Green Buckeye RN

EPA Webinar: Air Pollution and Heart Disease: A Webinar for Healthcare Professionals

ohionursesassociation — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:14:40 +0000

Date: Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Time: 3pm to 4:30pm Eastern Time
Please sign up and register at this link by January 23rd.
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/369808505
Speakers
Dr. Wayne Cascio, MD, FACC, FAHA, US EPA , Office of Research and Development
Sara Dubowsky Adar, Sc.D., M.H.S., U of Michigan, School of Public Health
Susan Stone, US EPA, Office of Air and Radiation
Background: Heart Disease is the number one killer for women, as well as for men. Unfortunately many women think of a heart attack as a problem for men, not them. Each year, approximately 400,000 American women die from Heart disease and more than 42 million women are currently living with some form of cardiovascular disease (heart disease). As a matter of fact, heart disease kills more women than the next seven causes of death combined.
You probably already know about healthy behaviors for the heart, such as, not smoking, being active, maintaining a healthy weight and diet.
Other important factors are your cholesterol levels, blood pressure and glucose levels. But are you familiar with the risk factor of unhealthy air and the invisible particle pollution that can harm your heart? Do you know where to find information about out the air quality in your community or zip code?
This webinar will discuss the importance of being aware of the environmental hazard of air pollution and its potential health impacts on the heart. If you are a healthcare provider, this webinar is for you. We also want to you to help us spread the word about heart disease and air quality by wearing a green heart this coming February when we wear red to raise awareness of heart disease in women and a green heart to remember to check the air quality index.
Copies of the powerpoint presentations will be sent out on Monday, January 23rd.
Fact Sheet: Environmental Hazards Weigh Heavy on the Heart:
http://www.epa.gov/aging/resources/factsheets/ehwhh/index.htm

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Free CE Webinar: Toxic or Not? Ohio Air Quality

ohionursesassociation — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:09:04 +0000

Click here Air Quality Webinar to get all the details.

Presented by the Nurses Environmental Team of Ohio (NEATO) and the Ohio Asthma Coalition (OAC) on February 9th and February 24th.

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CHEJ: EPA Closer Than Ever To Finalizing Study On Dioxin

ohionursesassociation — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:04:50 +0000

EPA is closer than ever to completing their study on dioxin, one of the most toxic chemicals known to science that is building up in our bodies and food supply. EPA is poised to finalize the release of the noncancer portion of their dioxin study the end of this month. The chemical industry is doing all they can to pressure EPA to delay the release of this report once again, as they’ve been doing for over 20 years. We can’t let them get away with this!
CHEJ is coordinating a national campaign to urge EPA to finalize this study once and for all. Last week Rep. Markey (D-MA), Ranking Member of the Natural Resources Committee and senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, sent EPA a fantastic letter urging EPA to finalize this dioxin study. You can read Markey’s letter and press release at http://markey.house.gov/press-release/markey-epa-no-more-delays-dioxin-health-assessment. This comes at a time when dioxin releases increased by 18% from 2009-2010, and dioxin air releases increased by 10%.

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CHEJ: The New Normal: Earthquakes

ohionursesassociation — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:59:21 +0000

Since March 2011, 11 earthquakes have shaken the Youngstown, Ohio area – which never had a recorded earthquake before. Seismologists have conclusively linked the earthquakes to a well used to dispose of wastewater from oil and gas drilling. Ohio ordered the well shut down on December 30.
The next day – New Year’s Eve – the largest earthquake yet struck Youngstown. “I heard like a big ba-boom, and the building just shook,” one resident said.
Neither Ohio Governor Rob Kasich nor the oil and gas industry see the earthquakes as cause for concern. The Ohio Oil and Gas Association called the earthquakes “a rare and isolated event.” A spokesperson for Governor Kasich compared the earthquakes to “a scrap-tire dump [catching] fire.”
But similar wells have been suspected of causing earthquakes in another part of the state and in Arkansas, Colorado and Oklahoma. A Columbia University seismologist who is investigating the Youngstown quakes says he expects more during the next year even with the well closed.
Hydrofracking pollutes drinking water, consumes enormous amounts of clean water and rips open landscapes. And now we know it causes earthquakes. The only way to stop even worse disasters is to stop hydrofracking.

