Local Environmental Health Research Articles

Natural radionuclide profiles and radiological risks in soils and rocks of the Koytash-Ugam Range, Uzbekistan.

This investigation quantifies the activity concentrations of natural radionuclides (226Ra, 232Th, and 40K) in the soils and certain rocks of the Koytash-Ugam Range, Uzbekistan, and assesses their radiological risks. Gamma-spectrometric analysis of soil and rock samples revealed activity concentrations ranging from 456.2 ± 56.0 to 813.9 ± 76.0Bqkg-1 for 40K, 18.2 ± 6.3 to 70.0 ± 12.0Bqkg-1 for 226Ra, and 30.1 ± 2.9 to 57.9 ± 10Bqkg-1 for 232Th. This data indicates a heterogeneous distribution of radionuclides, informing radiation safety and health risk assessments on a global scale. The calculation of radiological hazard indices, including the alpha-index (ranging from 0.09 to 0.35), gamma-index (ranging from 0.40 to 0.73), and both internal (ranging from 0.40 to 0.54) and external (ranging from 0.36 to 0.54) hazard indices, was undertaken to ascertain potential health risks. The radium equivalent activity ranged from 108.4 to 199.3Bqkg-1, and the absorbed dose rates were 51.0-93.3 nGy h-1 indoors and 96.6-178.2 nGy h-1 outdoors. These metrics underlie the estimated annual effective dose of 536.5-988.5 × 10-3mSv y-1, highlighting the variability in radiation exposure. Additionally, the potential lifetime cancer risk was projected at 1770.4 to 3262.0 per million, with an annual gonadal dose equivalent of 361.9 to 655.5 μSv y-1, reflecting natural background radiation influence. The results underscore the importance of safe material use in construction and the necessity for routine natural radioactivity monitoring. Radon flux density (RFD) values within acceptable construction limits (26-176mBqm-2s-1) suggest the area's suitability for development, considering recommended safety guidelines. This study not only aids local environmental and public health frameworks but also enriches the international knowledge base, facilitating comparative studies for the advancement of global radiation protection standards. Through a detailed examination of radionuclide distribution in an under-researched area, our research highlights the critical need for integrated international approaches to natural radiological hazard assessment.

A pedagogy for the end of the world: teaching environmental health and justice in a sacrifice zone

This article describes pedagogical changes that I have made to my Environmental Justice class at the University of the Pacific in response to increasingly crisis conditions with regard to both climate change and higher education. Over the past 15 years, my students are increasingly low-income, first generation, and from Stockton, a so-called “sacrifice zone” with abysmal environmental health outcomes in the heart of California’s Central Valley. My increasing focus on local environmental health disparities, combined with the intensification of the climate crisis, and my decision to prioritize support for student mental health in the midst of climate anxiety, have resulted in a class that feels both connected and immersive. Students are engaging with readings and other course materials, actively participating in discussion, and pushing us further with their own questions, passions, and lived experiences. In this “post”-covid world in which student engagement has become increasingly difficult, student mental health is increasingly tenuous, and climate anxieties plague students and faculty alike, this feels extraordinary and worth sharing. This essay is a chance to reflect on why this shift has occurred, and the potential for university classes to draw working class, diverse students into environmental and climate justice movements at a time when they are so desperately needed.

An Investigation into the Prevalence of Methamphetamine Related Enquiries to Local Government Environmental Health Officers.

Methamphetamine contamination of residential properties remains a serious public health concern for members of the public. External stakeholders including Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) and testing and remediation technicians are engaged on investigating whether contamination has occurred from manufacturing or smoking processes. More specifically, local council EHOs are responsible for managing clandestine drug laboratories when notified by police and also for responding to public enquiries. However, the full scope of these contaminated properties is not seen by any single stakeholder, making it very challenging to quantify these situations. To evaluate the prevalence of methamphetamine related enquiries from the general public to EHOs, this study surveyed and interviewed officers from around Australia. It was found that public enquiries were infrequent with only 6% of respondents having received enquiries in the last month, which indicates that people are seeking information from other sources. Interestingly, there were case study scenarios that also mentioned issues with awareness and the flow of information. Concerns regarding difficult cases, police notifications, and site visits were also highlighted. The results of this study provide a benchmark of how methamphetamine related cases are managed and highlight the need for trustworthy information that is available to EHOs, governments, industry members, and the public in a unified location.

