Environmental Pollutants, Risk & Justice

• Week 8 topics include pollutants (water, e-waste, solid waste), risk assessment, risk communication and environmental justice.

Indigenous Affirmation

• The presentation includes an affirmation of respect for the Algonquin people, the traditional guardians of the land.
• It also acknowledges their long-standing relationship with the unceded territory.
• The affirmation extends respect to all Indigenous people in the region from various nations across Canada who call Ottawa home.
• Traditional knowledge keepers, both young and old, are acknowledged, and courageous leaders past, present, and future are honored.

Water Pollution

• Adequate water is essential for a healthy environment.
• Approximately 80% of industrial and municipal wastewater globally is discharged into the environment without treatment.
• This untreated discharge leads to adverse effects on both human health and ecosystems.
• Lack of proper sanitation and wastewater treatment in less developed countries exacerbates water pollution issues.

Sources of Water Pollution

• Water pollution is concentrated in industrialized and agricultural areas due to activities and lack of sewage facilities.
• Natural factors such as sedimentation and eutrophication can affect human health through the water.
• Climate change increases water temperatures, altering flow patterns and causing flooding.

Impacts of Water Pollution

• Water pollution can result in developmental delay and learning difficulties in children.
• Prenatal exposure to polluted water can cause preterm birth and low birth weight.
• Unsafe water contributes to the spread of communicable and gastrointestinal diseases.

Solid Waste

• Solid waste poses threats to health and diminishes environmental quality.
• Types of solid waste include food waste, packaging, and other materials like asbestos.
• The main route of exposure to toxins from solid waste is ingestion after toxins leach into the soil or water supply.

Microplastics

• Microplastics consist of plastic particles and fibers smaller in size.
• Plastics play a large role in society advancing food storage, automotive components, medicine and surgery.
• Plastic production increased from 270 million metric tons to almost 370 million metric tons between 2010 and 2020.
• The ingestion of tiny plastic particles and exposure to toxic chemicals in plastics are major concerns for human health.

Environmental Impact of Microplastics

• This has greatly increased threats to wildlife and environmental degradation.
• Microplastics affect aquatic life in marine environments and travel through the food chain.
• Inhalation of nanoplastics can cause lung disease.
• Microplastics contain stabilizers, flame retardants, pigments, plasticizers, and suspected carcinogens like PET and PVC.
• Bisphenol A (BPA) in plastics is an endocrine disruptor, mimicking the human endocrine system.

Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals EDCs

• EDCs disrupt the endocrine system by mimicking or interfering with hormones.
• Some EDCs may impact metabolic processes and have links to diabetes and obesity.
• Approximately, 800 chemicals are suspected of interfering with the endocrine system.

EDCs Exposure Routes and Effects

• Humans are exposed to EDCs through ingestion, inhalation, or skin contact.
• EDCs can transfer transplacentally or via breast milk.
• EDCs can increase the risk of some cancers and may impact fertility in males, breast cancer in females, and testicular cancer in males.
• BPA is being phased out due to endocrine-disrupting properties but remains controversial.
• CDC reports finding BPA in the urine of almost all people tested in the US in 2018.

E-Waste

• “E-waste” refers to high-tech computer products and other electrical equipment at the end of their useful life.
• It's also known as discarded electrical and electronic equipment (EEE)
• E-waste contains mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PCBs), and polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs)
• Heavy metals in landfills come from electronics.

Global Impact of E-Waste

• Global volumes of e-waste rise as lower-income countries begin to use more electronic goods.
• Few countries have well-established disposal systems due to limited understanding of the problem along with rapid technologies advancement.
• Recycling depletion risks for gallium, indium, and tantalum are high.
• Sending old equipment to poor countries raises questions of environmental justice.
• Children are particularly vulnerable to many of the components in e-waste because of unprotected exposure.

Risk Assessment

• Risk assessment is designed to assess health risks from contaminants.
• Risk management and risk communication deal with risk reduction and public communication of hazards.
• The major steps of a risk assessment are: hazard identification, exposure assessment and monitoring, does-response assessment, risk determination.

Hazard Identification

• This clarifies adverse health effects linked to a particular environmental agent of concern.
• Hazard identification includes: the type of hazards, type symptoms, hazard locations, those affected; adverse effects and any organ affected, and relative severity.

Exposure Assessment and Monitoring

• These assessments determine acceptable risk levels, and how much is spend to protect health,
• Collecting and assessing data regarding risk regulation has cultivated a field of inquiry in public health called risk analysis.
• Exposure assessments include hazardous materials, exposures in the workplace, and acceptable levels of contaminants in drinking water and food.

