Water & Sanitation | The Pump Handle

Environmental Health In wake of Zika outbreak, survey finds major improvements needed in U.S. mosquito control

November 7, 2017 Kim Krisberg

In southern Texas, the city of Laredo hasn’t confirmed a single case of dengue in nearly 20 years. Just a short walk across the border into Mexico, the city of Nuevo Laredo has confirmed hundreds of cases of the mosquito-borne disease. Hector Gonzalez says the difference lays in the city’s robust commitment to public health-led mosquito control.

Cancer Pollution: not “an unavoidable consequence” of development

October 20, 2017 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 6Comment

News headlines about 9 million deaths in 2015 due to pollution were eye catching. The Lancet Commission’s Report on Pollution and Health goes much deeper than point estimates. The authors argue that governments, foundations, and medical societies pay too little attention to the local and global consequences of pollution.

Environmental Health Popeyes, KFC’s supplier has sanitation problem, Senator takes notice of unsafe conditions

August 30, 2017 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 1Comment

Case Farms poultry has a sanitation problem. Workers don’t have access to the bathroom when they need to use it.

California Occupational Health News Roundup

May 2, 2017 Kim Krisberg 3Comment

Investigation reveals how Case Farms poultry plants exploit immigrant workers; Chinese workers who make Ivanka Trump’s clothing line are overworked and underpaid; California lawmakers consider bill to protect salon workers from harmful chemicals; and Trump’s budget would slash funds for combating child and forced labor overseas.

Environmental Health Study: U.S. households that can’t afford water projected to grow by the millions

January 24, 2017 Kim Krisberg 3Comment

Can I afford the water that comes out of my tap? It’s not a question that Americans typically ask themselves. However, a new study finds that in the next few years, many more of us might be asking that very question as we open our utility bills and realize that we’re merely accustomed to affordable water — we don’t have a guaranteed right to it.

Environmental Health Chemical Safety Board’s missed opportunity to build public confidence, push reforms

October 5, 2016 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 5Comment

Charleston, WV residents lost confidence in government officials when they received conflicting information about the January 2014 contamination of their tap water. The Chemical Safety Board missed an opportunity last week to restore some of that trust.

Environmental Health Study: Fracking chemicals linked to reproductive health abnormalities in mice

September 16, 2016 Kim Krisberg 1Comment

In a new study — the first of its kind — researchers fed water laced with fracking chemicals to pregnant mice and then examined their female offspring for signs of impaired fertility. They found negative effects at both high and low chemical concentrations, which raises red flags for human health as well.

Environmental Health New study illustrates risk that climate change poses to safe drinking water, human health

September 23, 2015 Kim Krisberg 2Comment

For years, scientists have described climate change as a slowly emerging public health crisis. But for many, it’s difficult to imagine how a complex planetary phenomenon can impact personal well-being beyond the obvious effects of natural disasters, which climatologists say will happen more frequently and intensely as the world warms. That disconnect is what piqued my interest in a new study on old infrastructure, heavy rainfalls and spikes in human illness.

Agriculture Factory farms, manure, and the Empire State Building

May 28, 2015 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 1Comment

Food & Water Watch released “Factory Farm Nation,” a report this week on the dominance of industrial beef, pork, chicken, dairy, and egg production in the US. Besides overuse of antibiotics, foodborne disease, water and air pollution, and loss of local independent farms, the mountains of manure are monstrous and largely unregulated.

Cancer Community organizer turned CDC epidemiologist, Frank Bove, ScD honored

May 5, 2014 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 2Comment

ATSDR epidemiologist Frank Bove, ScD is awarded the 2014 David Ozonoff Unsung Hero Award. He is recognized for his work, most notably, studies examining the relationship between water contamination at Camp Lejeune and birth defects, cancer and other adverse health conditions.