Sunday, April 26, 2015
Is blogging an effective learning tool?
Throughout this class that is half a semester long we have done blogs every week to learn more about what has been being lectured in class. Sometimes, the blogs have been on topics that haven't been lectured much on, as well. So the question is, if blogging has been an effective learning tool this semester. I would say yes, blogging has definitely been an effective learning tool. How can blogging be effective to help you learn? Well, blogging has helped me learn things because I am doing the research myself. Each blog had to be at least 300 words long and have two sources used to find information about the subject. The fact that I am the one researching the topic, I find myself more engaged in the topic than I would be had I been sitting in a class being lectured on things and having to take a lot of notes. Blogging instead of having to take quizzes or exams is definitely better because you are learning about things not just for the quiz or test, but for your own knowledge about things. A lot of classes teach you for the test, and you easily forget the things you spent all semester studying and learning because of the way you learned the material. Looking the information up yourself makes you become in control of how you learn things, thus making you remember and learn more of the things you research. After we blog about something, usually the next class we would discuss what we have blogged about. You find yourself remembering a lot of the things you researched and are able to have a very good discussion about the topic, whereas in other classes you might not remember what you did last class necessarily and may need a refresher of the last lecture. I definitely think blogging is a great and effective way to make you learn more about things, because you are in control of what you learn and how you do it. You can research anything, what videos, etc. and because you are the one doing it and not being lectured about it, you learn more. That is how blogging is an effective learning tool.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Ohio EPA Nonhazardous Waste
Have you ever wanted to know something about materials and waste management, but have not a single clue as to how you go about finding information about it besides just using Google? Well, there is a very helpful website called http://www.epa.state.oh.us/ . This blog will provide helpful information about how to navigate through this site and find the information you're searching for about materials and waste management. First of all, go to the web site above. Then, you are going to see a lot of tabs on the screen. Go to the tab titled "divisions and offices" and in that tab you will want to click on "materials and waste management". On he bottom of the page there will be more tabs, go to the tab "programs" and click on nonhazardous waste. This will bring down a menu of topics that can be researched on this site. Lets just choose recycling for an example. When you click on recycling, you are brought to a new page all about recycling. You can easily browse through information about recycling on his page such as the basics of recycling, where to recycle, and quick facts about recycling. There is also information here about what types of products you can buy that can be recycled and where you can buy these certain things. There is also a tab about how to generate the least amount of waste possible because that is the best thing you can do for the environment. There is also a lot of information about the most frequent things you should recycle, including aluminum cans, and lass bottles and jars. Along the side of this page is list after list of other tabs about recycling, like litter prevention and battery recyclers. This page has so much information, and its only about recycling! the list of things you can research is pretty lengthy so there is a lot of information in this site and it is easy to use! So I hope this blog was helpful in providing some useful information about how to navigate this site when wanting to research materials and waste management.
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Air Contamination information
Have you ever been curious about the air contamination in your area? Well, lucky for you there is a very good resource that you can use to find out a lot of things about the health hazards or environmental hazards in your area when you go on the EPA website. This is the Environmental Protection Agency website and they usually have pages that can narrow your search down to the state in which you are from and look at specialized studies for things like air pollution in that state. So for example, if we waned to look up the air contamination in Ohio, I would type in EPA Ohio and Ohio has its very own EPA website full of information about the environment in Ohio. Next, you will go to the top of the screen and see a tab that says divisions and offices. Under this tab, there are many links, but we want the one titled air pollution control. Once here a new screen will appear. There will be a small screen with a lot of different data and studies scrolling across. Click on any one of these links and you will be brought to a new page with a lot of detailed information. Lets use for example the one titled air quality data. When you click this, a picture of Ohio will come up with an interactive page where you can click any area in Ohio and it will tell you the quality of air in that area. It is very simple and easy to use and is a great way to get information you want, fast and easy! The website is called http://www.epa.state.oh.us/ . This website is a very good resource for getting information that you want. I hope this blog was helpful in giving you some information about how to learn a little bit more by using this very helpful and easy website.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Safe Food Temperatures
