Module 11 (Food Wastes and Occupational Health)

Question 1

What is an EPA Environmental Cleanup?

Answer 1

EPA conducts and supervises investigation and cleanup actions at sites where oil or hazardous chemicals have been or may be released into the environment. Cleanup activities take place at active and abandoned waste sites, federal facilities and properties, and where any storage tanks have leaked. EPA, other federal agencies, states or municipalities, or the company or party responsible for the contamination may perform cleanups. Cleanup can also include site reuse and redevelopment.

Question 1

What is the traditional system for responding to environmental health hazards?

Answer 1

Hazard identification (environmental engineers)

Measurement (environmental health specialists)

Assessment (environmental health specialist / epidemiologist / physician)

Management (environmental health specialist / attorney)

Communications (health / risk communication specialists)

Question 2

What is a Brownfields Cleanup and Example?

Answer 2

for assessments and cleanups grants related to potentially usable properties

This was used to cleanup Atlantic Station (starting in 1997 and officially reopening in 2005)

Question 3

What are the 3 main concerns involved in the healthy food?

Answer 3

Healthy eating (nutritional and behavioral)

Food security (health equity)

Food safety (biological - eliminating microbial / chemical / radiological contaminations)

Question 4

How many foodborne illnesses occur in the US each year (and to what severity)?

Answer 4

48 million illness
128,000 hospitalizations
3,000 deaths
1,000 outbreaks

Question 5

How many US Food regulation / government organizations are there?

Answer 5

75 state and territorial
3,000 state / local

Question 6

What are food sales like in the US?

Answer 6

$5.7 trillion annually
1 million restaurants employing 14.4 million people
Average American eats 4 meals away from home each week

Question 7

What are the “Big 6” in foodborne diseases?

Answer 7

1. Shigella spp.
2. Salmonella Typhi
3. Nontyphoidal Salmonella
4. E. Coli
5. Hepatitis A
6. Norovirus

Question 8

What are 5 major risk factors contributing to foodborne illness?

Answer 8

1. improper holding temperatures
2. inadequate cooking
3. contaminated equipment
4. food from unsafe sources
5. poor personal hygiene

Question 9

What major foodborne illness outbreak occurred in Georgia in 2008?

Answer 9

In late 2008 and early 2009, nine people died and at least 714 people in 46 states, half of them children, fell ill due to food poisoning (Salmonella) from eating products containing contaminated peanuts, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Investigators traced the contaminated food to a factory in Georgia operated by the Peanut Corporation of America.

Question 10

What is Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP)?

Answer 10

HACCP is a management system in which food safety is addressed through the analysis and control of biological, chemical, and physical hazards from raw material production, procurement and handling, to manufacturing, distribution and consumption of the finished product.

Question 11

What are the principles of HACCP?

Answer 11

1. Perform hazard analysis
2. Decide on critical control points
3. Determine critical limits
4. Establish procedures to monitor control points
5. Establish corrective actions
6. Establish verification procedures
7. Establish a record keeping system

Question 12

What are some of the biggest food safety regulations?

Answer 12

1906 Food and Drugs Act
1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
1954 Miller Pesticide Amendments
1958 Food Additives Amendment
1960 Color Additive Amendments
1968 Animal Drug Amendments
1996 Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA)
2011 Food Safety Modernization Act
2013 FDA Model Food Code
State / Local Food Codes (restaurants, markets, bakeries, farmer’s markets, food trucks, festivals, cottage foods)

Question 13

How has OSHA helped the US workforce?

Answer 13

In 2013, 12 workers died daily (down from 38 in 1970)

In 2013, 3 / 100 workers experienced injury / incidents (down from 10.9 / 100 in 1970)

Nearly 3 million serious workplace injuries and illnesses were reported in 2012

Question 14

What 2 agencies were created by the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970?

Answer 14

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

Question 15

What does OSHA do?

Answer 15

Congress created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to ensure safe and healthful working conditions for workers by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance.

This mostly covers private sector employees and is concerned primarily with the department of labor

Question 16

What does NIOSH do?

Answer 16

established the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) as a research agency focused on the study of worker safety and health, and empowering employers and workers to create safe and healthy workplaces.

NIOSH is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the Department of Health and Human Services. It has more than 1,300 employees spread across the United States, from a diverse set of fields including epidemiology, medicine, nursing, industrial hygiene, safety, etc. Visit the NIOSH Careers page to learn more.

It is centered on public health and research.

Question 17

What is PPE?

