Toxins
Courses tagged with "Toxins"
PFAS are commonly known as ‘forever chemicals’ due to their extreme persistence in the environment and human body. PFAS cross the placental barrier, accumulate in the growing fetus, are excreted in breast milk, and have been linked with a wide range of health effects including high cholesterol, several cancers, infertility, and low birth weight. This webinar discusses the scope of PFAS exposure in Michigan as well as resources for the clinician, including ANHE’s PFAS Toolkit, as well as advocacy opportunities.
The ANHE Practice Forum presents the webinar “Medical Waste Incineration, Impact on Human Health, and Opportunities for Nursing Action.” In the United States (US), the number of operating medical waste incinerators has declined greatly, from more than 6,200 in 1988 to 33 in 2013. Remaining medical waste incinerators have been linked to a range of adverse health effects and environmental justice concerns. Featuring speakers Greg Sawtell, Carlos Sanchez, Deanna Benner, and Jeremy Greene, this webinar provides an overview of the health impacts of medical waste incineration and discusses opportunities for nursing action. We hear from members of the Curtis Bay Community Land Trust, a group that is creating communications with hospital systems that transport waste to Curtis Bay medical waste incinerator (the largest medical waste incinerator in the US!) and health professionals who are taking action on medical waste incineration at their hospital.
Plastic pollution harms the climate, wildlife, ecosystems, and human health. It is estimated that of the 14 000 tons of waste generated daily in US health care facilities, about 20% to 25% is plastic. Yet, the majority of plastics, including those used in health care, are not recycled and have created a plastics crisis for our environment. This webinar will provide an overview of the health harms from plastics and how plastic is a hazard at every stage of its life cycle - beginning with extraction of the coal, oil and gas from which nearly all plastics are made, production and use, and to the disposal of plastic waste. Speakers will also discuss how medically unnecessary plastics in the healthcare sector are contributing to the plastics crisis.
Join the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE) for an overview of PFAS, human health impacts from PFAS, and actionable steps to reduce PFAS exposure.
Speakers include Emily Donovan, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear, Stephanie Schweickert, Environmental Health Campaigns Manager of North Carolina Conservation Network and Dr. Katie Huffling, Executive Director of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE).
ANHE shares our recently released PFAS Toolkit which provides guidance on how health care providers can educate patients, perform risk assessments and provide practical clinical guidance. Our speakers also share current opportunities for engagement.
In this seminar, we introduce a new program that addresses climate, health and equity, Green Cars for Kids. This Florida-based nonprofit works to create a world where every child and pregnant person reaches their full health potential unhampered by transportation barriers. Our program coordinates transportation for low-income expectant mothers and children to healthcare visits using electric vehicles. The goals of the program are to improve the health of pregnant women and children by breaking down transportation barriers. By using electric vehicles, we contribute to reducing air pollution and carbon emissions that impact the health of frontline communities most.
This presentation describes the work of "Keep Antibiotics Working," a national coalition that works to ensure that untreatable super bugs resulting from overuse of antibiotics on farms do not reverse the medical advances of the past century. Presenters teach about the issue of resistant super bugs, use of antibiotics on farms, and describe past and future policy work.
Plastic pollution is a global crisis affecting the health of the planet and all life on Earth from plankton to humans. Like climate change, plastic pollution is a result of a dedicated effort by the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries to exploit a natural resource to unnatural consequences. This webinar will explore the health implications of plastics and options for effective change.
Wireless non-iodizing radiation has serious biological and health effects and the amount of RFR in our everyday environment increases daily. The telecom industry has us addicted to our "devices." Pregnant women and children are most at risk for the health effects of RFR. Learn the sources of RFR and how to decrease exposure to them in the environment.
This webinar presents information on noise as a public health hazard. It describes sources of noise, the physiological mechanisms it activates in the body, and its contributions to numerous diseases, health problems, and learning disorders. We summarize the results of numerous studies in the US and around the world documenting these effects of noise. We also discuss noise exposure as an environmental justice issue; low income and minority populations are disproportionately affected by noise due to road, train, and air traffic, as well as nearby industrial areas, predisposing them to poorer health and learning outcomes. The webinar concludes with a discussion of actions to be taken to reduce noise exposures, in order to prevent disease and promote health.
PFAS have recently been recognized as contaminants in agriculture and are growing as a contaminant of concern for the food supply with PFAS contamination negatively impacting farmers and communities. PFAS are commonly known as ‘forever chemicals’ due to their extreme persistence in the environment and human body. PFAS cross the placental barrier, pass to the growing fetus, and are excreted in breast milk. PFAS have been linked with a wide range of health effects including high cholesterol, several cancers, infertility, and low birth weight. This webinar discusses how Maine’s farmers, policy-makers and scientists are collaborating to solve this problem. This webinar is intended to discuss the scope of PFAS exposure in Maine’s agricultural community. The webinar will also list resources for the clinician, including ANHE’s PFAS Toolkit, as well as discuss advocacy opportunities.
In Fall 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a plan to pursue the Biden administration’s priority of replacing all lead service lines in the next ten years. Nurses know that access to safe lead-free drinking water is essential for families to live healthy and productive lives, as there is no safe level of lead. Communities across the country should be protected from exposure to lead and health care providers are a key part of lead exposure prevention. This webinar provides resources for the clinician and highlights areas for nursing advocacy and action. 1 hour CE is be offered by ANHE. Registration is required for CE.
