Environmental Health Class Blog

Well, that was eye opening. I was, to an extent, aware of the possible contaminants present at home, but I was not aware that they added up to be so many. It was definitely not a good feeling, as I was filling the home assessment tool, to realize that there were a lot of potential health risks whose presence at home I'm still not 100% sure of. For example, I'm sure the house I live in was built in the 1960's, but I have no idea whether it's been tested for lead or radon. There were also other points in the assessment tool that made me feel a bit better. For example, although my house does have an attached garage adjacent to the kitchen, I never start my car in the garage, so that substantially reduces the risk of carbon monoxide contamination. Below are my answers to the assessment tool.

Last Thursday (Aug 23), the class activity consisted of listing environmental exposures in different settings that could negatively affect our health. At first I couldn't think of more than three for each setting, but as we were listing them with my group-mates, it became evident that I had overlooked some potential harmful exposures. This was an eye-opening experience, and made me reflect on the many different ways that our health can slowly deteriorate without our knowledge. Something that caught my attention is that a lot of the exposures listed by the class could be applied in every setting, which is a scary thought, since it implies the near impossibility of getting away from all exposures. I am looking forward to learning more in this course about ways to improve my immediate environment to improve my health and that of those around me.