Practices of Local Curriculum at School Level in Jhapa District: A Review

Out of the subjects to be taught at the basic level (Grades 1–8) in school-level education in Nepal, one is a local subject. The main objective of this study is to analyze the local curricula developed and implemented by three municipalities (Kanakai, Birtamod, and Damak) of Jhapa district. Based on Taba's model of curriculum development and Local Curriculum Development and Implementation Guidelines, 2019, the local curricula of the three municipalities have been reviewed. As per the results obtained, the curricula of the three municipalities have clearly followed the steps of the above model and the framework of the guidelines. It was found that after ascertaining the level-wise competencies based on local needs diagnosis, the present curricula have attempted to match these competencies with the determination of course contents, content elaboration, and evaluation process. The curricula cover topics such as urban-specific social behavior, cultural-religious activities, geographical diversity, occupation and business, local environmental problems, health and yoga, special personality introduction, disaster management, etc.

Foodborne Illness Complaint Systems Detect, and Restaurant Inspection Programs Prevent Restaurant-Associated Foodborne Illness Outbreaks.

Restaurants are important settings for foodborne illness transmission. Environmental health agencies routinely inspect restaurants to assess compliance with food safety regulations. They also evaluate foodborne illness complaints from consumers to detect potential outbreaks of foodborne illness. Local environmental health agencies were surveyed to identify methods used to conduct surveillance for consumer complaints of foodborne illness, link them to inspection grading and disclosure practices, and evaluate the association between these practices and the number of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We developed a novel framework for assessing the effectiveness of restaurant inspection grading and disclosure of inspection results while accounting for any biases introduced by surveillance factors that affect outbreak detection. Our findings showed the importance of routine restaurant inspection grading and disclosure practices as prevention measures and having a centralized database to manage consumer complaints as a useful surveillance tool for detecting outbreaks. Improving consumer complaint system structure and management can bolster outbreak detection and maximize limited public health resources while increasing the efficiency of complaint-based surveillance.

Implementing co-created citizen science in five environmental epidemiological studies in the CitieS-Health project

Background and aimScientists and scientific institutions are adopting more extensive participatory models, hoping to revisit the existing relationship between science and society. Though citizen science has become more common in environmental monitoring, it is seldom utilized in environmental epidemiology. In the CitieS-Health project, we co-created epidemiological studies with citizens in five European countries. The aim of this paper is to share our experiences and impart methodological insight into the application of co-created citizen science strategies in environmental epidemiology. MethodsWe applied the CitieS-Health framework, involving citizens in all the phases of the studies: identifying research questions, designing research protocols, collecting data, analysing data, interpreting data, formulating conclusions, authoring scientific articles and communicating the results to diverse audiences. These epidemiological studies, conducted in specific areas in Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain, covered diverse local environmental issues and health effects ranging from air pollution and mental health to industrial pollution and kidney disease. ResultsTogether with citizens, we successfully conducted environmental epidemiological studies that generated new scientific knowledge reflecting the concerns and knowledge of citizens. Citizens contributed in all the research activities, including activities beyond formulating the research questions, though the researchers initiated several design discussions and conducted time-consuming and complex tasks (e.g. data analysis, measurement of specific exposures and health outcomes). The challenges we encountered were engaging effectively with citizens throughout the study, harmonizing citizens' knowledge and values with the academics' expertise, managing civic expectations, making complex concepts understandable to citizens and representativeness of participating citizens. The co-created studies were able to empower citizens to address local health concerns by sharing and using scientific knowledge generated from studies. ConclusionsIntegration of co-created citizen science in environmental epidemiology is feasible and has the potential to improve the quality of research whilst promoting civic trust in research and results.

Climate Change and Health: Challenges to the Local Government Environmental Health Workforce in South Australia.

