M5:7 Your Sewage Facilities

Sewage Treatment Facilities in San Francisco

1.     North Point Wet Weather Facility

·      Built in 1951

·      Only active during wet weather

·      Located at Bay Street and the Embarcadero

2.     Southeast Treatment Plant

·      Built in 1952

·      Receives 80% of the City’s flows

·      Locate on Phelps Street near Third and Evans streets in the Bayview District

3.     Oceanside Treatment Plant

·      Built in 1993

·      Receives 20% of the City’s flows

·      Located off the Great Highway between Lake Merced and San Francisco Zoo

https://sfwater.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=5801

M5:5 Campaign for Tap Water

My campaign slogan would be...

" Drink bottle water if you want to kill puppies"

I hope people like animals and care for their well being like I do so I went with the scare tactic to try have people think, "oh, if I buy this bottle water, I am killing a puppy somewhere".

M5:4 Consumer Confidence Reports (CCR) & Water Quality

San Francisco was not popping up in the EPA website so I googled "San Francisco Consumer Confidence Report" and found "Annual Water Quality Report 2017" through the San Francisco Water Power Sewer (our water company). At the very end of this blog is the website I used that helped me answer some of the questions :)

San Francisco Water Power Sewer

Answer the following questions:

·      What is the source of your drinking water?   Where does your water ORIGINATE?  (It is treated at a water treatment plant, but what watershed or aquifer is the sources of the water?)

• Hetch Hetchy Reservoir (spring snowmelt flowing down the Tuolumne River to storage in Hetch Hetchy Reservoir)

·      What chemicals were found in your water that were higher than expected?

• Ultraviolet light and chlorine disinfection, pH adjustment for optimum corrosion control, fluoridation for dental health protection, and chloramination for maintaining disinfectant residual and minimizing the formation of disinfection byproducts

·      What chemicals did you NOT expect to find in your water?

• I did not expect ultraviolet light, chlorine disinfection, pH adjustments, or chloramination

·      Are there associated health risks with the chemicals found in your water?  (sources for this last question include the EPA, CDC, ATSDR and the National Library of Medicine's ToxNet program.

• a health risk is always cancer

BLOG about your water quality

·      Where does your water come from? The source! Track it from the source to your tap.

• Hetch Hetchy Reservoir 

·      What did you discover about your water quality?

• My tap water is safe to drink 

·      Do you use a filter for your water?

• No

·      What are you trying to filter out?

• lead

·      Do you drink bottled water?   How does this square with what you learned when you watched the Story of Bottled Water (see next exercise)?

• I do not drink bottled water
• I learned that the plastic from the bottle is bad for the environment and for you

https://sfwater.org/index.aspx?page=634

M5:2 The Public Health Importance of Safe Drinking Water

Things I learned from watching Water Facts, What is ground water?, and Clean Water Act 1972:

Water Facts:

• the earth contains 366 quintillion gallons of water
• I learned quintillion is a thing apparently
• only 0.007% of the 366 quintillion is potable
• today 7 billion of us share the water resource
• Kilimanjaro has shrank 85% in 100 years
• the Aral Sea is now one tenth the size it was 50 years ago
• Mexico City has sunk 30 feet and 2 million residents lack piped water because of ground water depletion
• 1.2 billion people have no access to clean water

What is ground water? 

• water crammed between rocks and soil and sediments under the ground
• full body of ground water is aquifer
• the biggest is high plaines aquifer, right in the middle of the country
• saturated and unsaturated zones
• humans depend on ground water
• farmers use 53 billion gallons of ground water every day in the United States
• water and how we use it matters

Clean Water Act 1972:

• clean water is a right
• Nixon thought the act was too expensive
• surface waters meet regulation standards for human recreation
• pollution regulations
• point source pollution: pipe from factory or sewage
• non point source pollution: agriculture runoff 
• fill material: purpose of creating dry land
• Chicago river has a legacy of pollution
• has effected Michigan water at some point

The public health importance of safe drinking water to me is that clean water is a right and water and how we use it matters!!!

