Nurses Concerned About Removal of Key Children’s Health Advocate at EPA

At the end of September, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with no explanation, placed the director of the Office of Children’s Health Protection (OCHP), Dr. Ruth Etzel, on administrative leave. This sidelining of a vocal children’s health advocate as the office was heading into October, Children’s Environmental Health Month, was concerning for all who work in children’s environmental health.

The OCHP’s essential role.

The OCHP was created under an executive order in 1997 as public consciousness was increasing about the special vulnerabilities of children to environmental hazards. It is housed in the Office of the Administrator so as to be able to provide guidance to EPA leadership and ensure that children’s health protection is prioritized throughout the agency’s activities. This is essential because, as many have observed, children are not simply miniature adults—what they eat, drink, and breathe can profoundly affect their physical and mental development, while their hand-to-mouth and on-the-floor activities put them at greater risk for exposures from environmental hazards.

The office provides essential resources for health professionals and the public on environmental health issues such as environmental triggers of asthma and how parents can reduce exposures, reducing exposures to lead, and air quality in schools. The OCHP-produced report, America’s Children […]

Earth Day 2018: Making the Connection Between Environmental and Human Health

Trafalgar Square during the Great London Smog of 1952. Photo © TopFoto / The Image Works.

This Sunday is Earth Day, an annual event started by a bipartisan group of citizens and congressional representatives in 1970 to highlight the need for a healthier environment and the importance of legislative protections.

Along the mighty Hudson—beautiful, but still contaminated

Growing up just north of New York City, along one of the most beautiful but contaminated sections of the Hudson River, I’ve seen up close the effects of industrial pollution before environmental protections were put in place. In addition to producing electrical wire, cables, munitions, and other products, the factories that lined my town’s waterfront for much of the 20th century were also responsible for extensively contaminating the surrounding area with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and petroleum hydrocarbons.

For many decades, the environmental damage caused by such industry was accepted as the price of progress. Raw sewage and oil slicks in the waters of the Hudson were not unusual sights, and relatives tell stories of a popular spot along the river, from which swimmers in the 1960s would emerge covered in the dye produced—and dumped—by a nearby riverfront […]

Chemical Exposure: A Preventable Cause of Harm to Children’s Health

“Children are often exposed to. . . contaminants through their behavior—when they crawl on the floor or explore their environment by touching and tasting objects indiscriminately. In addition, because they are young, there is the potential for environmental exposures to negatively impact their health for a long time.”

Photo © Associated Press

Chemicals are ubiquitous

In “Project TENDR,” an article in this month’s issue of AJN, author Laura Anderko, PhD, RN, a professor at the Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies, discusses why children are particularly susceptible to environmental exposures to chemicals.

Aside from children’s vulnerability to chemical exposures as still developing individuals, Anderko observes that chemicals are also especially hazardous to children simply because they are everywhere: “ . . . in health care supplies and equipment, the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the cosmetics and personal products (such as shampoos, baby bottles, toys, and thousands of other consumer products) we use.”

Developmental harms of children’s exposure to chemicals

Anderko summarizes the concerns raised by a growing body of evidence linking environmental exposures and pediatric health outcomes:

“ . . . widespread exposure to toxic chemicals can increase the risk […]

Earth Day 2017: An Important Role for Nurses

By Barbara Polivka, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor and Shirley B. Powers Endowed Chair in Nursing Research, University of Louisville, Kentucky

“… the symptoms or the sufferings generally considered to be inevitable and incident to the disease are very often not symptoms of the disease at all, but of something quite different—of the want of fresh air, or of light, or of warmth, or of quiet, or of cleanliness…”  -Florence Nightingale, Notes on Nursing: What it is and What it is Not (1859).

 

crocus shoots, early spring / Wikimedia Commons

As we celebrate the 46th Earth Day, it’s good to look back.

  • Earth Day was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in on April 22nd, 1970.
  • The first Earth Day celebration helped spur the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air Act.
  • Earth Day became an international celebration in 1971 when the UN Secretary General talked about it at a Peace Bell Ceremony in New York City.

A time to think about how we affect the environment and are affected by the environment.

Health Care Without Harm (https://noharm.org/) is an international organization promoting environmental health and justice. If you aren’t familiar with Health Care Without Harm I urge you to go to their website to see how health care organizations are decreasing their environmental impact. Health care facilities are:

Fish Safety Concerns: Navigating the Waters

Considering the conflicting advice on eating fish that has appeared in the media over the past few years, the public is undoubtedly confused. Nurses and other health care professionals will likely find themselves having to address this issue, especially with pregnant and nursing patients and parents of young children, all of whom are likely to be concerned.

–(from “To Eat Fish or Not to Eat Fish” in the February issue of AJN)

Photo by Emilio Ereza/ag e fotostock Photo by Emilio Ereza/ag e fotostock

I’ve been hearing about the unexplained illness of a good friend’s close colleague for a number of months. Dozens of costly and invasive tests have been performed to explain her malaise, headache, chronic stomach and digestion problems, fatigue, dizziness, and so on. Recently, a potential culprit was identified: mercury poisoning. I don’t know all the facts, but her mercury poisoning may well have something to do with the fact that she eats sushi at least once a week, and perhaps a lot of other mercury-containing fish as well.

What does this have to do with nursing? Maybe a lot, in terms of providing sound nutritional advice to patients who might be at particular risk for mercury poisoning, or in terms […]

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