Climate change is the most urgent and significant public health risk facing the globe. In Australia, it has been identified that Environmental Health Officers/Practitioners (EHOs/EHPs, hereafter EHOs) are a currently underutilized source of knowledge and skills that can contribute to climate change adaptation planning at the local government level. The ability of local government EHOs to utilize their local knowledge and skills in human health risk assessment during a public health emergency was demonstrated through their role in the response to COVID-19. This study used a survey and follow up interviews to examine the roles and responsibilities of EHOs during the COVID-19 pandemic and used the results to examine the potential of the workforce to tackle climate change and health related issues. What worked well, what regulatory tools were helpful, how interagency collaboration worked and what barriers or hindering factors existed were also explored. A workforce review of EHOs in South Australia was also undertaken to identify current and future challenges facing EHOs and their capacity to assist in climate change preparedness. The findings demonstrated that the workforce was used in the response to COVID-19 for varying roles by councils, including in education and communication (both internally and externally) as well as monitoring and reporting compliance with directions. Notably, half the workforce believed they could have been better utilized, and the other half thought they were well utilized. The South Australian Local Government Functional Support Group (LGFSG) was praised by the workforce for a successful approach in coordinating multiagency responses and communicating directions in a timely fashion. These lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic should be incorporated into climate change adaptation planning. To ensure consistent messaging and a consolidated information repository, a centralized group should be used to coordinate local government climate change adaptation plans in relation to environmental health and be included in all future emergency management response plans. The surveyed EHOs identified environmental health issues associated with climate change as the most significant future challenge; however, concerningly, participants believe that a lack of adequate resourcing, leading to workforce shortages, increasing workloads and a lack of support, is negatively impacting the workforce's preparedness to deal with these emerging issues. It was suggested that the misperception of environmental health and a failure to recognize its value has resulted in a unique dilemma where EHOs and their councils find themselves caught between managing current workload demands and issues, and endeavouring to prepare, as a priority, for emerging environmental health issues associated with climate change and insufficient resources.

An Improved Shallow Water Temperature Model for An Australian Tidal Wetland Environment Using Publicly Available Data

Larval mosquito development is directly impacted by environmental water temperature. Shallow water less than 1 m deep is a common larval mosquito habitat. Existing mathematical models estimate water temperature using meteorological variables, and they range in complexity. We developed a modification of an existing one-layer heat balance model for estimating hourly water temperature and compared its performance with that of a model that uses only air temperature and water volume as inputs and that uses air temperature itself as an indicator of water temperature. These models were assessed against field measurements from a shallow tidal wetland—a known larval habitat—in southwest Western Australia. We also analysed publicly available measurements of air temperature and river height to determine whether they could be used in lieu of field measurements to allow cost-effective long-term monitoring. The average error of the modified version of the heat balance equation was −0.5 °C per hour. Air temperature was the second-best performing method (x¯ error = −2.82 °C). The public data sources accurately represented the onsite water temperature measurements. The original heat balance model, which incorporates a parameterisation of evaporative heat flux, performed poorly in hot, dry, windy conditions. The modified model can be used as an input to larval mosquito development models, assisting Local Government Environmental Health officers to determine optimal mosquito development periods and the timing of mosquito monitoring activities to enhance mosquito control.

Local Food Systems under Global Influence: The Case of Food, Health and Environment in Five Socio-Ecosystems

Globalization is transforming food systems around the world. With few geographical areas spared from nutritional, dietary and epidemiological transitions, chronic diseases have reached pandemic proportions. A question therefore arises as to the sustainability of local food systems. The overall purpose of this article is to put in perspective how local food systems respond to globalization through the assessment of five different case studies stemming from an international research network of Human-Environment Observatories (OHM), namely Nunavik (Québec, Canada), Oyapock (French Guiana, France), Estarreja (Portugal), Téssékéré (Senegal) and Littoral-Caraïbes (Guadeloupe, France). Each region retains aspects of its traditional food system, albeit under different patterns of influence modelled by various factors. These include history, cultural practices, remoteness and accessibility to and integration of globalized ultra-processed foods that induce differential health impacts. Furthermore, increases in the threat of environmental contamination can undermine the benefits of locally sourced foods for the profit of ultra-processed foods. These case studies demonstrate that: (i) the influence of globalization on food systems can be properly understood by integrating sociohistorical trajectories, socioeconomic and sociocultural context, ongoing local environmental issues and health determinants; and (ii) long-term and transverse monitoring is essential to understand the sustainability of local food systems vis-à-vis globalization.

