The environment is a crucial factor in the health of each of us. If the environment is not healthy, there is no way we can truly call ourselves healthy. Persistent efforts and regulation over the last few decades have greatly reduced environmental pollution. Ib our rivers dont catch on fire anymore. Persistent efforts and regulation over the last few decades we dont have big, black plumes in most communities in america. We dont see slicks going down the great lakes. So people believe, because they dont see it, that, somehow, were in a better state now than we ever were before, and the truth is, that all weve done is cosmetic surgery. We have scraped off the surface and made that look pretty, but beneath it are the invisible chemicals that are getting into our food supply, our water supply and our air each and every day, and poisoning us. Not gross poisoning, but subtle poisoning, day after day after day. We are not exposed to individual toxicants in the environment. Were exposed to hundreds and thousands of chemicals in our food, air and water, many of these natural, many of them humanmade. So the question is, what happens when we have all of these added together, in varying amounts . Many of these chemicals are difficult to escape. They reside in the atmosphere that surrounds us. John peters for years, theres been a well known set of responses that people get when they breathe Southern Californiatype air pollution. Eye irritation, you know, irritation in the chest, cough, things of this sort but the real question that i think some of us have been interested in is what does this repeated kind of experience result in, as far as permanent, chronic damage to the lung, or anything else . Health officials suspect that air pollution may be a factor in diseases such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and lung cancer. It can also intensify the breathing difficulties people with asthma experience. John peters if you divide the population into asthmatics and nonasthmatics, theres a striking relationship within the asthmatics as to air pollution level, and frequency of cough and phlegm its twice as much in the more polluted communities than the less polluted communities. Nine years ago, the California AirResources Board initiated a study to determine the longterm effects of air pollution on health. Their subjects . 5,000 schoolaged children living in 12 Southern California communities, from atascadero to alpine. John peters we decided to look at children primarily because we can find them more easily. We can go to schools, and if theyre young enough, they dont smoke yet. They dont have hazardous occupations, so that there are some things about them that are amenable to study, maybe not the least of which is at least thought by some that the growing lung in a young person is more susceptible to the effects of air pollution as well. Plus the fact that children spend more Time Outdoors and they exercise more so that they would be breathing more of the ambient air and when theyre exercising, even more. Children in the study are periodically tested to determine if there are any longterm effects from air pollution. Researchers measure each childs Lung Development and function in relation to the air quality at home and in school, as well as the outside environment. So if we see an effect, well be trying to isolate whether its caused by particles in the air, or ozone in the air, or a combination of the two, or nitrogen dioxide, or some other pollutant. Thus far, three results seem clear. First, children who live in areas with high amounts of air pollution exhibit slower rates of lung growth. Second, children with asthma and other respiratory illnesses are affected more by the pollution than other children. And third, School Absences related to respiratory illnesses in the communities studied, are not linked to ozone pollution, as first thought. What weve seen so far makes it look like particles and no2 or nox are more important than ozone as far as the chronic effects. Health problems related to air quality tend to emerge over time. Illness related to contaminated water is much more direct. David bennett the diarrheal diseas are usually transmitted through contaminated food and water. So with poor sanation systems in the comnities, poor hygiene in the household, lack of running water, water that has to be stored and can be easily contaminated, lack of refrigeration for keeping foods these are all factors that contribute very heavily to the occurrence of diarrheal disease. For the past decade and a half, the Carter Center has led a Worldwide Campaign to eradicate two water related diseases river blindness caused by the bite of a blackfly which breeds in rivers and streams, and guinea worm disease. Donald hopkins this is a parasitic infection that people get when they drink contaminated water from open ponds. A year later, worms that are two or three feet long come out of their body. The threadlike worm emerges slowly through a painful blister in the skin. If the worm breaks during its exit from the body, it causes a severe infection. Donald hopkins people are incapacitated, usually temporarily, for periods averaging six to eight weeks. During that time, children cant go to school, farmers cant farm, parents cant take care of their young toddlers. Many victims immerse the affected area in water to soothe the burning pain. When the female worm touches the water, she releases tens of thousands of larvae that begin the cycle again. Although guinea worm disease cannot be cured once the larvae is ingested, the disease can be stopped if the oneyear life cycle is broken. Donald hopkins it can be prevented completely by teaching people not to go into water when they have worms coming out of their body, because thats how the infant worms get back into the water. Teach people to boil their water, if they can afford to do that. Teach them to filter their water through a finely woven cloth. Theres a chemical abate which you can put in the water that kills these parasites, but leaves the water safe for people to drink. It also doesnt kill fish or plants in the water. But the best