Week 7 Flashcards
What is the precautionary principle in environmental health?
-Social responsibility to protect the public from exposure to harm when scientific investigation has found PLAUSIBLE RISK.
-The precautions can be relaxed only if further scientific findings emerge that provide sound evidence that no harm will result.
Role of modifiable environmental risk factors in health
-24% of all global deaths are linked to modifiable environmental risks
-Identify & evaluate environmental sources & hazardous agents
-Limiting exposures to hazardous physical, chemical, and biological agents in air, water, soil, food, & other things
Methods used to assess outdoor ozone levels?
air monitoring networks look at ozone and particulate matter in the air bc ozone exposure has been shown to trigger a reflex response in the lungs that alter breathing
if you have asthma, cannot breath deeply when the ozone is high
Health Hazard
Something that can potentially cause harm. (No harm unless exposed)
-Ex. Pesticides, chemicals in consumer products, radiation, flood waters
Health Risk
Being exposed to something that can potentially cause harm
Environmental Risk Assessment
- Identify and characterize the assessment
-Who is impacted by hazard?
-What type of hazard?
How is the hazard reaching humans?
-How does the hazard enter human body? - Identify and characterize the key stakeholders
- Formulate a problem statment
Nursing process & environmental health
- Assessment & Identification of risks
- Prioritization of needs
- Plan interventions to minimize risk
- Implement plan and teach risk reduction
- Evaluate
Strategies to improve environmental factors in our home
-Take off shoes at the door
-Keep house well ventilated
-Purchase organic, fresh, local produce
-Garden w/o pesticides
-Reduce red meat consumption
-Clean with baking soda/ vinegar
-Low VOC paints
-Eat smaller fish to decrease mercury consumption
-Reconsider personal care products
-Avoid smoking
-Avoid BPA
How to maintain or improve water supply
-Properly dispose of pharmaceuticals, household chemicals, oils, and paints
-Check for automobile and heating tank leaks (use cat litter to absorb)
-Clean up after pets
-Limit use of fertilizers or pesticides
-Watershed activities
Mitigation
Reducing the flow of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere
Adaptation
Learning to live with, adapt to, the climate change that has already been set in motion
Examples of mitigation & adaptation in responding to climate change
-Generate electricity from clean sources (solar, wind)
-Drive less (walk, bike, public transportation)
-Reduce beef consumption
-Recycle, reuse
-Use water efficiently
-Turn off lights, computers, TV
-Plant community gardens
-Plant trees
-Advocate
Methods of environmental surveillance
-Toxicology studies
-Epidemiologic studies
-Environmental monitoring
-Biological monitoring (ex. cotinine as a biomarker for ETS
-Product surveillance
What does DALY stand for?
Disability-Adjusted Life year
What does DALY measure?
Measure of overall disease burden, expressed as the cumulative years lost due to ill-health, disability, or early death
DALY= Years lived with disability + Years of life lost
5 S’s of strengthening health systems
Staff
Stuff
Space
Systems
Social support
Overarching health goals of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s)
17 SDGs r/t poverty reduction and measuring and improving
What are the three ways Alma-Atta is transforming primary health care?
- To assess and help address the social and structural INEQUALITIES
- To not only support EQUITY-ORIENTED primary care but also change the way we pay for it, so that community-centered equity is a core function, not only a after thought
- Transform our society by realigning the policies- centering health equity and community service
How to operationalize Alma Atta
Recommended primary health care to begin at the household level and serve a 50 square block community radius, as a central hub to coordinate care of that population
U.S. healthcare system does well compared to peer nations in:
-Cancer survival
-Heart attack & stroke survival
-Medicating those with long-term chronic conditions (diabetes)
-Research
The U.S. ___ more on health healthcare but has worse _____ than comparable countries.
spends; health outcomes
U.S. ranks ___ in life expectancy as birth
34th
Major Migrant/ Refugee Health challenges
-Lack of access to health care
-Risk of communicable diseases
-Interruption of care for chronic health problems
-Food insecurity
-Limited access to sexual or reproductive health services
Trauma before, during, and after migration
Prior- 80% are fleeing violence and 60% have witnessed death or serious injury
During- Dangerous conditions, physical/sexual assault, kidnapping, trafficking
After- Uncertainty, fear of deportation, chaotic living conditions, poverty, lack of social support network
How do we measure health at a population level?
Global burden of Disease (GBD)
What does the global burden of disease allow decision makers to do?
Compare the effects of different diseases, such as malaria vs Cancer, and then use that information to prioritize prevention, research and funding.
GBD research incorporates both the _______ of a given disease or risk factor and the _________ it causes
Prevalence; relative harm
Top 3 leading causes of death in High-income countries?
- Ischemic heart disease
- Alzheimers disease & other dementias
- Stroke
Four features distinguishing top performing countries
- They provide for universal coverage and remove cost barriers
- They invest in primary care systems to ensure high-value services are equitably available in all communities of people
- They reduce administrative burdens that divert time, efforts, adn spending from health improvement efforts
- They invest in social services, especially for children and working age adults
