occupationally-related disease

-
Black Lung - 

 A public health campaign to prevent black lung among coal miners was developed by the United States Department of Labor, their slogan is "control the dust, prevent black lung". The reason for this slogan is because inhalation of excessive levels of respirable coal mine dust causes black lung. This is obviously a debilitating occupational lung disease, which can devastate a miner's quality of life, create a heavy burden on the victim and his or her family, and lead to premature death. Also black lung disease is preventable disease so this campaign can make a very big difference. 

 In terms of the prevalence of black lung, the CDC states that "One in ten underground coal miners who have worked in mines for at least 25 years were identified as having black lung, according to a new report by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) published in the American Journal of Public Health. Coal miners in central Appalachia are disproportionately affected with as many as 1 in 5 having evidence of black lung–the highest level recorded in 25 years"

 As you can see the burden of this disease is still very high even though black lung can be preventable. I feel this can make an even more compelling case to switch towards renewable energy.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 2, 2018 at 3:21 PM

    Hi Caitlin,

    That is a good point you bring up about another good reason to switch to from sources like coal to renewable energy. I also did the blog on black lung disease and thought it was something of the past, but it is still so common!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 6, 2018 at 9:59 AM

    Hi Caitlin,

    What a great suggestions about switching to renewable energy. Its interesting because I would have continue to think about finding ways to reduce black lung among miner through improving hours and working condition of the miner. When in reality, like you suggest, we can have another solution altogether that will reduce mining in itself.

    I was at the Natural History of Museum in DC recently and there was an exhibit for gems and a section in it for mining. I was shocked by the condition in which the miners worked in! and this was just an exhibit. I can't imagine actual mining and all the health risks the miners had to put themselves in

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Agency's Role

-
United States Department of Energy: The Department of Energy is a federal branch of the government whose goal main responsibility is energy. The majority of the energy the focus on is nuclear energy. They are in charge of all policies regarding nuclear material, handling of nuclear material, our nuclear weapons program and radioactive waste disposal.   Obviously, this type of department will have a huge impact on the environment. They can dictate how we consume energy and what we do with left over nuclear material. If nuclear material is not disposed of in a thoughtful manner, the radioactive material could seep into places like our ground water and cause death or radiation sickness. Also, if we are not mindful to the testing or use of nuclear material we could have something like Chernobyl happen. I believe radioactive material can be some of the most detrimental material. We need to take every precaution in handling it so we can adhere ...
Read more

occupational safety and health organization

-
I went to the CAL/OSHA website and looked up some of their safety programs. One of the safety programs that stuck out to me was directed at safety in the adult films industry. The program mostly discussed the potentially sexually transmitted infections that the actors or actresses could acquire and the best way to prevent them. I thought this program was extremely interesting because I did not expect a government run group to have safety programs for this industry. However, I think that it is a great service that they did and these workers can have free access to this resource.  This obviously relates to health and safety because they talk about prevention of diseases, hygiene, vaccinations and p roph y laxis. This all falls under the umbrella of health and how these workers can be more safe. 
Read more

Lab Results

-
Image
If a doctor where to give me these results I would feel very frightened. I would be scared for my health and wellbeing and I would question the repercussions from having these chemicals in my body. I would also feel slightly betrayed by the fact there are not efficient laws in place to protect me from these chemicals. Also, I would worry about my family and friends and if they are exposed to potentially dangerous chemicals. I would want them to get tested and to also be more mindful in their actions.  I would also wonder how it is possible that chemicals like DDT and PCBs (that were outlawed in the 1970's) were found in my blood stream. It makes you think back to all the times you knew you were ingesting bad chemicals and all the times that you didn't know that you were ingesting bad chemicals. I would also wonder about other chemicals that could be in my body that are not deemed dangerous yet. Companies do not have to prove a new chemical is safe so the...
Read more