By: Pete Baril, Western Upper Peninsula Health Department, Hancock, MI

In this post I will try to speak directly to those working in the emergency management field.  I feel vaguely qualified to do this as I work in the field of public health preparedness and I understand the daunting task of planning for emergencies.  In spite of my current position, my professional “roots” are deeply set in environmental health, and I feel compelled at every opportunity to extol the virtues of the sanitarian. Yes, you have a local sanitarian; you can typically find them working for your city or county health department. Look them up, make an appointment (they are very busy), introduce yourself, and see what they can do for you.  I would be willing to bet it’s more than you thought.  Perhaps your concerned about shelter or food service sanitation, debris management, vector control, etc. How about solid waste, wastewater, drinking water? I could go on and on, but I recommend making the connection and getting the gritty details on your own.  Sanitarians or Environmental Health Specialists as they are often called, have a diverse, and oftentimes unique skill set in your community.  They are well versed in dealing with the general public, business owners, and high stress situations.  In addition to their education, experience, and ability to work with people, they also bring another less obvious asset to your planning and response system… they know your community inside and out.

A trip to your typical environmental health office can arm you with an abundance of information.  Drainage issues, soil composition, surface water quality, areas of groundwater contamination, details pertaining to food service operations, daycare centers, schools, churches, fairgrounds, port-o-potty companies, waste haulers and much more. These folks keep a watchful eye over a variety of items in your community, and because of this, they develop a local knowledge base that no “office dweller” could ever hope to amass.  This source of local knowledge should not go untapped.  The task of planning and response coordination is difficult enough, do yourself a favor, and pull environmental health into your process BEFORE you find yourself knee deep in something only a sanitarian can identify.

In April of 2011, the American Public Health Association released the guidebook “Climate Change: Mastering the Public Health Role.” This guide presents the basic science behind climate change, provides an outlook on the impacts on health, and gives perspectives in state and local public health preparedness planning in light of a changing environment. It is a practical and data-driven resource that is certainly recommended for practitioners in environmental health and public health preparedness. Today, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences released a statement in which it outlined it’s support for several research projects regarding the effects on human health due to climate change. Many of these studies are population driven, looking at which specific populations may be the most vulnerable to the changes our planet has gone through and will continue to go through in coming years.

It is important to recognize that studies such as these (looking at effects of air quality, extreme heat scenarios, and effects on vulnerable populations) will provide the data needed for public health professionals to make informed decisions regarding education of the public, planning for emergencies, and how to mitigate negative health effects from the environment. Whether we recognize it or not, the effects of climate change represent a paradigm shift in the way we approach public health preparedness and environmental health. The scenarios that data from these studies yield could lead to new ways to create preparedness plans, new techniques in informing the public of threats, and the forging of new community partnerships never envisioned before by public health professionals. The vulnerable populations could become even more vulnerable. The threat to our urban and coastal areas may become even more heightened than it is today.

While we await the results of such studies to enlighten our thinking and inform our efforts, we need to be thinking about how we can act now. “Community Resilience” is the term day, week, month, or the year. How can we inform our communities that threats from climate change are tangible, but at the same time let them know we are planning for them? How will our planning efforts change and who else needs to be involved? For now, there may be more questions than answers. However, we should be at the ready, knowing that a change in our climate means a change in our thinking, planning, and actions around protecting the health of our communities.

In the past several years, public health preparedness planning on both the local, state, and national level has begun to focus in on specific segments of the population, particularly those deemed at-risk or vulnerable. These populations often have a different set of needs in an emergency and planning efforts need to be conducted accordingly. Communities around the country face different sets of hazards and public health professionals analyze these hazards, build their plans for the their  population with considerations and specific response protocols for the at-risk populations within their jurisdiction.

This being said, it should be considered that environmental health education and services be conducted in a similar fashion, with the needs of specific segments of the population in mind. These different groups online casino spiele can face an array of health effects from their environment that may vary greatly from that of the general population. There is much that can be learned working cooperatively with preparedness coordinators about how to slot machines online not only educate at-risk populations of the potential hazards their community faces but also of the threats to their health from the environment. The principles and methods of educating these populations are the same no matter what type of public health message is being conveyed to them.

While there are environmental health education resources for specific at-risk populations that have been developed, there is work yet to be done. Education regarding environmental health and preparedness can and should be streamlined into one, recognizing a true an “all-hazards” approach to public health planning and response. It is a paradigm shift that can have a positive impact on the health and readiness of all segments of the population.

For resources in promoting environmental health in communities, including talking points for certain at-risk populations, visit ATSDR”s Environmental Health and Medicine Education page or the SOPHE Environmental Health & Emergency Preparedness site.

In the world of first responders, we come across and interact with all types of people from the general population in all kinds of living conditions. We enter homes and environments that have obvious hazards outside of the emergency we may be responding to at the time. Anything from lead paint on walls (or toys), mold, bad sources of water, and poisons such as arsenic, cabon monoxide and radon. Some of the residents of these homes and neighborhoods are aware of  these threats and the negative health effects, but many are not. As it is the role and duty of first responders to come to slots machine online the aid of those people in need, our nature is to want to do something spielautomaten about the environmental health hazards we witness. The questions of “what can we do to gokautomaat online online casino slot machines mitagte these circumstances?” and “can we pass this information along to people who can make a difference?” come to mind, even in an emergency situation.

It is important that first repsonders stop to think about just how many incidents we respond to and what kind of impact we leave in our wake. In our efforts to save lives and property, are we actually doing any harm to those very entities we are trying to help? Did we do the best we could to preserve the environment and did we leave a footprint on the environmental health of those we serve? These are important things to consider as is the notion that first responders can certainly have an impact on the health of the enviromnent and act as a conduit for information that can help communities improve the health of the environment around them.

Author: Michael Hatch, Stephens Memorial Hospital, Norway, ME

Environmental Health education materials are available from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), please find links on the SOPHE Environmental Health & Emergency Preparedness website: http://www.sophe.org/EHEP/resources.cfm