It may seem like something small and meaningless, but knowing how to properly cook your food at the correct temperatures, or keeping your food refrigerated at the correct temperatures, is so important to know. Failure to understand the correct temperatures to cook your food, and to refrigerate your food can lead to very serious health problems. What are some of these health problems you might ask? Well, according to the site http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/signs-symptoms-eating-undercooked-chicken-5300.html , consuming undercooked or raw chicken increases your risk of getting salmonella, a bacteria, which may cause headaches, diarrhea, chills, vomiting, fatigue, to name a few symptoms. Another food born illness you may get is E. Coli bacteria. E. Coli are already inside us, but there are different strains of E. Coli. The bad kind are the kind you get from undercooking food. So, you know that there are some serious health concerns if you do not cook your food at the proper temperatures. But what are these temperatures? Well, according to the site http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/mintemp.html , you can get all of your food temperatures you need. Also on this site, which many people may not know about, is the resting time for your food after you cook it. What is this resting time exactly? well, food continues to warm or "cook" after you take it off the grill or out of the oven. This site gives the resting time needed for foods as well. Some examples of the cooking temps and resting times on this site are: for fish? - 145 degrees F with no resting time. For beef? - 160 degrees F with no waiting time, but for steaks and chops it is 145 degrees F with a resting time of 3 minutes. For pork and ham? - 145 degrees F with a resting time of 3 minutes. I hope this blog was helpful in providing why it is important to know the correct temperatures to cook food at and also in giving the temps for specific foods.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Water Contamination Information
This weeks blog is going to describe how to navigate through a web site to find information about certain water contamination facts. We will start at the site http://www.odh.ohio.gov/ , and once here, we will click on the W listed in the A-Z index. Then, we will click on water quality, where a list of contaminants in the water will come up. Let's choose one, say selenium. So, we will click on selenium on the site http://www.odh.ohio.gov/odhprograms/eh/water/PrivateWaterSystems/quality.aspx , to obtain further information about selenium contaminating water. Once you click on selenium, you are redirected to another site. This site is http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/selenium.cfm , and there is a lot of information on the page. There are paragraphs with bold questions titling each paragraph about what each individual paragraph is going to be about. Examples are, what is selenium, uses for selenium, EPA regulations for selenium in drinking water, and selenium health effects. So, what is selenium? Well according to that site, it is a metal that can be found in natural deposits. An example of a natural deposit would be an ore. On this page you can also find other EPA levels and regulations on drinking water as well as how selenium can get into drinking water. Basic facts about drinking water can also be found on different tabs and links all through out this page, and there is also a tab towards the right of the screen that contains the maximum contamination level of selenium and the maximum contamination goal level of selenium. Again, we are just using selenium as an example, there is a whole list of contaminants that can be researched and studied that will also have these sort of facts on this site as well. I hope this blog was helpful in providing information about how to navigate this site to obtain the desired information about drinking water.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Fukushima Today
In March of 2011, there was a nuclear accident in Fukushima Diiachi power plant in Japan. So what is the clean up looking like? Well, according to http://fukushimaupdate.com/after-4-years-fukushima-nuclear-cleanup-remains-daunting-and-vast/ , which was posted on March 15, 2015, the area of the accident is completely deserted. Approximately 300,000 people had to be evacuated from all the nearby areas, due to the size of the accident. There are also flags everywhere describing that there is decontamination occurring all around. There are a total of 105 cities, towns and villages affected by the accident at Fukushima that are being decontaminated and searched due to the accident. The radiation of the accident still poses a major threat. According to the site http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/03/12/3-ways-the-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-is-still-having-an-impact-today/ , underground water is still contaminated by the radiation from the accident, as well as many agricultural products in the area and also the nearby land. As for the condition of the plant itself? Well, there is a lot of work that still needs to be done. The operator of the plant is TEPCO, and according to http://rt.com/news/234547-fukushima-new-leak-nuclear/ , on February 22, 2015 TEPCO announced that the plant had a radioactive water leak when readings were read at 70 times more than what the readings were normally at. So, what is it like at the Fukushima plant today? Well, there is a lot of work that needs to be done, both at the plant itself but also at all of the surrounding cities, towns and villages. A lot of study needs to be done at a lot of different locations that were effected by the accident because the levels of radiation need to be known because a lot of places aren't safe to be in. The plant is still, four years later, experiencing leaks of radiation that are being looked at as well, but that is a good example of displaying the condition the plant is in today. A lot of work still has to be done because of this accident and the radiation is still present from the accident.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Glyphosate in Food
So the title of this blog is Glyphosate in food, but first, what even is glyphosate? Well, according to http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/glyphogen.html glyphosate is a herbicide, and "It is applied to the leaves of plants to kill both broadleaf plants and grasses." With this being said, it is no mystery that with glyphosate being sprayed on vegetation that it gets on/in our food. So, is glyphosate in our food safe? There are many sides to this question, both arguing that glyphosate is dangerous and we should be concerned about our health, and the other arguing that glyphosate is safe and we shouldn't be concerned about it. According to the site http://www.biofortified.org/2013/10/glyphosate-toxic/ glyphosate is safe for humans when used correctly. Here you can learn how the EPA has a safe level requirement of pesticides on plants, known as tolerances, and that there are checks consistently by the USDA to make sure that these levels are being met so that people are safe from the pesticides and if there is a problem somewhere, the FDA can recall food from a certain area and makes decisions based on the data. Others can argue that although there are tolerances being made on the pesticide, it is still toxic and dangerous to our health. Whether you want to believe it or not, glyphosate is in our food. According to the site http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/05/20/glyphosate-roundup-levels.aspx you are exposed to glyphosate when you eat meat that is from an animal that was eating soy, which contains high levels of glyphosate. Also, according to this article (published in 2014), the EPA raised the level of glyphosate considered to be ok anywhere between 15-25 times the amount in specific foods in 2013 due to the fact more pesticides are being used. If there needs to be a "safe level" requirement, it is obviously not good for our health and that is why there are tolerance levels needed to be done. I hope after reading this blog that you have a little more understanding of what exactly glyphosate is, and are aware that it is in the food we consume every day.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Environmental Sustainability
