Environmental Health

So I'm taking an environmental health course and two weeks ago we were discussing the carrying capacity of the planet, including some of the side effects of the environmental strain that we are inflicting due to our population increase. So there I was in one of the most "green" cities in the nation and surrounded by about fifty future public health workers, with at least half my classmates not caring about carrying capacity. Their argument was that we, as a human race, have always been capable of adapting and we will adapt to meet our needs with any future events. Issues such as using biotechnology to manufacture food, and many other technological "helps," were offered as potential ideas to counteract the negative side effects of too many individuals and too little resources on our planet. Now, I'm sorry, but the idea of eating food developed through biotechnology just makes me want to go hungry—which might truly be my only option anyway if we do reach carrying capacity in my lifetime.

A major catch phrase of the public health field is that of "prevention" and so I couldn't help comment to my fellow classmates that we should be about prevention on all levels (including environmental health) rather than treatment orientated in one particular field of public health. If we're going to say that we're about prevention then we need to mean it across the entirety of health care. Because truly what one element interacts with our health the most? Why yes, that of environmental health! How can we be healthy without clean air, clean water, land that is able to produce food, food without contaminants, without a habitat that allows for our body to function as it should?

Another major issue that always comes up in grad school is that of ethical research practices. A key component of that is not engaging in experiments that you know may be detrimental to the health of your subjects. However I can't help but continue to think that really that's what we all are doing in our everyday life. We are involved in one major experiment from our governments, from our corporations, from our technology, and from our products…and we have no way of knowing truly how everything we interact with on a daily basis is impacting our health. Consumers are not even aware of half of what they are consuming because even the people that are making items are not always sure of the impacts those products will have. We have so many chemicals in so many items and we are not always told or generally are not aware. Every year thousands of new chemicals are developed for use, yet the research can't (and especially not time tested research) keep pace with their implementation. (Side note here: some cancers take 40 years to develop after a single exposure to some chemicals.) Did you know you have potential hazardous chemicals in your beauty products, your food, your furniture, your bedding, and the list goes on. So how ethical is it that we all are involved in a major experiment without signing up for it? Birth seems to equal participation. Scary thought……