way of preventing this infection is by helping people to get safe underground sources of water, such as from a borehole well. That improves it gets rid of guinea worm, but it also reduces the amount of diarrhea and other kinds of waterborne problems that people suffer. Water quality is often perceived as a local or regional issue, as is the case of the guinea worm. But the very fact that water circulates around the globe and through the soil, means that contamination in one area eventually spreads. Rebecca goldberg the ocean has historically been treated as so vast that we can do anything to it and it doesnt matter. Cities have pumped vast quantities of untreated sewage into the ocean. New york city has dumped garbage in the ocean. Ships have thrown their wastes overboard or discharged their sewage directly overboard without treatment. The beaches of Imperial Beach, california, a Seaside Community south of san diego, are closed during much of the year because high levels of pollution pose a danger to swimmers and surfers. Two miles to the south is the city of tijuana, mexico. Almost half of the homes and businesses in this rapidly growing urban area are not connected to a sewer system. Ababout half a mile short of that two miles is the mouth of the Tijuana River, where a million acre watershed pours water and unconnected sewage from homes that are unsewered in mexico down into the watershed, and thats out the mouth of the river where the sewage flows north or south, depending on ocean currents. The rapid growth of industry along the border has also created severe pollution problems. Most mexican factories do not treat their wastes before dumping them in the ocean. Carolyn powers you dont see toxics in the waters so the beauty that you see behind me is very deceptive in that you dont see the chloroforms, you dont see the lead, you dont see the arsenic, you dont see the toxins discharged from the maquiladoras in mexico that come down the Tijuana River untreated and actually pollute the Marine Mammal fisheries, and as well as the recreational users here in Imperial Beach. The unseen risks have resulted in very Real Health Problems for anyone venturing into these waters. Gary sirota i remember, i used to go into the ocean when i had a cut d id heal myself. And now when i go into the ocean i almost always have to come out peroxide my cuts to make sure that i dont get an infection. I cant even point to how many times that ive gotten gastroenteritis, diarrhea, nasal infections, ear infections in the last ten years from surfing the local coastal waters. The heavily populated city of san diego, a few miles north of Imperial Beach adds to the pollution problems. Kathy stone when it rains in urbanized areas such as san diego, were going to get a lot of runoff coming in from all the asphalt it comes into the ocean and thats going to be highly polluted with chemicals, fertilizers, high bacteria levels that can potentially make people sick. So what the county does is we advise the swimmers and surfers that please dont go in the water near lagoons, rivers, creeks and storm drain outlets. Marco gonzales i can go out three, four days after a storm, after theyve pulled down all the signs and coming in, get a gulp of water or something, and my throat starts burning almost immediately. You know, 24 hours later, im completely sick, laid up with the flu. It doesnt take a large stretch of the imagination to attribute that to the polluted water. Air pollution and contamination of the water supply, are not the only purveyors of toxic risk. For many people, especially in decades past, the most dangerous environment may be associated with a paycheck. The workplace. The women who were using their tongues to make the point on the brush to make the fine letters on the dials luminous and were, you know, getting a lot of radium into their body and winding up with cancer of the jawbones. And then, there are lots of stories of, you know, coke oven workers developing cancer, coalminers developing lung disease from inhaling coal dust and silica miners being exposed to silica and developing serious respiratory illnesses. At the hawks nest tunnel, built in the 1930s, mostly black miners who were driving the tunnels through in west virginia, they ran into a mountain of virtually pure silica and they contracted these diseases in days and weeks, because of the high intensity of their exposure to it. Fortunately, we dont have that kind of exposure now but we do have and continue to have silicosis as a problem among miners and among workers generally. Workers who are sandblasting tunnels or bridges, workers in Factory Settings that use abrasives to clean, elements to clean machinery, those frequently contain sand and silica and those workers then have exposure. Hello. My names richard, and im with the state osha program. And id like to see the person here with the highest authority, please. Today, it is the job of osha the Occupational Safety and health administration, to keep workers free from Health Hazards by regulating their exposure to different hazards. Jim, you have richard from osha in the front office. Please come to the front office. All of our inspections are really a surprise to the employer. We cannot give advance notice to any of the employers. My name is richard, im with the state osha program. And im here to do an inspection. Okay. Some inspections are prompted by a violation or complaint reported by an employee; others are routine. Ray barkley theyll explain why were out there, and then theyll ask to look at specific programs. Well, lets just start and walk around the shop. And then theyll start their walk around, which is the inspection. This is interesting. Tim, could you come here and . Yeah . This device shows whether an electrical circuit is grounded or not. And im showing no ground here, but i am showing that its grounded here. I dont understand what the problem is. So could you kind of peek in there and tell me, without sticking your fingers in it . Looks like the grounding wire is not hooked up to the face plate. So, theres no grounding wire on this particular plug, and thats