Answer 17

Personal Protective Equipment

Question 18

Who was Alice Hamilton?

Answer 18

Alice Hamilton was a leading expert in the field of occupational health. She was a pioneer in the field of toxicology, studying occupational illnesses and the dangerous effects of industrial metals and chemical compounds on the human body. She published numerous benchmark studies that helped raise awareness of dangers in the workplace. In 1919 she became the first woman appointed to the faculty at Harvard Medical School, serving in their new Department of Industrial Medicine. She also worked with the state of Illinois, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the League of Nations on various public health issues.

She is called the “Mother of Occupational Medicine”

Question 19

What was Hull House?

Answer 19

The residents of Hull-House formed an impressive group, including Jane Addams, Ellen Gates Starr, Florence Kelley, Dr. Alice Hamilton, Julia Lathrop, Sophonisba Breckinridge, and Grace and Edith Abbott. From their experiences in the Hull-House neighborhood, the Hull-House residents and their supporters forged a powerful reform movement. Among the projects that they helped launch were the Immigrants’ Protective League, the Juvenile Protective Association, the first juvenile court in the nation, and a Juvenile Psychopathic Clinic (later called the Institute for Juvenile Research). Through their efforts, the Illinois Legislature enacted protective legislation for women and children in 1893. With the creation of the Federal Children’s Bureau in 1912 and the passage of a federal child labor law in 1916, the Hull-House reformers saw their efforts expanded to the national level.

Hull-House, Chicago’s first social settlement was not only the private home of Jane Addams and other Hull-House residents, but also a place where immigrants of diverse communities gathered to learn, to eat, to debate, and to acquire the tools necessary to put down roots in their new country. The Museum is comprised of two of the settlement complex’s original thirteen buildings, the Hull-Home and the Residents’ Dining Hall. These spaces were used variously over the years, including as a nursery school, a library, and a salon for social and political dialogue.

Question 20

What is municipal solid waste?

Answer 20

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), commonly called “trash” or “garbage,” includes wastes such as durable goods (e.g., tires, furniture), nondurable goods (e.g., newspapers, plastic plates/cups), containers and packaging (e.g., milk cartons, plastic wrap), and other wastes (e.g., yard waste, food).

Question 21

How much Municipal Solid Waste do Americans dispose of annually?

Answer 21

260 tons or 4.48 pounds per day

Question 22

What is the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA)?

Answer 22

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) gives EPA the authority to control hazardous waste from cradle to grave. This includes the generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste. RCRA also set forth a framework for the management of non-hazardous solid wastes. The 1986 amendments to RCRA enabled EPA to address environmental problems that could result from underground tanks storing petroleum and other hazardous substances.

Question 23

What are sanitary landfills?

Answer 23

Sanitary landfills are sites where waste is isolated from the environment until it is safe.
It is considered when it has completely degraded biologically, chemically and physically. In high-income countries, the level of isolation achieved may be high. However, such an expensive high level of isolation may not be technically necessary to protect public health.

Question 24

What is another term for recycling?

Answer 24

Resource recovery

Question 25

What are viable alternatives to landfills?

Answer 25

Recycling
Composting
Waste to Energy Incineration

Question 26

What is the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund)?

Answer 26

provides a Federal “Superfund” to clean up uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous-waste sites as well as accidents, spills, and other emergency releases of pollutants and contaminants into the environment. Through CERCLA, EPA was given power to seek out those parties responsible for any release and assure their cooperation in the cleanup.

Question 27

What was the Times Beach (Missouri) Incident?

Answer 27

Times Beach, Missouri, once a popular stop along Route 66, is now a ghost town and the site of the Route 66 State Park in St. Louis County. Once home to more than 2,000 people, the town was completely evacuated 1983 due to dioxin contamination.

In 1982, after numerous illnesses, miscarriages, and animal deaths, tests by the United States Environmental Protection Agency showed that Times Beach was contaminated with dioxin: around 100 parts per billion, well above the rate of 1 part per billion which EPA considers toxic.

Question 28

What was the Love Canal crisis?

Answer 28

The Love Canal area was originally the site of an abandoned canal that became a dumping ground for nearly 22,000 tons of chemical waste (including polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxin, and pesticides) produced by the Hooker Chemicals and Plastics Corporation in the 1940s and ’50s.

Contamination of homes adjacent to the landfill became apparent in 1978, with the potentially exposed population including several hundred residents within one block of the landfill and almost 3,000 residents within approximately four blocks (NYSDOH 1981). This caused miscarriages, birth defects, and more

Question 29

What was the TVA Kingston (Tennessee) site disaster?

