de la construction, les policiers, les employés de voiries), ou ils passent fréquemment de leur véhicule à la rue (comme les livreurs ou les éboueurs). L’ensemble de ces travailleurs a la caractéristique commune d’être en interaction avec plusieurs usagers de la route lorsque sur la route en tant que piéton, mais aussi avec des riverains et …

An Ecological Study Of Glyphosate Use And Non-Hodgkin’S Lymphoma, Dexter Corlett, Steven R. Browning

Theses and Dissertations--Public Health (M.P.H. & Dr.P.H.)

Glyphosate is currently the most widely used herbicide in the world. Initially thought to be non-carcinogenic in humans, in 2015 glyphosate was classified as a “probable carcinogen” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer due to several small epidemiological studies indicating a link between the pesticide and hematologic cancers, especially non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). The current work is an ecological study using counties in Kentucky, Arkansas, and Iowa to compare glyphosate usage to NHL incidence using a multivariate Poisson regression. We found no significant correlation between glyphosate use and NHL incidence, though caution should be taken to draw significance from …

Understanding The Environmental Implications Of The Microbiome Of Canals In Bangkok, Thailand, Emma Tao

Scripps Senior Theses

The canals of Bangkok, Thailand hold significant economic and social value, yet the increasing urbanization of the city has resulted in increased water pollution. Agricultural runoff and urban waste contribute to the degradation of the water quality, which has impaired its safe usage by the people of the city. This study focused on analyzing the microbiome of the water in the canals in correlation with the surrounding environment, both in and out of the water. Ten sites along the Bangkok canals were analyzed. DNA was isolated for the sequencing of the 16s rRNA gene to determine the microbial diversity of …

Covid-19 Patients With Documented Alcohol Use Disorder Or Alcohol-Related Complications Are More Likely To Be Hospitalized And Have Higher All-Cause Mortality, Kristina L. Bailey, Harlan Sayles, James Campbell, Neha Khalid, Madyson Anglim, Jana Ponce, Todd A. Wyatt, James C. Mcclay, Ellen L. Burnham, Alfred Anzalone, Corrine K. Hanson

Journal Articles: Environmental, Agricultural & Occupational Health

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected every country globally, with hundreds of millions of people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and over 6 million deaths to date. It is unknown how alcohol use disorder (AUD) affects the severity and mortality of COVID-19. AUD is known to increase the severity and mortality of bacterial pneumonia and the risk of developing acute respiratory distress syndrome. Our objective is to determine whether individuals with AUD have increased severity and mortality from COVID-19.

METHODS: We utilized a retrospective cohort study of inpatients and outpatients from 44 centers participating in the National COVID Cohort …

Modelling Air Quality In An Aircraft Passenger Cabin Using Health Care Standards, Bert Silich

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

The interest in aerosol contamination of aircraft passenger cabins has increased since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mathematical models have been developed to help describe how an aerosol behaves in a closed space. The number of infectious particles inhaled is of scientific interest because it can be related to the risk of getting ill from a pathogen. The data required to calculate these results is often difficult to obtain in real world settings. In fact, particle inhalation details are not obtained in the day-to-day routine of a health care environment and are they not required to maintain safety. Hospital …

Emerging Technologies For The Production Of Nanocellulose From Lignocellulosic Biomass, Dileswar Pradhan, Amit Jaiswal, Swarna Jaiswal

Articles

Nanocellulose is a unique and promising natural nanomaterial and has gained significant attention due to its applications in several important areas. Thus, researchers are continuously looking for the most efficient, sustainable, economically viable, and environmentally friendly production technologies to fulfil its growing demand. Conventional production technologies, which include various physical, chemical, and physicochemical methods, are currently inadequate for this purpose and have several limitations such as long processing time, high energy consumption, low recovery of nanocellulose, and many others. To overcome these shortcomings, scientists have investigated the prospect of utilizing emerging processing technologies such as microwave irradiation, deep eutectic solvent, …

Exploring Agricultural Worker Self-Efficacy During A Covid-19 Delta Variant Surge And Adverse Environmental Conditions, Hannah Lascano