Climate Change and Health: Local Government Capacity for Health Protection in Australia.

Climate change is the greatest global health threat of the 21st century, with numerous direct and indirect human health consequences. Local governments play a critical role in communities' response to climate change, both through strategies to reduce emissions and adaption plans to respond to changing climate and extreme weather events. Australian local government environmental health officers (EHOs) have the relevant skills and expertise to inform and develop adaptation plans for health protection in the context of climate change. This study used an online survey followed by phone interviews of local government management to determine the extent to which EHOs are involved in adaptation planning in health protection climate change plans. Questions were also asked to determine whether local councils are aware of EHOs' capability to contribute and to gauge the willingness of management to provide EHOs with the workload capacity to do so. The findings demonstrated that although climate adaptation and mitigation planning is occurring in local government, it is not including or considering the public health impacts on the community. Primarily, it was found that this oversight was due to a lack of awareness of the health impacts of climate change outside of a disaster or emergency scenario. Currently, EHOs are an untapped source of knowledge and skills that can contribute to climate change adaption planning. To support this, a framework of local environmental health practice was developed to assist the reconceptualization of the scope of practice required for the planning and response to climate change.

The Role of Physician Advocacy in Supporting Policy Change That Reduces Leaded Aviation Gasoline Emissions.

Leaded aviation gasoline (AvGas) accounts for 70%, or 935,082 pounds, of total lead emissions in the United States and has been repeatedly linked to elevated blood lead levels (BLLs) in those living in the vicinity of airports using AvGas. The well-established link between lead exposure and adverse health outcomes provided a platform ripe for environmental health advocates and pediatric health experts to assist a local environmental health organization in addressing lead waste from a local airport, Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF). We detail the steps we took, as a physician clean-air advocacy group. We provide a qualitative analysis of our efforts in addressing leaded air pollution through targeted and creative environmental health advocacy through three main avenues: government, public awareness, and academia. Our actions were taken to ensure the City of San Diego installed an unleaded fuel tank at MYF to reduce leaded aviation gasoline usage and subsequently lead air pollution in the surrounding area. Ultimately, the identified objective of an unleaded fuel tank was added to the San Diego City budget and scheduled for construction. We hope our actions can serve as a framework to provide concrete steps for clinicians and other advocates to enact change in their communities.

A Time Series Study for Effects of PM10 on Coronary Heart Disease in Ganzhou, China.

Objective: To investigate the effect of PM10 exposure in low concentration areas on the daily hospitalized patients with coronary heart disease. Methods: Daily air quality monitoring data, meteorological monitoring data and daily hospitalization data of coronary heart disease during 2019−2021 in Ganzhou, China were collected. Generalized additive model and distributed lag nonlinear model were used to evaluate the association between environmental PM10 and daily hospital visits for coronary heart disease. Stratified by sex and age to see their potential impact on this association. Results: PM10 exposure was correlated with an increased risk of hospitalization in coronary heart disease patients. Single-pollutant model analysis shows that at the day of lag1, for every 10 µg/m3 increase in PM10, the risk of coronary heart disease hospitalization increased by 1.69% (95%CI 0.39~3.00%); Subgroup analysis showed that females and older adults (>65 years) were more sensitive to PM10 exposure. In addition, in the dual-pollutant model, by adjusting other pollutants (including SO2, CO and O3), it was found that the relationship between PM10 exposure and coronary heart disease hospitalization was robust. And with changing the model’s degree of freedom was still robust. Conclusion: Short-term exposure to low concentrations of PM10 is associated with hospitalization for coronary heart disease. These results are important for local environmental public health policy development, so as to protect vulnerable populations.

Norovirus attribution study: Detection of norovirus from the commercial food preparation environment in outbreak and non-outbreak premises.