Answer 29

On December 22, 2008, at approximately 1:00 a.m., a failure of the northwest side of a dike used to contain coal ash occurred at the dewatering area of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston Fossil Plant, located at 714 Swan Pond Road in Harriman, Roane County, Tennessee. Subsequent to the dike failure, the release of material – about 5.4 million cubic yards of bottom ash and fly ash – created a wave of water and ash that choked the adjacent Emory River, disrupted electrical power, ruptured a natural gas line and water line, and covered a railway and local roadways.

Coal ash contains contaminants like mercury, cadmium and arsenic. Without proper management, these contaminants can pollute waterways, ground water, drinking water, and the air

Question 30

What foods are different illnesses associated with?

Answer 30

Salmonella - poultry and eggs (via uncooked eggs)
E. Coli - beef (via cow feces)

Fish and shellfish living in contaminated water (via human sewage) can contain various pathogens, including cholera, Hepatitis A, common Norwalk virus, and parasites

Question 31

What is a secondary form of foodborne illness?

Answer 31

Illness spread via toxins that are produced by bacteria after exposure

E.g. Bacteria causing botulism (flourishes in environments without oxygen and typically infects improperly cooked produce being canned)

Fish eating certain bacteria which releases toxins into their skin (then can infect humans via consumption)

Question 32

What foods does HACCP apply to?

Answer 32

Meat, poultry, and seafood (mandatory)

Eggs, raw sprouts, fresh juice (optional)

Question 33

What are electronic resources for foodborne illness?

Answer 33

The CDC’s PulseNet and FoodNet

Question 34

What are additives?

Answer 34

Food additives are substances added to food to maintain or improve its safety, freshness, taste, texture, or appearance.

Question 35

What are contaminants?

Answer 35

A food contaminant is a harmful chemical or microorganism present in food, which can cause illness to the consumer.

Common examples: dirt, hair, rodent feces, insect parts, hormones, antibiotics, pesticides

Question 36

What are the requirements for organic foods?

Answer 36

Meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy raised without antibiotics or growth hormones

Produce grown without pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, or sewage sludge

No genetically engineered products or radiation

Question 37

How have food additives helped public health?

Answer 37

Adding iodine to salt has severely reduced goiter

Vitamin D added to milk has severely reduced Ricket’s

Niacin (a B vitamin) added to Bread has severely reduced pellagra

Folic acid to flour and rice products has severely reduced birth defects

Question 38

Did the FDA eliminate Trans Fats?

Answer 38

In 2015, the FDA took the significant step of determining that PHOs, then the major source of artificial trans fat in the food supply, are no longer “Generally Recognized as Safe,” or GRAS. For the majority of uses of PHOs, June 18, 2018, was the date after which manufacturers could not add PHOs to foods. However, to allow for an orderly transition in the marketplace, FDA allowed more time for products to work their way through distribution by extending the final compliance date to January 1, 2021.

Question 39

What is the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act?

Answer 39

The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) amended the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) to create a new regulatory framework for dietary supplements. Under DSHEA, FDA does not have the authority to approve dietary supplements before they are marketed.

The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 was enacted to prohibit dietary supplement manufacturers and distributors from making false claims, such as “natural” and “therapeutic,” on supplement labels. The law also prohibits the manufacture and sale of adulterated dietary supplements.

Question 40

What is food irradiation?

Answer 40

Food irradiation (the application of ionizing radiation to food) is a technology that improves the safety and extends the shelf life of foods by reducing or eliminating microorganisms and insects.

Question 41

True or False? For the period 2002-2011, fruits and vegetables caused more cases of illness than beef, poultry, and seafood combined.

Answer 41

True

Question 42

Because of budgetary constraints, how often can the FDA inspect food-processing facilities under its jurisdiction?

Answer 42

every 10 years

Question 43

What virus is frequently transmitted by food handlers who are careless about hygiene?

Answer 43

Hepatitis A

Question 44

Because they grow in shallow coastal waters, which are likely to be polluted, which shellfish may carry cholera-related bacteria, hepatitis A virus, and norovirus?

Answer 44

Mussels, scallops, and oysters (most commonly reported because they are eaten raw)

Question 45

Describe this flow chart of environmental health hazards

Answer 45

Question 46

Describe the history of lead regulations

Answer 46

Question 47

Describe the occupational Hierarchy of Controls

Answer 47