All Master's Theses

Yakima County is a rural county with an urban core located in central Washington State. With over 60% of its workforce dedicated to agriculture, food production, and other essential industries, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly compounded in Yakima County populations. Factors such as low decision-making power, limited ability to social distance, and occupational limitations such as fear of job loss, non-compliance with immigration regulations, and lack of representation have yet to be explored during the COVID-19 Delta variant (Delta) surge in conjunction with environmental conditions. This study utilized a novel, online survey of Yakima County residents, …

Water In The Time Of Covid: Water Insecurity, Privatization, And Establishment Of The Human Right To Water, Liza Sternik

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

Examining The Pulmonary Response To Repeated Vishniacozyma Victoriae Exposure And Its Association With Allergic Airway Disease, Rachael Erin Rush

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Allergic airway diseases such as asthma continue to increase in incidence in industrialized nations like the United States. These diseases are complex inflammatory processes involving numerous cells and mediators and are strongly influenced by fungal exposures. Recent developments in fungal detection methods have highlighted the contribution of Basidiomycota yeast species in indoor environments such as Vishniacozyma (syn. Cryptococcus) victoriae. However, despite the high levels of this yeast detected in indoor environments, very little is known about it or its role in respiratory morbidity. V. victoriae is phylogenetically similar to pathogenic Cryptococcus neoformans but lacks a capsule and is …

Performance Of Peltier Cooled Technology During Preconcentration Of Volatile Organic Compounds Analyzed By Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (Gc-Ms) Using Niosh Manual Of Analytical Methods (Nmam) 3900, Elizabeth Ann Fernandez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Using evacuated canisters for whole-air sampling allows for sampling without specific knowledge of the environment and potential analytes. Evacuated canisters are able to tolerate concentrations ranging from parts per trillion (PPT) to parts per million (PPM). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has used evacuated canisters for years to sample volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from ambient air using their method TO-15 (LeBouf, et al., 2019). The GC-MS system used for the development of NMAM 3900 used liquid nitrogen to cool sorbent traps in the preconcentrator. Liquid nitrogen allows for cooling of specified points below ambient temperature. An alternative to liquid …

Moyens De Réduction Des Risques Lors Des Phases De Nettoyage Et De Désinfection Des Machines Dans Le Domaine Agroalimentaire : Étude Exploratoire France-Québec, Laurent Giraud, Jean-Christophe Blaise, Nellie Perrin, Yuvin Chinniah, Pascal Poisson

Rapports de recherche scientifique

L’industrie de la transformation alimentaire est le plus important employeur industriel au Québec avec près de 56 000 emplois dans plus de 1 400 établissements en 2016. Cependant, au Québec, la Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST) estime que le degré de risque de la plupart des secteurs agroalimentaires est critique. Cette industrie est également considérée à haut risque en Europe, notamment en France et en Grande-Bretagne, ainsi qu’aux États-Unis. Les statistiques dans ces pays montrent que les accidents surviennent majoritairement lors de tâches courantes et prévisibles comme le nettoyage et …

Pharmacists' Role In Opioid Use Disorder And Overdose Prevention And Treatment And Their Attitudes And Perceptions Towards Distributing Naloxone Under A Standing Order, Stephen C. Ijioma

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Opioids are a class of drugs that bind to opioid receptors (mu, delta, and kappa), located in the central and peripheral nervous systems, to exert responses such as analgesia, respiratory depression, euphoria, and miosis. The opioid epidemic is characterized in large part by an increase in opioid overdose deaths. Community pharmacists are one of the most accessible healthcare professionals who frequently interact with patients and can implement OUD and opioid overdose prevention strategies. Treatment for opioid overdose and OUD include naloxone for overdose deaths as well as medication-assisted treatment for OUD.

Objective: The specific aims of this thesis include …

Adaptation Des Milieux De Travail Aux Effets Des Changements Climatiques. Tome 2 : Mesures D’Adaptation Destinées Aux Travailleurs Du Québec Les Plus À Risque Vis-À-Vis De La Hausse Des Épisodes De Fortes Chaleurs Liée Aux Changements Climatiques, Bouchra Bakhiyi, Ariane Adam-Poupart, Robert Bourbonnais, Marc-Antoine Busque, Joseph Zayed

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Le présent document correspond au tome 2 du rapport de la recherche intitulé « Adaptation des milieux de travail aux effets des changements climatiques ». Il présente le 2^e volet de cette recherche dont l’objectif était de coconstruire des mesures d’adaptation destinées à protéger la santé des travailleurs des 50 professions du Québec les plus à risque vis-à-vis de la hausse des épisodes de fortes chaleurs liée aux Changements climatiques (CC) (désigné par danger A), et ce, en collaboration avec des acteurs clés du secteur de la santé et de la sécurité du travail.

