My Local Environmental Services

Looking at the Alameda County Public Health Department's list of programs and services, I have identified several environmental services. As I was going through the list, the obvious environmental programs and services were Asthma Start Program, Lead Poison Prevention, Tobacco Control Program, and Wildfire Smoke. Before taking this class and learning about the breadth of environmental health, I would not have identified any additional environmental programs. However, knowing what I know now, I would also include the following in that list: Emergency Preparedness - Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP); Equity, Social & Health; and MRSA - Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. I chose to include Emergency Preparedness because with climate change we will see an increase in extreme weather events prompting weather-related emergencies across the country. We have already begun seeing this. I chose to include Equity, Social & Health because I learned that hazardous environmental exposures disproportionately affect poor and minority neighborhoods. And lastly, I included MRSA as an environmental program in light of what I learned last week about the use of antibiotics in livestock and its contribution to antibiotic resistance.

Alameda County also has an Environmental Health Department. Looking at their list of programs on their website, I found the most interesting to be the Healthy Nail Salon Recognition. I get my nails done every 4-6 weeks, so this program jumped out at me right away. This program recognizes salons that use safer products and practices. They also have a nail technician certification project. Looking at the salons on the list, my usual nail salon is not listed. This may prompt me to choose a different salon in the future, one that is on the list.