Public Health, Safety, And The Environment

People around the globe struggle with excess weight, but Americans exceed the rates of obesity in other first world countries by thirteen percent (Overweight). According to Overweight and Obesity Statistics, 68.8 percent of the population is overweight or obese in America. Although the number of overweight and obese people is higher than ever before, many are not willing to work to lose weight. Americans want to sit back, relax, and lose weight. Fad diets have become very popular for this reason. Fad diets allow people to simply sit back and take a pill to provide quick weight loss but this weight loss only lasts temporarily. (Fad Diets). On the other hand, few people choose healthy dieting methods, which take longer to see results and

(Parker-Pope, 2007) “If you have three dollars to feed yourself, your choices gravitate toward foods which give you the most calories per dollar.” said Dr. Drewnowski, Professor of the Department of Epidemiology and Medicine at the University of Washington. He further stated, “Not only are the empty calories cheaper, but the healthy foods are becoming more and more expensive. Vegetables and fruits are rapidly becoming luxury goods.” (Parker-Pope, 2007) Much of these cost are due to our Governments Farm Policy. Farm policy encourages the production of commodities for processed foods instead of healthy foods. Whether by intention or not, because of the low cost of commodities like corn and soybeans, sugars and fats like fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated vegetable oils, current farm policy has directed food industry investment into funding ways of using these cheap food additives in processed foods, thus causing consumers to eat more added sweeteners and oils than is healthy. Because these highly processed foods can be produced at a very low cost, they give significant profit for the food industry which creates an industry incentive to market “junk” foods instead of healthier foods. (Food without Thought:How US Farm Policy Contributes to Obesity)

Food waste is an environmental, economic, and ethical problem that can lead to less calorie intake and unnecessary damage of our assets. Individual behavior can redesign food waste at home and lead to bigger changes in the ecosystem. The problem is Americans throw out more food than glass, paper, and plastic. Also about 25% of food grown, processed, and transported in the US will never be consumed. When food is disposed in a landfill it rots and becomes a significant source of methane— a potent greenhouse gas with 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.

As seen in the film Fed Up, obesity in the U.S. can be traced back to changes in food production. The novel Gaining Ground by Forrest Pritchard describes an alternative food system option in which family farms and farmer’s markets become once again important components of the U.S. food system. The American food system has evolved

In the article, “The Paleo Diet” by Loren Cordain, the author talks about America’s fascination with diet fads, telling readers about their widespread appeal as a “fix-all” for America’s health problems and obesity. I have to admit, like a lot of people, I am a bandwagon jumper. Whether this new fad be a new fashion trend or a new video game sensation, chances are that I’ve tried it. And new diet fads are no exception for me.

Americans over the years have adopted a fast food, sedentary lifestyle, which consequently has led to a decline in overall health. Studies show the American overweight and obese community has increased greatly over the past 30 years.1 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is a federal department responsible for the legislating of government policy on all aspects of agriculture, including farming and food. Public health professionals debate the root of unhealthy lifestyles and work together to combat nutrition choices and nutrition related illnesses. The USDA has worked with scientists, public figures and the community to increase and support healthy choices. Community and national program initiatives have impacted the

All over America, there is a growing problem, and that problem is the growing piles of food that end up in our nation 's landfills. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that in 2010 alone, there was an average of “133 billion pounds of food worth an estimated $161.6 billion” wasted in the United States (St. Clair). Unfortunately, all of this food does not just break down. Because of how tightly packed the garbage in landfills is there is almost no oxygen reaching the food while it breaks down (Kulpinski 1), so while the food will slowly decompose it will produce large amounts of methane. Jonathan Bloom, a published food waste expert, warns that 23% of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas which has a global warming

The weight in America is ballooning out of control and the American public needs help. There are a number of contributing factors that tie into the growing waistline of America such as a sedimentary lifestyle, over consumption of food which leads to a higher caloric intake, and the marketing of unhealthy choices by food companies through television ads and radio station commercials. In regards to the over consumption of food, the only person that is truly affected by this is the individual themselves. After all, they are the ones that will suffer from the chronic health conditions such as respiratory related issues due to shortness of breath, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension. All of our lives we have been told we are what we eat. If you consume food with little or nutritional value it will definitely show in your body and if you consume foods that contribute substantial vitamins, mineral, and proteins to the body that to, will also show. Food companies do have a right to market what is most profitable, it just so happen that what is profitable is inexpensive to make and detrimental to one’s health if consumed on a daily basis. However, millions of Americans have tried to get there weight under control on their own and many have been successful at it. According to numerous new reports, the Diet industry gross approximately 60 billion dollars a year but only a few million have shown long lasting results.

The President's Task Force on Environmen-tal Health Risks and Safety Risks to Chil-dren was formed in 1997 by executive order. It consists of government officials from the EPA, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and others. One of its first projects was to formulate a plan to eliminate childhood lead poisoning, 42 a goal that was incorporated into the Healthy People 2010 goals for the nation. For the first time, the strategy concentrated on primary prevention and was directed at housing. It did not require that a lead-poisoned child first be identified before a house was considered eligible for participa-tion (the principle of primary prevention).