The Environmental Protection Agency recently finalized national primary drinking water standards for 6 PFAS. This is the first-ever national, legally enforceable, scientifically supported drinking water standard to protect communities from exposure to harmful per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as ‘forever chemicals.’ Most people are exposed to mixtures of PFAS and there is sufficient evidence that certain PFAS are associated with health outcomes including decreased antibody responses and dyslipidemia in both adults and children as well as decreased infant and fetal growth and increased risk of kidney cancer in adults. As public drinking water systems come into compliance with the new standards, nurses and health care providers will likely be asked by patients and those in their communities, about the health effects of PFAS and about PFAS in drinking water. This webinar is intended to discuss resources, including ANHE’s PFAS Toolkit, and advocacy opportunities for the clinician. This will be a 1 hour panel webinar including 3 speakers who are well-established successful PFAS advocates.
This seminar, jointly hosted by ANHE and the Georgia Nurses Association, explores the practical health impacts of climate change. Our first panelist, Roxana Chicas, defines the scope of the problems caused by climate change. It brings economic distress, threatens mental health, and disproportionately affects communities of color. In health, it disrupts healthcare-related supply chains. LaShea Haynes, our second panelist, elaborates on the unique position of low-income and marginalized communities in the intersection of health and climate. In particular, she stresses that we must reach out directly to these communities, as opposed to relying on assumptions of their needs. Our third panelist, Cary Ritzler, discusses clean energy systems and relevant legislation that may promote or threaten them. She stresses the individual's role in informing their community and engaging with their elected leaders. At the end of the seminar, the panelists respond to a few questions.
In November 2021, EPA and the Army Corps announced a proposed rule that would put back into place the pre-2015 definition of “waters of the US,” updated to reflect Supreme Court decisions. This would replace the Dirty Water Rule, the previous administration’s definition of “waters of the US,” which was invalidated by two federal courts, until the Biden Administration creates a new, durable rule. We encourage nurses to consider weighing in on the importance of EPA moving swiftly to this second step to create strong, long-lasting protections for our water resources across the country. Our speakers in this seminar provide an overview on the state of clean water in the United States and the most pressing health-related concerns. They also discuss upcoming advocacy opportunities that will be critical for nurses to engage in, including submitting comments to the US Environmental Protection Agency to call for strong clean water protections.
Learn more about some of the most pressing threats to clean water and health This seminar discusses specific opportunities for nurses to take action and preserve clean drinking water for all. Learn more about some of the most pressing threats to clean water and health including harmful algal blooms, drinking water protections, and emerging contaminants, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
Including local environmental knowledge within historically marginalized communities is central to achieving environmental justice, yet prevailing data collection and analysis methods often fail to recognize discourses rejecting mainstream environmental knowledge. In this presentation, Dr. Evans-Agnew describes the methods and outcomes of a pop-up booth and balloting project in the Puget Sound region of the Pacific Northwest, USA.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, in 2020, COVID-associated healthcare waste alone was 3.4 kg per person per day globally. It was about 2.5 kg per bed per day in developing countries. In this seminar, Dr. Laura Jean Ridge discusses her research on the occupational health of healthcare workers in West Africa, particularly in Liberia and Ghana. Dr. Ridge is an Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati's College of Nursing. She has received funding from the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety and was a member of the 2023 cohort of the Environmental Health Research Institute for Nurse and Clinician Scientists™. Dr. Ridge is a nurse practitioner who earned her Master's in Adult Primary Care from Columbia University (2010). She provided primary and HIV-oriented care in New York City for five years before her PhD at New York University.
Fragranced personal care and consumer products are an important and modifiable source of chemical exposure associated with poor air quality and health outcomes. Emissions from fragranced products, such as perfumes, cleansers, and air fresheners, contribute to indoor air pollution and are among the primary ingredients of ground-level ozone. Many fragranced products emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs), causing inflammation and exacerbation of respiratory and allergic conditions, with those who are economically disadvantaged and historically marginalized at the greatest risk of exposure. The choice to use fragranced products impacts all within the shared space, with implications for the social, occupational, and family context. More research is needed to better understand the factors impacting health outcomes and disparities related to fragranced personal care and consumer product use and to develop effective behavioral interventions to limit risk. The purpose of this presentation is to provide an overview of a planned research trajectory centered on mitigating the adverse effects of fragranced products on indoor air quality and health outcomes as mapped to the National Institute of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS) Translational Research Framework. Discussion supports the continued refinement of approaches beneficial to study in this important area of environmental health research.
Content supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R25ES033452 (PI: Castner). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Claire Richards shares her program of research on energy insecurity and its relationship to climate breakdown. Dr. Richards then discusses different approaches to describing and addressing co-occurring power outages, wildfire, and extreme heat in the Pacific Northwest.
This 1 hour webinar presentation raises awareness of and educates nurses on the negative health impacts of occupational exposure to waste anesthetic gases (WAGs). We provide recommendations to reduce exposure for providers, patients and the environment as well as resources for nurses to take action.