Norovirus remains the most significant virological risk that is transmitted via food and the environment to cause acute gastroenteritis. This study aimed to investigate the hypothesis that the contamination of the commercial food production environment with norovirus will be higher in premises that have recently reported a foodborne norovirus outbreak than those that have not. Sampling of commercial food production environments was carried out across a 16-month period between January 2015 and April 2016 in the South East and the North West of England by local authority environmental health departments as part of routine surveillance visits to premises. A total of 2982 samples, 2038 virological and 944 bacteriological, were collected from 256 premises. Sixteen of these premises, six from South East and ten from North West England, were sampled as part of a public health outbreak investigation. Overall, 2038 swabs were submitted for norovirus testing, with an average of eight swabs per premises (range 4 to 23) and a median of seven. Of the premises sampled, 11.7% (30/256) yielded at least one norovirus-positive sample (environmental, and/or food handler hand swab), and 2.5% of the swabs were positive for norovirus. A peak in the positivity rate was seen in the South East in April 2016. No associations were found between norovirus positivity and bacteriology indicators, or between bacteriology indicators and hygiene ratings. This study demonstrates that food premises and food handlers remain a potential source of norovirus transmission and outbreaks.

Shared Purpose: Leveraging a Community-Academic Partnership to Increase Local Environmental Health Awareness via Community Science.

Environmental factors can lead to disease and health disparities when the places where people live, learn, work, play and pray are burdened by social inequities. Non-formal programs that explicitly connect local environmental exposures and human health could be of great value to communities at greatest risk. The purpose of this work was to co-create relevant and engaging education with youth and community stakeholders of all ages that more explicitly emphasizes the link between the local environment and community members' health through a hands-on community science experience. Our experiences helped strengthen our community-academic partnership and establish a route to create and tailor informal programming to meet local needs and engage people in community science with academic partners. We generated two distinctly different community science neighborhood audit tools designed to differently engage our community partners and inform community participants of their local environments and its role on their health. Through community meetings, we garnered critical insight from our stakeholders. While neither of the tools and accompanying data collected were deemed to be scientifically generalizable, our ongoing and future work has benefited from important lessons learned from their creation and sharing.

Awareness to Handle Research and Healthcare Waste (RHCW) in teaching and research institutes; a comprehensive review

Environmental pollution has become the major challenge not only for developing countries but also for developed ones Worldwide. The major goal of this comprehensive review is to compile the reference data regarding the different types of waste generated in teaching, research, and healthcare institutes and specific strategy to manage such wastes. In addition to the pharmaceutical, leather, chemicals, food, and paper industries, teaching, research, and healthcare institutions are also significant sources of different types of Non-hazardous as well as hazardous wastes. Therefore, a simple and implementable guideline for cleaning and waste disposal services in such institutions requires strict adherence to applicable policies and procedures. Research and healthcare waste (RHCW) management is a joint effort among Research Laboratory Personnel, Healthcare facilitators, Building Services Personnel, and Local Environmental Health and Safety Personnel. As Pakistan is among the developing countries situated in South Asia, most of the institutes, including teaching, research, and healthcare, try to follow the WHO guidance or manage hazardous and non-hazardous wastes with self-planned strategies. Although most of the local Governing bodies and Institutional bodies are trying to handle the wastes at their levels by following different protocols, introducing a protocol at the National level is the need of the current era to fight against environmental pollutants.

The Role of Local Economic Development and Environmental Health in the Emerging Funeral Home Sector in Mpumalanga, South Africa

The Role of Local Economic Development and Environmental Health in the Emerging Funeral Home Sector in Mpumalanga, South Africa

Analysis of the Cases of Covid-19 and Environmental Health for 14 Municipalities of the UGRHIs Baixo Pardo/Grande and Pardo

Safety protocols emerged to minimize the spread of Covid-19 and are in force 20 months after the disease exists in Brazil. The occurrence of SARS-CoV2 can be analyzed by the local Environmental Health Indicator (ISA). The objective of this study was to analyze the mortality rate caused by Covid-19 about environmental and sanitary conditions in 14 municipalities in the state of São Paulo, located in the Baixo Pardo/Grande and Pardo UGRHIs. Data from covid-19 (total cases and deaths) were obtained by SEADE (2021) and research by Rezende (2021) and Alvares (2021) provided the ISA parameters. The municipalities were grouped by demographic density and those with up to 50 thousand inhabitants were selected. The fatality rate was obtained as the ratio of the number of deaths to the accumulated cases of Covid-19. Of the 14 selected municipalities, 57,1% met the research hypothesis (municipalities with higher ISA have a mortality rate at covid-19 below the national average) and seven of them are below 20 thousand inhabitants with mortality rates below 2,4 %. Studies based on data from Covid-19, socio-environmental parameters (schooling, income, age group) and social vulnerability conditions can contribute to a better interpretation of environmental health in the pandemic.