Une revue de la littérature …

Adaptation Des Milieux De Travail Aux Effets Des Changements Climatiques. Tome 1 : Identification Des Travailleurs Du Québec Les Plus À Risque Vis-À-Vis Des Dangers Prioritaires Liés Aux Changements Climatiques, Bouchra Bakhiyi, Ariane Adam-Poupart, Robert Bourbonnais, Marc-Antoine Busque, Joseph Zayed

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Les changements climatiques (CC) constituent une menace reconnue et admise pour les travailleurs. Pour réduire leur vulnérabilité vis-à-vis des dangers liés aux CC, l’adaptation des milieux de travail est devenue incontournable. Cette recherche se propose de coconstruire des mesures d’adaptation qui permettraient de protéger la santé et l’intégrité des travailleurs du Québec malgré les répercussions appréhendées des CC.

Les travaux ont été réalisés en deux volets :

• Le premier volet avait pour objectif l’identification des travailleurs du Québec les plus à risque vis-à-vis des dangers prioritaires liés aux CC ;
• Le deuxième volet a visé la coconstruction des mesures d’adaptation …

High-Resolution Metabolomics Of Exposure To Tobacco Smoke During Pregnancy And Adverse Birth Outcomes In The Atlanta African American Maternal-Child Cohort, Youran Tan, Dana Boyd Barr, P Barry Ryan, Veronika Fedirko, Jeremy A Sarnat, Audrey J Gaskins, Che-Jung Chang, Ziyin Tang, Carmen J Marsit, Elizabeth J Corwin, Dean P Jones, Anne L Dunlop, Donghai Liang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Exposure to tobacco smoke during pregnancy has been associated with a series of adverse reproductive outcomes; however, the underlying molecular mechanisms are not well-established. We conducted an untargeted metabolome-wide association study to identify the metabolic perturbations and molecular mechanisms underlying the association between cotinine, a widely used biomarker of tobacco exposure, and adverse birth outcomes. We collected early and late pregnancy urine samples for cotinine measurement and serum samples for high-resolution metabolomics (HRM) profiling from 105 pregnant women from the Atlanta African American Maternal-Child cohort (2014-2016). Maternal metabolome perturbations mediating prenatal tobacco smoke exposure and adverse birth outcomes were assessed …

Circling The Drain: The Extinction Crisis And The Future Of Humanity, Rodolfo Dirzo, Gerardo Ceballos, Paul R. Ehrlich

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Library Materials

Humanity has triggered the sixth mass extinction episode since the beginning of the Phanerozoic. The complexity of this extinction crisis is centered on the intersection of two complex adaptive systems: human culture and ecosystem functioning, although the significance of this intersection is not properly appreciated. Human beings are part of biodiversity and elements in a global ecosystem. Civilization, and perhaps even the fate of our species, is utterly dependent on that ecosystem’s proper functioning, which society is increasingly degrading. The crisis seems rooted in three factors. First, relatively few people globally are aware of its existence. Second, most people who …

Factors Associated With Mask Use In New York City Neighborhood Parks During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Field Audit Study, Lisa Hitch, Marie A. Sillice, Hanish Kodali, Katarzyna E. Wyka, Javier Otero Peña, Terry Tk Huang

Publications and Research

Background: Mask use is a cost-effective measure to decrease COVID-19 transmission. Mask mandates intend to increase mask compliance but are often ambiguous when it comes to public outdoor spaces.

Methods: We used a field audit study to examine mask use in New York City neighborhood parks during COVID-19. 1453 park visitors were observed in 13 parks during July–August 2020 using a modified and validated park use audit tool (System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities) that included items on general and proper mask use (i.e., mask covering both nose and mouth). Generalized estimating equation regression was used to determine …