CH 13 - 14

Role of government in environmental health

1. in the 1960 and 1970 state and federal government took more responsibility’

   • Responsible for clean water and disposal of

   wastes

2. Environment is beyond the control of individuals

3. World population growth has led to global

   environmental problems

   • Depletion of the earth’s ozone layer and accumulation of greenhouse gases are major concerns

Major organization that help

1. environmental protection agency (EPA)

2. Nation center for environmental health (NCEH) within the CDC

3. Federal government → does research, sets standards for exposure limits, monitors, and enforces

Environmental health

Radiation

• Mercury

• Lead

• Arsenic

• Asbestos

• Pesticides and industrial chemicals

Lead

• Gasoline emitted lead air

pollutant until the 1980s when banned

• Lead paint was used until 1977 and is a threat in old

houses’ peeling paint and

contaminated dust

Pesticides and Industrial chemicals

• DDT and some other pesticides are now banned

• Endocrine disruptors affect reproduction, nervous system,

and immune system and may cause cancer

Reasoning for banning DDT and other Pesticide

1972 - DDT was banned in th US

1977 - Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) halted production in the U.S

1978 - Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPS) are soluble in fat, persist in the environment, can cause harm to health

common contaminants in plastics

BPA - used in hard plastics and can linings that can leach into food and drinks

Phthalates - Chemicals used to soften plastics, often found in items like water bottles and packaging; they can leach into liquids and may disrupt normal hormone function.

Who are usually the first to be effects of an exposure

Workers are often the first to suffer

1. Carcinogens are recognized through occupational cancers.

   • Scrotal cancer in chimney sweeps

     • Bladder cancer in dye factory worker

2. Neurotoxins also have been recognized through occupational illness

   • Hexane (shoemakers)

   • Trichloroethylene (dry cleaners)

   • Pesticide applicators

Factory Farms

Large-scale industrial farms where animals are kept in crowded conditions and managed by automated systems.

Environmental issues: produce waste, causing air and water pollution, and are often difficult to regulate due to political influence.

Point-source pollution

Water pollution that comes from a single, discrete

place, typically a pip

NON-Point-source pollution

Water and air pollution from different sources

Federal government is empowered by various acts to set standards:

Occupational Safety and Health Act

• Toxic Substances Control Act

• Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act

Air pollution incidence

1948 - Donora, Pennsylvania had a similar weather inversion

1952 - Weather inversion in London caused more than 4,000 deaths

1950s and 1960s - Smog in Los Angeles was severe

1970 - clean air act was made

The Clean air act of 1970

• set air quality standards

• set limits on some major pollutants

• Mandated reduction of automobile and factory emissions

The Clean Air act controversies

1. environmental and public health group have pressed for compliance and stricter standards

2. Industries and political conservation who argue the cost of pollution control is too high and hurts the nations economy

Criteria for Air pollutants

• particulate matter

• sulfur dioxide

• carbon monoxide

• nitrogen oxides

• ozone

• leads

1990 Clean Air Act

Directed the EPA to set Standards for 187 specific Chemical

• as of 1993 EPA has only acted on: Asbestos, Mercur, Beryllium, Benzene, Vinyl chloride, Arsenic, Radionuclides and coke oven

Who is the most affected by poor air quality

• asthma

• heart disease

• COPD

What is the progress towards Air pollution

• air pollution decreases 54% since 1970

• Cali with the worst pollution embliminted regulation and incentives

Indoor Air Quality

People spend more time indoors than out.

“Sick building syndrome”

• tobacco smoke

• wood burning stoves and fireplace

• Gas range and furnaces

• radon

Federal legislation

Clean water act - 1972,1977,1987

Safe water drinking act - 1974,1996

Global Effects of air pollution

Acid Rain : Rain with acidic pollutants that harms forests, crops, water life, and soil.

Ozone Layer Depletion: Thinning of the ozone layer caused by air pollutants, allowing harmful UV rays in.

Greenhouse Effect / Global Warming: Trapping of heat by gases like CO₂ from burning fossil fuels, causing Earth to warm.