Environmental sustainability is involved with preserving the environment and making sure that nature is protected. Environmental sustainability is specifically interested in businesses and the effects they have or can have on the environment. The idea here is to teach businesses about the long term effects they can positively have for the environment and nature, instead of negative ones. On the website http://toolkit.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au/part/17/86/371 , there is a short list of ways that businesses are causing damage to the environment. A few listed include pollution through burning fossil fuels, and damaging woods and rain forests by logging. Businesses might be a little skeptical at this idea, however, because everything is about making money and the idea may not appear to be very thrifty. However, according to the website http://toolkit.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au/part/17/86/372 , having the environment in mind with your business may actually be beneficial to businesses. One of the benefits is about being more energy efficient and in the long run, save the business a lot of money. Another benefit that acting towards environmental sustainability is beneficial to businesses is that a business is going to have an advantage over other businesses while talking to partners, investors and customers if their business is thinking about the environment. People are going to keep those ideas in mind when comparing business to business. These are just a few ways described on this web site. According to the website http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=501027 , there are 4 research areas within environmental sustainability. These four things are industrial ecology, green engineering, ecological engineering and earth systems engineering. These four areas of research are concerned about people's well-being and environmental issues. So, what is environmental sustainability? quite simply, it is the study and idea of making the environment safe/safer and thinking about the long term effects individuals and businesses can have on it, and what can be done long term in a positive way instead of in a negative way. I hope this blog helped describe what environmental sustainability is, as well as provide some useful information as to how it is being done.
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Noise Induced Hearing Loss
What is noise induced hearing loss? Well, it can be described as the permanent impairment to hearing over time after being exposed to loud noises. Everyday there are noises around us that do not damage our hearing because they are at a safe level. However, exposure to higher levels for long, or possibly even short amounts of time can be very detrimental to ones hearing. Things that are everyday noises that are at safe levels to our hearing are things like house hold appliances use to clean or cook, music (at a moderate volume), traffic noises like cars driving down the street, and also sounds from the television. Obviously some of these things can be harmful to ones hearing at high levels, but there are many things that are automatically harmful to ones hearing and that can cause noise induced hearing loss quickly. Some if these things include loud concerts, hearing an explosion, shooting targets and hunting, listening to music through headphones at high volumes, and using lawn equipment like leaf blowers and lawn mowers. You can get some data on decibel levels on the website http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/pages/noise.aspx and also on this website you can see what decibel levels are safer levels than others. Also, if you want to learn more about the ear, this website has a diagram of the ear and I have also posted a picture of the ear on my blog. How can noise induced hearing loss, or NIHL, be prevented? There are many things you can do, according to the website http://american-hearing.org/disorders/noise-induced-hearing-loss/#whatis . Obviously the number one thing, try and avoid loud noises. Other things include wearing hearing protection like earplugs and earmuffs to lower the sound intensity. I hope this blog was helpful in describing what noise induced hearing loss is and what can cause it and also how it can be prevented.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
National Environmental Public Health Tracking
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have a very helpful website that allows people to explore many things concerning health. This website is http://ephtracking.cdc.gov/showHome.action . Once at the home page of this site, there are a few tabs, these tabs titled Environments, Health Effects, and Population Health. Each one of these tabs has a few bullet points describing the kind of information that can be found inside that specific tab. So, lets just say you click on Environments. Once you click this tab, there are many more tabs with more specific topics. So lets say you click on climate change because you want to learn more about it. Lets just say you have never really gotten a complete understanding of what climate change actually is? Well, no worries. There is a detailed description at the very top of the page there to assist you. Now, you have some sort of background about what climate change is, right? So now it peeks your interest a little more, and you decide to research further about climate change. You decide to study climate change in your region, but how do you do that? One of the tabs within the climate change tab is actually available for you to type in anywhere you want to research the climate and/or climate change. You simply click on the tab titled Search Data and go from there, its that simple! You can type in the places you want to research and the data is available to you. Also, while surfing this website for climate change, there are links all over the page related to the topic with which you are browsing. So, on the climate change page, there are quick links about climate change and your health, as well as extreme heat. Lower down the page you will also find topics that are being discussed a lot, such as carbon monoxide poisoning prevention. So once you get on this site, you will find yourself just browsing the web for more information because it is everywhere. No matter where you are on this site, there is a link that allows you to search for health information by location. Another thing that's useful on this site is the tracking index at the top of the page. You can type in or search health information a lot easier this way. Basically, this website is very useful in providing people with health information. I hope this article was helpful in describing just how useful this site can be when researching health information.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Poison Control Centers