In the article, “Fad diets: Slim on good nutrition,” the author, June Daniels, discusses the fad diet scheme plaguing the United States. Over the recent decade, the rate of obesity amongst Americans has increased dramatically. The growing number of obese and overweight individuals has caused fad diets to become a quick and easy cure to a deeper issue. Fad diets are specifically targeted towards obese and/or overweight individuals, promising instant results with minimum effort. More importantly, numerous fad diet weight loss claims have not been backed by extensive research (Daniels 22) . According to Daniels, popular diets, such as Atkins, have been highly emphasized upon because of their high protein, low carb meals (22). The high protein

In recent studies, cases observe that “...seven nutrients showed no significant changes, protein declined by six percent; phosphorus, iron, and calcium declined between nine percent and 16 percent; ascorbic acid (a precursor of vitamin C) declined 15 percent, and riboflavin declined 38 percent” (Rich). Now, this is a problem. People are getting less out of their food which is making the body think it is still hungry because it is not getting as many nutrients as it normally would with organically grown crops. This has been caused by changes in farming methods. After World War II, the methods of how people grow crops were changing and trending in a cheaper and resourceful direction, “…agrichemicals allowed farmers to bypass the methods of maintaining soil fertility by replenishing soil organic matter with cover crops, manure, and compost, and of controlling pests with crop rotation and intercropping” (Rich). Meaning, that instead of letting the crops grow organically, some farmers are covering the crop with cow shit. In return, it causes the crop to dry out too rapidly meaning that the food does not have enough time to properly develop the right amount of nutrients. Not getting a healthy serving of nutrition out of the food people eat is like eating nothing at all. The nutrients in the produce people consume are what tell the body a person has eaten an adequate volume in that sitting. “…less-nutrient-dense foods may be partly why we're eating more and more. Phytochemicals contribute to the satisfaction…help trigger satiety. It could even be that the second helping is an instinctive attempt to secure sufficient micronutrients” (Rich). Basically, Americans are obese because people are literally eating food with empty calories that do nothing but make the body feel hungry and less

Most of the food that ends up in landfill is fresh produce such as fruits and vegetables. Most people will probably never realize how much food they throw away. Landfills just keep getting bigger because of this issue. With the effective ways to help store food properly or donate uneaten food should help the amount of food going into your garbage can and a landfill. With how much we throw away puts all the hard work the workers did to make the food and transport to waste. It’s a good thing they have food banks that are willing to take food donations and give them to people who really need

The next component of the General Plan is the plan for public health and safety which addresses issues of: Geology and Seismicity, Flooding and Drainage, Noise, Air Installation Land Use Compatibility, Hazardous Materials, Crime Prevention and Protection Services, Fire Prevention and Suppression Services, Disaster Preparedness, Emergency Medical Facilities. The issue of geology and seismicity is important to the Lancaster area at large due to its location being less than ten miles south of the San Andreas Fault. Major earthquakes in the area present a problem for citizen’s safety and possible property damage. A similar issue is that of flooding and drainage. Because Lancaster exists within a valley and is relatively flat, the area is prone to flooding. One of the current propositions is to include flood water basins. The water basins to mitigate for the 100 year flood are essentially large ditches on the corner of neighborhood streets. When a water basin sits in the middle of a neighborhood it is not a functional part of the surrounding environment and can become an eyesore in a community. This probably causes the NIMBY-ism around water basins, no matter how beneficial they may be. Noise is a very prevalent issue in Lancaster, due to the amount of aeronautical activity conducted on EAFB. The City has rezoned the flight area in order to decrease the amount of overhead flights in the urbanized areas. This plan is mimicked in the Air Installation Land Use Compatibility portion.

This essay is about how health and safety is applied in health and social care in order to protect everyone in health and social care environment, and it will also examine the importance of health and safety policy and risk assessment in workplace. Health and Safety at work etc Act 1974 is concern with maintaining and improving the physical and mental well-being of employees at work and protecting anyone else who may be adversely affected. Care homes are therefore subject to the provision of health and safety policy, employers and employees have

The central idea I am proposing is this; the safety and health of the public will be put at risk if the same kinds of people keep political power in the future. What I mean by this is people with no engineering background or similar trade don’t have or chose not to act in the best interest of the public when their careers are on the line. On top of that the world is changing at a blinding pace: the challenges of global warming, population growth, and rapidly advancing technology, are problems the general public is ill equipped to handle, without the help of engineers in positions of power. The threats to humanity will overwhelm the political structure we currently have, unless engineers are at the helm to meet them. There are several human made disasters we have covered in the class talking about what happens when people with little to no engineering experiences made engineering decisions. For most cases only a few people were directly affected, while this is a tragedy so people lost their lives the scale of the issues has been on a smaller scale. I bring your attention to the events dubbed the Flint Water Crisis it is a much larger scale issue where thousands of people were affected by a series of bad decisions.