M4:5 Think About It / Group Exercise

I would develop and implement a fragrance-free policy in a hospital, school, or other institutional setting by stating good reason as to why such a policy will have to be in place. It would not be ethical to say for instance, nurses can no longer wear perfume to work at Kaiser. The policy would be better written by saying, due to substantial evidence of potential health risks caused by fragrance in many perfume products, it is now hospital policy that all staff at Kaiser are required to not wear any products with fragrance. 

shouldn't policies state the WHY in them? like you can't do this because of that. You can not wear anything with fragrance because studies show that fragrance has the potential of causing cancer.

elements of an ideal chemical/fragrance policy should have ethical standards. Reasons of why you are wanting to make the change and evidence based policies. My policy would eliminate or decrease body burdens and exposures because in my hospital example, vulnerable patients will not be exposed to fragrance toxins. Policies should have the best interest of someone in mind. 

as I remember in my policy class, there will always be a winner and a loser in policy making. in my example, the winners are the patients who are in a vulnerable sick stage, and the losers will be those people who take a bath in their perfume. 

M4:6 Radon

I would develop a national awareness campaign by thinking of who I would want my target audience to be. Since I would want my target audience to be everyone, I would develop billboards, signs on public transportation, signs on bus stops, posters spread throughout towns, cities, states. Even at sporting events. Then I would make commercials about the dangers about radon so people watching TV will see it and then also I would make popups happen on social media pages about radon. That is how I would spread a national awareness campaign about radon, through public advertising, television, and social media.

Potential collaborators would be health departments, school officials, policy makers, American Lung Association, researchers, doctors, and health care workers

M4:2 National Library ToxNet

Urea Formaldehyde:

•  upper respiratory tract irritation
•  lower airway irritation
•  pulmonary edema, inflammation pneumonia
•  can provoke skin reactions in sensitized subjects by contact and by inhalation 
•  causes cancer of the nasopharynx and leukemia

Bleach:

•  suffocating pungent odor
•  the gas irritates the eyes and causes tears
•  can lead to ocular irritation and burns
•  skin irritation, pain, erythema, blisters and burns
•  initially irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, followed by coating and wheezing, dyspnea, sputum, production, and chest pain 

M3:2 Vulnerable Populations

I really liked the TED talk by Rishi Manchanda. He talked about one of his patients, "Veronica" (I hope that was not her real name, hello HIPAA, lol). She had been to multiple doctors and emergency room visits, and still had headaches. His staff simply asked routine questions to get to the root of her problem (diagnosis). Simple questions like, where do you live and living conditions. She is a member of the vulnerable population because of her zip code of South Los Angeles. Zip codes matter, a lot! Rishi said that "working and living conditions are more than twice the impact than our genetic code". I could not agree more! Living and working conditions also "count for 60% of preventable death".

I love that as future public health providers, we are not just into "pills and procedures", like Rishi says, but we are looking for ways to prevent and treat. He talked about the upstream approach, which I have heard before but I can't remember where, and we are it. We are the upstream approach!

Vulnerable populations seem to always get the short end of the stick in healthcare unfortunately. They are too often misdiagnosed, not diagnosed, overlooked, misguided, stereotyped, etc., because of their zip code. We are different though, we care about the whole person and want to take the time to communicate with those who are vulnerable, to get them in a better situation.

M3:5 Transportation

I have a car but I do not drive it because I keep it at my parents. I have not had a car here in the city for almost 1 year and I love it. I used to live in the sunset district where there was more parking options and when I moved to another neighborhood with less parking, I decided to not keep it around.

I use public transportation. I even used it when I had my car here so my car would just sit till street cleaning came every 2 weeks. For me, public transportation can be stressful (switchbacks, construction, reroute, late bus, no bus, running to bus, missing bus, getting backpack thrown up on, asked for my phone number some random dude, price rises), but it is also nice to not have to worry about parking, driving, polluting, accidents, or street cleaning.

I know my way around the city on the bus better than in the car. weird, but true. driving around here makes me anxious, and stressed because of pedestrians, cars, parking meters, and street cleaning. On the bus I am usually relaxed, listening to music with my earbugs, people watching, because I am not the one driving. I, along with thousands of other passengers, are cutting down on air pollution.

Trust me, public transportation has its good and bad qualities, but for my health, and those in the community, I am glad I take the bus. I just try to plan my time right and go with the flow (unless I'm running late or something) but for the most part, it is what it is.

M3:4 Air Pollution

·      Who and what are the top polluters in your zip code?

