Environmental & Occupational Hazards – Page 6

SFGate, February 22, 2024

Big mats of human hair are being used to save Bay Area beaches. You can give yours.

"Research supports the physical ability of hair to serve as an effective sorbent of oil. Thinking of creative ways to clean spills is useful, but the big picture solution is to eliminate oil at its source of entry into the marketplace." (Shahir Masri)

One Health Trust, February 13, 2024

Air Pollution, Depression, and Pregnancy

""Mothers with postpartum depression have a higher risk of suicide and of harming their babies. Babies of mothers with postpartum depression themselves risk emotional and cognitive damage."" (Jun Wu)

Los Angeles Times, February 3, 2024

As climate hazards converge, more Californians are living in harm’s way

"It’s not random that low-income, Black, Brown, Indigenous, some Asian populations, migrant populations, are located in these areas. The reason is that these areas had already been deemed unhealthy and hazardous and uninhabitable. " (Karen Lincoln )

Environmental Health News, February 1, 2024

Understanding how the environment affects pregnant people’s health

"It is challenging to study postpartum depression because new parents don't always seek help due to stress, shame, a lack of knowledge and prioritizing their babies over themselves, so the condition, which affects 10-20% of people after giving birth up to three years postpartum, often goes under-diagnosed." (Jun Wu)

Popsugar, January 26, 2024

Should I Be Worried About Lead in My Stanley Cup?

"Most vacuum-insulated reusable water bottles use lead soldering because it's the easiest and cheapest method. That said, the lead solder is completely enclosed by stainless steel and should not come in contact with your drink, the risk of lead exposure is really low unless the protective cover is missing or impaired." (Jun Wu)

The Orange Country Register, November 24, 2023

Residents near Tustin hangar say they’re still waiting for asbestos debris to be removed from homes

"There’s no known safe level of exposure to asbestos, and if someone tests their home and finds asbestos, they should be worried and try to remediate. If somebody is right by the hangar when the fires started, and they stayed there, I would call that Zone 0. They are right there breathing it in. They don’t have protection. And as you move further away from the fires, then it depends on where the wind blows." (Oladele Ogunseitan)

Los Angeles Times, November 20, 2023

Neighborhoods get little guidance about toxic risks after massive Tustin hangar fire

"More systematic sampling is really needed to determine what’s going on at the community level. This, he added, should include sampling upwind and downwind of the fire and analyzing how the wind may have affected debris movement." (Michael Kleinman)

LAist, November 16, 2023

Live Near The Tustin Hangar Fire? Here’s The Latest On The Cleanup

"Rain is really very efficient at cleaning particles out of the air. People living near the burn site with children should make sure kids are keeping their hands clean and not touching ash or debris from the fire because they're more prone to getting hand to mouth kind of contamination." (Michael Kleinman)

The Orange County Register, November 9, 2023

Asbestos from Tustin hangar fire triggers health warnings, closures

"Given when the largely wooden structure was built, Michael Kleinman, an environmental health [adjunct] professor at UC Irvine who researches health risks from fires, said there’s a very good chance arsenic was used to treat the wood and that lead was used in its paint." (Michael Kleinman)

Futurity, November 1, 2023

Air pollution exposure linked to postpartum depression risk

"Postpartum depression is a major public health problem...due to increased susceptibility of mothers during the antepartum and postpartum periods, identifying modifiable environmental risk factors is important, as it can support future intervention studies on reducing the rate of PPD." (Jun Wu)