What are Poison control centers? Well, its not too difficult to figure out that these centers help people with poisons. But what does that actually entail? Well, the poison control centers have a hot line, which is 1-800-222-1222. This hot line is a universal hot line to all of the centers around the country, which can all be found at http://www.aapcc.org/about/united-states-poison-centers/ or on the map I will post on my blog. There are 55 poison control centers across the country and they can all be located on this map. So what does this hot line do? Well, this hot line is available 24/7, and is able to answer all sorts of questions and provide information about poisonings. According to the site http://www.answers4families.org/information-services/volunteer/news-articles/what-does-poison-control-do , things that the hot line can answer for people include questions concerning reactions to any kind of food and/or medication, concerns about mixing certain drugs, questions about food that has been recalled lately, questions concerning the identity of medication, concerns about the health of family, friends or yourself, and much more. So what do the poison control centers do? Hopefully after reading the above information you have a better understanding of what they do. They are centers available to people to contact when they are concerned about poison, and the hot line above will connect you to the center in your local area. Ohio is actually one state which contains two poison control centers. One being located in Columbus, the other being located in Cincinnati. According to http://poisonhelp.hrsa.gov/poison-centers/ , the center in Columbus is the Central Ohio Poison Center and the center in Cincinnati is the Cincinnati Drug and Poison Information Center. A definition of what a poison control center does can be found at http://poisonhelp.hrsa.gov/poison-centers/about-poison-centers/index.html. It states "Poison centers provide educational services to prevent poisonings, as well as help during poison emergencies to people who need it." However, if you are looking for more details about poison control centers, I hope there was some information in this blog that was helpful in giving a little more specifics to what these centers actually do.
Monday, January 19, 2015
What is Environmental Health?
A simple way anyone would most likely "define" environmental health would most likely sound like the way the environment affects your health. This is very true, but also a very broad definition. This phrase doesn't give somebody a very good understanding of what exactly Environmental health is. According to the World Health Organization, Environmental Health "addresses all the physical, chemical, and biological factors external to a person, and all the related factors impacting behaviors. It encompasses the assessment and control of those environmental factors that can potentially affect health. It is targeted towards preventing disease and creating health-supportive environments. This definition excludes behavior not related to environment, as well as behavior related to the social and cultural environment, and genetics." (http://www.who.int/topics/environmental_health/en/) This definition gives the reader a much better understanding about environmental health because it gives specific ways in which environmental health is more than just a phrase talking about how the environment affects your health. There are a lot of other factors involved, like studying to make a certain environment healthier for people, studying what specifically makes an area safe and/or unsafe to live in, etc. When you type in on google what environmental health is, there are so many different things to look at to help explain what it actually is. There are hundreds of links to help describe this for a reader, which is a good example of how complex environmental health really is. There are so many areas of environmental health and what most people don't probably realize is that the environment part of environmental health doesn't necessarily mean "outside". An environment can be an office building, classroom, hospital, or a factory producing large automobiles. In this factory, there are a lot of health hazards possible. For example, cars are being painted, and those fumes while the painting process is being completed can be harmful to ones health. So there needs to be study done on this painting to figure out how to contain it and to do whatever it takes to not be harmful to the people working in the factory. This is just one example of environmental health to show people that it doesn't necessarily need to be talking about outdoors. There are many organizations dedicated to environmental health and keeping people safe, both indoors and out. One example would be the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "CDC's National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) plans, directs, and coordinates a national program to maintain and improve the health of the American people by promoting a healthy environment and by preventing premature death and avoidable illness and disability caused by non-infectious, non-occupational environmental and related factors." (http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/) This organization is completely dedicated to making sure the environment is safe for people to be in, and is a good example of how people actually help the environment and make it safe for people. I hope this was a little more helpful in explaining what exactly environmental health is. Yes, it is the way the environment affects your health, but there are also large organizations studying to make sure water is safe to drink, that the companies working big business are safe places to work, etc. There is a lot of stuff going on about environmental health, I hope this helped.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)