Integration of air quality model with GIS for the monitoring of PM2.5 from local primary emission at a rural site.

Local primary emissions of air pollutants are responsible for public health, decreasing productivity, and cultural activities in local residential areas. In this study, an integrated air quality observation and modeling system with a geographical information system (GIS) was developed to characterize the air pollution caused by local primary emission sources. This integrated system could provide air quality monitoring, data analysis, and visualization results that reflect air pollutant concentration data in a study area containing a local rural village (LRV) and an asphalt manufacturing facility (AMF). Additionally, the model was used to estimate the contributions of air quality from an emission source at the receptor and determine the control factor for the emission rate or meteorological changes. From the forward and backward modeling results, we found that the concentrations of particulate matter smaller than 2.5μm (PM2.5) concentrations in the village were affected by the unique meteorological and emission conditions. The PM2.5 concentration was significantly increased for the cases with a slow wind speed of 1m/s or high wind speed of 3m/s, with an emission rate of 10g/s. The contribution of AMF emissions was explained by contribution factor analysis. During the study period of December 2014-December 2015, the incoming contribution of PM2.5 at the LRV measurement station was approximately 47.6%. These results suggest that the proposed method can be useful for understanding adverse air quality conditions and estimating the emissions of air pollutants from primary sources for local environmental and public health authorities.

Advancing Amphibian Conservation through Citizen Science in Urban Municipalities

As cities adopt mandates to protect, maintain and restore urban biodiversity, the need for urban ecology studies grows. Species-specific information on the effects of urbanization is often a limiting factor in designing and implementing effective biodiversity strategies. In suburban and exurban areas, amphibians play an important social-ecological role between people and their environment and contribute to ecosystem health. Amphibians are vulnerable to threats and imbalances in the aquatic and terrestrial environment due to a biphasic lifestyle, making them excellent indicators of local environmental health. We developed a citizen science program to systematically monitor amphibians in a large city in Alberta, Canada, where 90% of pre-settlement wetlands have been removed and human activities continue to degrade, alter, and/or fragment remaining amphibian habitats. We demonstrate successes and challenges of using publicly collected data in biodiversity monitoring. Through amphibian monitoring, we show how a citizen science program improved ecological knowledge, engaged the public in urban biodiversity monitoring and improved urban design and planning for biodiversity. We outline lessons learned to inform citizen science program design, including the importance of early engagement of decision makers, quality control assessment, assessing tensions in program design for data and public engagement goals, and incorporating conservation messaging into programming.

Improved Algorithms for Remote Sensing-Based Aerosol Retrieval during Extreme Biomass Burning Events

This study proposed an aerosol characterization process using satellites for severe biomass burning events. In general, these severely hazy cases are labeled as “undecided” or “hazy.” Because atmospheric aerosols are significantly affected by factors such as air quality, global climate change, local environmental risk, and human and biological health, efficient and accurate algorithms for aerosol retrieval are required for global satellite data processing. Our previous classification of aerosol types was based primarily on near-ultraviolet (UV) data, which facilitated subsequent aerosol retrieval. In this study, algorithms for aerosol classification were expanded to events with serious biomass burning aerosols (SBBAs). Once a biomass burning event is identified, the appropriate radiation simulation method can be applied to characterize the SBBAs. The second-generation global imager (SGLI) on board the Japanese mission JAXA/Global Change Observation Mission-Climate contains 19 channels, including red (674 nm) and near-infrared (869 nm) polarization channels with a high resolution of 1 km. Using the large-scale wildfires in Kalimantan, Indonesia in 2019 as an example, the complementarity between the polarization information and the nonpolarized radiance measurements from the SGLI was demonstrated to be effective in radiation simulations for biomass burning aerosol retrieval. The retrieved results were verified using NASA/AERONET ground-based measurements, and then compared against JAXA/SGLI/L2-version-1 products, and JMA/Himawari-8/AHI observations.