Clean Water Act

Established is : 1972

Regulation

• Requirements for treating wastewater

• Sewage treatment plants or septic systems

• Congress prohibited ocean dumping (sludge)

• Pretreatment of industrial wastes

Safe drinking water act 1974

The federal law that protects public drinking water supplies throughout the nation

• EPA sets standards for drinking water quality

Nearly half of drinking water in the U.S. comes from rivers and lakes

1. Surface water - Helped by the Clean

Water Act

2. Ground water – Generally cleaner

DILEMMAS IN COMPLIANCE

• There’s conflict between local, state, and federal EPA over water regulation

• Cost

• Byproduct by disinfectants

• Many waterways have concerning amount of hormones, pharmaceuticals and household chemicals

How much percent of drinkable water is left

Less than 1% is left that is freash water to drink, cook, bath, ect

• Most water on the earth’s surface is salt

  water or ice

• Water shortages exist in much of the world

How they discard waste and the laws that came about

Before1970 : Garbage was burned in incinerators or placed in open dumps

1972 Clean Water Act & MP : the Marine Protection, Research & Sanctuaries Act outlawed garbage to be poured into rivers, lakes, or oceans

1976 RCRA : Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) outlawed open dumps due to vermin and toxic leachates into groundwater

Sanitary Landfills

the most common method of municipal disposal, due to previous traditional methods causing increase air or water pollution.

ALTERNATIVES TO LANDFILLS

Reduce

Reuse

Recycle

Waste to energy incineration

2 historical hazardous waste disposal disasters

1. love canal → NY abandoned industrial dump

2. Times beach → Missouri mic waste of oil and crankcase oil

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability

Act 1980

The law required emergency cleanup of old waste sites The fund would be paid for by a tax on industry

Superfund controversy

• Much effort was focused on determining who is liable Tax was not reauthorized in 1995

• American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allocated $600 million for further cleanup of Superfund sites

Coal Ash

Is waste from coal-burning power plants

• stored in open dumps often near rivers

• is unregulated by the EPA

• Contains heavy metal contaminants

Climate

is the long-term pattern of weather in a particular area

Weather

what we talk often about when we want to know how to dress or if it is

going to rain

Climate change

Long-term change in the climate of the planet, also called global

warming due to historical increases in the average temperature of the planet

The greenhouse Effect

1. sunlight reaches the earth

2. Some energy is reflected back into space

3. some is absorbed and re-radiated as heat

4. most of the heat is absorbed by greenhouse gases and then radiated in all direction warming the earth

THE UNITED NATIONS FRAME WORK

CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE (UNFCC )

• Conference of the Parties held in Paris in 2015 approved the

  Paris Agreement

• Committed countries to holding the increase in the global average

  temperature to well below 2°C (3.60°F)

• efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C (2.7°F) above pre-industrial levels

The Paris Agreement

Approved by 196 countries and became effective in 2016

• Countries make and implement CC plans also know as NDC

• NDC consist of long-term strategies to reduce greenhouse emissions

Intergovernmental Panel on climate change (IPCC) said

Human activity unequivocally caused global warming,

Best case scenario for CC

• The world average temperatures would still go beyond a 1.5°C increase after 2040

• It would not decrease below that again until the end of the 21st century

Worst case scenario for CC

• There would be an increase in global average temperatures of 4.4°C (about

  8°F)

U.S. will in the future have (based on Climate change)

• increased average temperatures and wildfires

• Increase in the length of the growing season, increasing sea levels and coastal flooding

• More heat waves and rainfall increasing ocean acidification in Hawaii

• Decreased sea ice in the Arctic Ocean

• Increase in cooling degree days and decrease of heating degree days

Climate change Mitigation

Efforts to reduce or prevent emission of greenhouse gasses through new tech and renewable energies

2021 EPA report - climate inequality

1. Black and African American people are 40% more likely to live in areas with high projected death rates from extreme heat.

2. Hispanic and Latino people are 43% more likely to live in areas where rising heat will cause major job losses in outdoor industries.

2021 EPA report - climate inequality (Asians and american indians)

1. American Indian and Alaska Native people are 48% more likely to live in areas most at risk of flooding from sea level rise.

2. Asian individuals are 23% more likely to live in coastal areas with the highest projected traffic delays from high-tide flooding.

Population Growth

public health measures have contributed to the pop groth this results in the crowding increasing homelessness, shantytowns, and poor sanitation

Depletion of global resources

1. Fresh water

2. Fuel

3. Arable land → Amount of land under cultivation is declining

4. Food from the sea