Complexities in Exposure Assessment

• Health effects result from many factors making it difficult to pinpoint the cause of specific disease and exposure.
• Analytical techniques can address these challenges to generate objective conclusions.
• Understanding the relationship between exposures and diseases relies on epidemiology research.

Use of Data in Exposure Studies

• Epidemiology relies on positivist and quantitative approaches for data gathering.
• Statistics determine the rules for quantitative data analysis.
• Exposure includes contact between a substance and an individual involving: contamination sources, environmental media, exposure point, receptor population, as well as routes of exposure.

Clinical Trials for Risk Assessment

• This is a rigorous scientific method that is also known as an experimental study.
• Subjects are randomly assigned to a treatment study or a control group.
• Effects are measured by carefully measuring and comparing health outcomes.

Limitations of Clinical Trials

• It is unethical to subject people to damaging exposure and clinical trials are unethical.
• Studies-observational are important since they take into account exposure to toxins that people are already exposed to in their everyday lives.

Observational Studies

• Observational studies assesses risk without researchers changing behavior of test subjects.
• Researchers could follow up with data. Multiple study methods exists.

Cohort Study

• Groups of people with suspected risk factors are compared to groups without exposures, ex. Drinkers vs non drinkers
• Outcomes of the study can take decades.
• Data may be able to be extracted from earlier medical records.
• Cohort is costly.

Case-Control Study

• A second type of observational study is a case-control study.
• Researchers assign study participants based on their already diagnosed status, and compare exposure history to look for systematic differences.
• These types of studies typically use small sample sizes than cohort studies, less costly for follow up.

Cross-Sectional Study

• These studies examine associations between the prevalence of a disease and an exposure among individuals in a particular point in time
• Main distinction from cohort or case control studies is they are chosen without regard for exposure or disease status
• These studies only support an association and report disease to relate to their exposure, or influence existing health patterns

Ecological Studies

• Studies use aggregated data for example, census tracts, or counties
• Studies Health outcomes are linked to populations aggregated by districts- Cancer rates and ambient air quality.
• Cheap and straightforward and uses existing studies.

Limitation of Ecological Studies

• Associations found at an aggregated level is assumed to also hold at the individual level.
• A study can show correlation between poor population but does not mean this is a relationship in other populations

Confounding Factors

• It occurs when a factor that is not being examined is associated with both the exposure and health outcome.
• For example a rocket fuel plant study shows lung cancer but only looked at plant exposure rather than smoking habits, so there is an untrue relationship between factory work and lung cancer

Solutions to Confounding Factors

• The following are all solutions to the problem: Matching, Restriction, Advanced statistical modelling and Randomization.

Dose-Response Assessment

• A dose-response relationship describes how likely and severe the responses are and conditions of exposure are related to amount
• Where an exposure is at agent concentration in inhalation exposure studies, the resulting information is called "Concentration-response"
• The term "Exposure-response" may be used to describe concentrations, or other exposure conditions

Measured Response in Clinical Trials

• Doses increase with the measured response with low dosage and begin to occur after some exposure in a small population
• Individual effects of pollutants differ from individual responses
• The agents of a dose also rely on subject, humans and animals.

Dose-Responses Calculations and concepts

• Adverse effect- how the type of a toxicity or response occurs
• Mode of Action - A sequence of key of key even and processes that starts and changes until results such as cancer formation is reached
• Data taken from human studies are use to determine what has no adverse effect
• Tolerable exposure and tolerable daily intake is measured to determine LOAEL or NOAEL.

Point of Departure for Toxicity Reference

• Threshold estimates are used to show what the POD extrapolating and showing reference dose
• The estimates should span perhaps a range of daily oral exposure and the population as well as any affectable groups that could be affected
• Rfd - Is a unit of measurement of milligrams per kilogram.

Risk Determination

• In risk determination, toxicity of substances and related effects are all measured
• All estimated exposures, and the dose-response relationship are also measured
• As all the uncertainties are measured in said equation

Risk Communication

• Risk encompasses all people and processes.

• People involved Parents, children, representatives, farmers etc.

• It should motivate risk communication in regards to flood and tornadoes

• Encourages building consensus and encouraging the building of consensus

• Risk Communication forms encompass:

• Can communication

• Consensus communication

• Crisis communication

• It is topically devisable:

• environmental

• safety

• health

Care Communication

• These are communications regarding well accepted risks.

• Think of local public health agencies and units

• Two subsets are : healthcare, and industrial risk communications

• Industrial hygiene, and worker notifications.

Consensus Communication

• Promotes an encouraged effort in getting people together in regards to how that risk can be managed.
• It promotes all who stake those risk factors to participate

Crisis Communication

• An accident at an industry plan

• Impending break in a dam

• Disease is rampant

• It's during and after event.