Your Zip Code: 94112 Your Community: SAN FRANCISCO County

Who Is Polluting Your Community? Reported Environmental Releases from TRI Sources in 2002 Rank Facility City Pounds 1 SAN FRANCISCO DRYDOCK INC. SAN FRANCISCO 28,942 2 CHEVRON PRODS. CO. SAN FRANCISCO TERMINAL SAN FRANCISCO 13,311 3 PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO. HUNTERS POINT POWER PLANT SAN FRANCISCO 29

Your Zip Code: 94112 Your Community: SAN FRANCISCO County

What Are the Major Pollutants? Reported Environmental Releases from TRI Sources in 2002 Rank Chemical Name Pounds 1 XYLENE (MIXED ISOMERS) 15,994 2 N-BUTYL ALCOHOL 13,174 3 N-HEXANE 8,169 4 BENZENE 2,234 5 TOLUENE 2,001 6 COPPER COMPOUNDS 434 7 ETHYLBENZENE 258 8 NAPHTHALENE 16 9 MERCURY 1

·      What percent of the homes in your zipcode have lead-based paint?

7%

·      Are there Superfund sites in your zip?  (In your BLOG, make sure to tell us what a Superfund Site is)

A superfund site is, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, “any land in the United States that has been contaminated by hazardous waste and identified by the EPA as a candidate for cleanup because it poses a risk to human health and/or the environment”

Your Zip Code: 94112 Your Community: SAN FRANCISCO County

Who Is Polluting Your Community? Superfund Sites in Your Community 1 TREASURE ISLAND NAVAL STATION-HUNTERS POINT ANNEX

·      What can you tell us about the Superfund sites that are near where you live?

Sources of Contamination:

• Discharge to sewer/surface water
• Dumping - unauthorized
• Inadvertent spill
• Lagoon disposal
• Landfill
• Manufacturing process
• Ocean disposal
• Recycling (Other than primary operation)
• Storage - drums/containers of waste
• Storage - finished product
• Storage - raw material
• Waste pile
• Waste tank - above ground
• Waste tank - below ground

Contaminants Detected
	Ground Water	Surface Water	Air	Soil	Other
1,2,4-TRICHLOROBENZENE	X
1,3-DICHLOROBENZENE	X
1,4-DICHLOROBENZENE	X
CHROMIUM		X
CHROMIUM COMPOUNDS		X
COPPER		X
COPPER COMPOUNDS		X
ETHYLBENZENE	X
FLUORANTHENE		X
LEAD	X	X
PHENOL	X
POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS					X
PYRENE		X
XYLENOL	X
ZINC					X
ZINC COMPOUNDS					X

Groundwater and Drinking Water
Were drinking water wells shut down due to contamination?	No
Are drinking water wells potentially threatened?	No
Aquifer discharges into:	A sensitive ecological environment
Population served by water wells in the aquifer:	0

·      What did you learn about the air quality in your zipcode?

According to airnow.gov

Current Conditions

Air Quality Index (AQI)observed at 16:00 PDT 29 Good Health Message: None Note: Values above 500 are considered Beyond the AQI. Follow recommendations for the Hazardous category. Additional information on reducing exposure to extremely high levels of particle pollution is available here.

AQI - Pollutant Details

Ozone 26  Good Particles (PM2.5) 29  Good

Air Quality Forecast
Today	Tomorrow
Air Quality Index (AQI) 46 Good Health Message: None	Air Quality Index (AQI) 55 Moderate Health Message: Unusually sensitive people should consider reducing prolonged or heavy exertion.
AQI - Pollutant Details
Particles (PM2.5) 46 Good	Particles (PM2.5) 55 Moderate

·      How about the water quality?

I love drinking tap water and according to San Francisco Water Power Sewer company, “San Franciscans currently enjoy high-quality, great tasting water from the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System”. Also, “unlike bottled water, our delicious tap water costs less than half a penny per gallon, is quality tested over 100,000 times a year, and goes straight to your tap”. In fact, “tap water is also highly regulated by the EPA and across state and local water quality standards”. 

·      How did your zipcode fair on a social justice / environmental justice basis?

For the superfund sites, my zipcode of 94112 is “cleanest/best” 

Rankings

Cleanest/Best

National Average

Dirtiest/Worst

0%					50%					100%

Number of Superfund sites:

Rank Superfund sites in SAN FRANCISCO County by potential pre-cleanup hazards to public health risks and the environment

Rank counties in CALIFORNIA by number of Superfund sites