a very dangerous situation. Again, that will result in a citation. Ray barkley our whole job here is to try and make the job safe or the place of employment safe. To avoid liabilities, industries with potential workplace hazards will often hire medical personnel and industrial hygienists to monitor Employee Health and safety. Teresa howe we fabricate a number of parts for the various launch vehicles here, so, employees could be exposed to a number of different chemical substances, fibers, vapors, gases, various liquids, corrosivetype materials. Tracy schile the goal of the industrial hygienist is to undertake preventive measures that keep our workers from being exposed to chemical, physical, and biological hazards. Okay, so the time i started you is 10 05. And then this is to get the shortterm exposure limit, so im gonna wave at u to get you to stop what youre doing. At 15 minutes, im gonna change out that cassette. Okay. Tracy schilf were looking for the results of what the fume exposure is gonna be for his welding process. Hes using a. Whats called the rod 410, a stainless steel rod, it has some chromium in it, so thats whats gonna be our biggest concern. Teresa howe engineering controls are the primary tactic that we would like to use in Occupational Health and safety to keep exposures away from the employees. Those are methods that we use, or perhaps devices that we use, to actually control the exposure at the point of generation, perhaps; isolate or separate the employee from the exposure; engineer the release of the hazardous material. For example, engineer that out of the process, so that we just dont have the exposures. For many reasons, howe considers personal protective equipment the least desirable line of defense. Howe we reallhate to have to rely on these devices. They can be, you know, they can fail. They can come from the manufacturer with holes in them. A glove with a. Maybe a small pinhole leak that the employee might not notice, and theyre relying on this for Chemical Protection to keep that material off of their skin. With respirators, for example, there can be breakthrough in the cartridges where the filter material becomes unable to filter out anymore of the solvent or dust or Something Like that, and the employee then can be exposed. Or the respirator might not fit properly on the persons face, again resulting in possible leakage and the contaminants getting in there. Oth hazards that we typically have in. Well, in a number of our production areas, is noise. Weve got machine shops, for example. We need to get these people in the hearing conservation program, make sure they have earplugs; make sure we check their hearing every year to ensure that theres no degradation of their hearing. The one place most people feel free of environmental hazards is their home, and yet its estimated that there are anywhere from 50 to 75,000 chemicals concealed in the products we commonly use and wear. The body interacts with these according to the way our biochemistry is programmed, according to nature. In general, i like to think about all of these other chemicals in three ways. They are either nutrients which our body can use for energy or for building tissue; they are inert, which means we dont use them at all and they just pass through; or theyre toxicants they have the ability to alter the biochemistry within our body. Good shot parents of toddlers and small children must be particularly careful about protecting young ones from toxic substances the cleaning compounds and plants, cosmetics and drug products familiar to most households. Michael bryant and so prevention begins to be the key, and looking for those, what i like to call, hidden dangers in your home that kids can get into, and trying to be proactive in terms of educating yourself and them about those dangers. And they exist in some of the most unlikely places. I mean, kids do things that we would never imagine that they would venture into, simply because of their curiosity. Other Health Hazards may be less obvious, as a number of families in this chicago nehborhood lened, when an enterprising Pest Control Service started using a chemical designed for agricultural use to destroy their household pests. Milton clark methylonsrganophatstide. It has been in use as an agricultural product for probably four decades, and its a chemical that has significant toxicity and also short life in the environment, which has made it a chemical of choice in agricultural use. The trouble was, mr. Brown, the unlicensed pest exterminator, did not use methyl parathion for agricultural purposes, as instructed. He used it inside peoples homes. The roaches was real, real bad in my house. Real bad. So he came and sprayed. When he sprayed, they stayed gone about a year. He w vernchautt. O ths pbl th thistf. Theres no worry about it. You just have to air it out, and itll dissipate. He w vernchautt. O ths pbl th thistf. Bradenning whents used indoors, you dont have the water or the bteri or the sunlight to break it down. It can stay inside a house for two to three years beforet breaks down, and that was the big problem here is this was all sprayed indoors. It was not breaking down, and it was still a threat to everybody that was living in these homes. An exposure to a chemical occurs when. Through one of the routes oral, respiratory, or dermal, we come in contact with a chemical in an environmental medium, such as air, water, soil. Whatever. The effects may be either local or systemic. Local efcts occur near the site ofure. Craigmill a systemic toxic effect can only occur if the chemical penetrates our skin. When parathion gets onto the skin, it is absorbed slowly into the bloodstream and causes an inhibition of an enzyme in our body. This inhibition causes widespread generalized toxicity, which results in headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and difficulty breathing. When we went into peoples homes, we found that there were often the pesticide product in fruit jars, in milk jars, in honey containers. And the products looks like milk, actually, when its diluted with water. Obviously, we had great concern a