• How is it either care or consensus depends on if its dealt prior as well as involvement of the audience.

The Risk Communication Process

• Usually starts at a potential or actual danger to any hazard.
• Responsible organization are legally responsible for this, whether its providing and mitigating damage.
• For example Uottawa is providing this

Risk Management with Communication

• Begins with risk assessments such answering:
• "Who are what ecosystems will be harmed?"
• In which they require to all determine what can the harm be and what can people live with

Principles of Effective Risk Communication involve

• Stakeholder perception should be valued, or the organisation in charge of the crisis or related information
• Information should be provided and understood without manipulation.
• Balance all needs in order to assist all parties impacted.

2 Main Principles of Risk Communication

• That it is credible and trust worthy, an they are allowed to participate
• Policies and language is congruent for risk communication to succeed

General Notes on Setting Up Plan

Know the communication and it's limits and purpose. To which these limits may be defined by the following requirements :

• Regulatory, Organizational and Audience So violative these principles can increase hostility.

More Notes

• Pre test if possible especially if they have a good reading and literacy level if it can effectively be communicated to audience
• Should be early and thorough to allow involvement during a project
• They should be based decision and decisions to be valued is based on risk assessment of the technical aspects, so audience perception is key

Principles of Presenting

• Know Your Audience
• Use all Options of Methods for the people exposed
• Simplify content
• Use Objective thinking
• Be Clear!
• Consistently transmit all the information with your audience

Managing Uncertainty

• Be wary of presenting as a definitive as they must discuss the interpretation and methods being used to generate results.
• The sources of its uncertain vary between these levels.

Comparing Risk Factors

• Comparative helpful but as such are challenged
• Level of understand that the audience does see as easily to answer, so it should be appropriate

Principles to aid to follow:

Ranges

• -Comparative to Standard
• -Estimates used
• -Traits Compared
• -No varying outrage
• -Explain any changes if possible

Environmental Justice

• Literature says that the distribution is not equitable to toxins.

• Lower economic status people are more likely in high levels.

• Social aspects to exposures

• Who is at danger

• How can policies be more equal

• Do all demographics have say

Introduction to Environmental Health

• Reminder (Assignment):*
• Assignment 1 is due on Feb 14th
• Submissions within 3 days (weekends included) of the deadline will receive a zero (0%).
• After the 17th of February submissions will receive zero (0%).
• Midterm Reminder*
• Test will be lectures, group exercises, and reading resources in Weeks 1-8

Introduction to Environmental Health

• The environment include external influences to individual humans which divide into physical, or biological cultures that may influence all in regards to health status

WHO definition

• The WHO considers physical, biological, chemical, social, and psychosocial environments that can influence health with a goal to prevent and correct factors in order to control present and future generations

What Is It?

• Environmental has been assessable and controlling the factors that may affect all health
• Built in and that people love to work in live and play in

Environmental racism recognition

• Recognition that vulnerable groups are disproportionately affected by environmental toxins because of government policy and inaction is environmental racism.

What Happened in Grass Narrows, ON

• 1960’s about 10 tonnes was released to nearby river.
• In 1970 the GO of Ontario confirmed that there were levels of mercury in Dryden chemical plant
• In 1997 there was advisory for safe water
• It was found recently in a study that 90% suffer due to current sulfate admission

Why Is Grassy Narrows a question?

• How is it impactful to a certain group?

Environmental Health Hazards

• It may not be as disturbing as it should be and is always specially disturbed

Factors that exist

• The world has to address these key concerns :
• what it can be and how a proper exposure would change the environments

Defining Factors and Methods

• Agents of diseases, events, pathogens. Events and processes that the environment has to affect in order to allow a healthy lifestyle and environment in order to feel safe
• Place matters in a multitude to help disparities

Hazards can influence depending on where they need to be used :

• Can depend on indoor and outdoor Land setting broken (Glass Injection) depending on absorption ( Food or drink) such as food the environment has to affect in order to allow a healthy lifestyle and environment in order to feel safe

What problems is there in Canada in years to come?

Environmental Health Inequity

• Embedded for justice
• Burdens for various social classes.
• All communities will be harmed depending on location.

Dimensions of Geo Inequity

• Geo -*

• The refers to Spatial or distributors

• Procedural—*

• The influence with a development

• There are other sectors include capabilities and recognition

• Low socioeconomic is high but there are factors depending that does regardless

Perspectives on all concepts

• Discrimination and investments can affect low socioeconomic and cause a hazard/issue

Key events in time

• The events that is caused by what has since been sustainable has since change to an area
• These key summits is an understanding of the UN so there is a plan to protect the environment