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Science Blogs.com: Washington State Adopts Rule To Protect Healthcare Workers From Hazardous Medications

ohionursesassociation — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:57:24 +0000

Posted on: January 11, 2012 12:00 PM, by Celeste Monforton

Washington State becomes the first in the nation to adopt specific workplace safety rules to protect healthcare workers who are potentially exposed to anti-neoplastic drugs and other hazardous medications. The new rule, issued earlier this month by the State’s Department of Labor & Industries, stems from legislation passed in April 2011 and signed into law by Governor Chris Gregoire. The rule applies to healthcare facilities in which employees are “reasonably anticipated” to have “occupational exposure to one or more hazardous drugs.” The CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) published a list of about 150 agents that meet their hazardous drug definition. This list, which is referenced in the new Washington State rule, includes well-known chemotherapeutic drugs such as cisplatin, fluorouracil (5FU), methotrexate, etoposide, temozolomide, and dacarbazine. NIOSH estimates that about 5.5 million healthcare workers—-from nurses and pharmacists to housekeepers and veterninary care staff—are potentially exposed to these hazardous agents.

Read further at http://scienceblogs.com/thepumphandle/2012/01/washington_state_adopts_first.php?utm_source=networkbanner&utm_medium=link

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Reuters: Nurses’ Miscarriages Linked To Chemicals At Work

ohionursesassociation — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:52:52 +0000

By Kerry Grens

NEW YORK | Fri Jan 13, 2012 12:20pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Nurses who worked with chemotherapy drugs or sterilizing chemicals were twice as likely to have a miscarriage as their colleagues who didn’t handle these materials, in a new study.

Lead author Christina Lawson, a researcher at the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH), said she was not too surprised that exposure to certain chemicals would be tied to lost pregnancies.

“What surprised me the most was that (chemotherapy) drugs are something we’ve been trying to educate nurses on, about the hazards, and we’re still finding exposures during the first trimester,” Lawson told Reuters Health.

Because chemotherapy drugs typically target rapidly dividing cells, such as those in a tumor — or a fetus, they have been a concern for pregnant women who come into contact with them, Lawson said.

Not all previous research has agreed on whether nurses’ exposures at work are tied to more miscarriages, though.

Read further at http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/13/us-nurses-miscarriages-idUSTRE80C1N720120113

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HCWH Announces Call for Nominations for 2012 Nursing Awards

ohionursesassociation — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:43:49 +0000

Awards Commemorate Nurses’ Role in Environmentally Sustainable Health Care

(Reston, VA) — The Health Care Without Harm Nurses Workgroup, in conjunction with The Luminary Project, is accepting nominees for its 2012 Nursing Awards. The prestigious Charlotte Brody Award is given to a nurse whose story of environmental activism and accomplishment reflects a significant contribution to environmental health. The Hollie Shaner-McRae Nursing Student Essay Contest recognizes the best essay on how nursing students can encourage the “greening of health care.”
“Nurses play a key role in the current environmental health movement, through activities in professional associations, and through facilitating changes in their communities and places of work that help improve and sustain human health through maintaining a healthy environment,” said Karen A. Ballard, MA, RN, FAAN, HCWH Consultant. “These awards both recognize their important role in the public’s health, and also, we hope they encourage more nursing students and nurses to consider sustainable health care to be a part of their careers.”
The Charlotte Brody Award honors Charlotte Brody, a registered nurse and activist, and a founder of HCWH, who has dedicated her career to making a safer, healthier environment through sustainability. The Charlotte Brady Award seeks to recognize Nurse Luminaries who go beyond everyday nursing endeavors to proactively promote and protect environmental health, and who generate significant outcomes from their efforts. Nominations are due by 5 pm Eastern on February 27, 2012.
The Hollie Shaner-McRae Nursing Student Essay Contest recognizes the pioneering environmental work of Hollie Shaner-McRae, DNP, RN, FAAN, coordinator for professional nursing practice at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, VT. Entrants are asked to discuss how nursing students can encourage the “greening of health care.” The successful essay should be specific to an activity that a nursing student could potentially do or is currently involved in doing and must answer the question, “How Can Nursing Students Foster Environmentally Sustainable Practices in Their Schools of Nursing, Health Care Facilities or Communities”. The contest is open to all undergraduate nursing students presently enrolled and in good standing in a beginning nursing program in the United States and Canada. The winner will receive a stipend for airfare and complimentary registration to CleanMed 2012. Essay contest submissions are due on February 20, 2012.
The awards will be presented at CleanMed 2012, the international conference for health care sustainability, in Denver, CO, in April 2012.
For more information about the 2012 HCWH Nursing Awards, and for complete rules and applications, visit http://theluminaryproject.org/article.php?id=56.

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CHE: Healthy Food Action Webinar, February 8th

ohionursesassociation — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:41:22 +0000

Healthy Food Action Webinar: Driven to Distraction: Food, Chemicals and Child Behavior
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
12:00 noon eastern / 11:00 a.m. central

Compelling science now suggests synthetic food dyes and caramel colorings often added to candy–as well as junk food and other kids’ foods–can affect their learning and behavior, and may increase cancer risk. This science forced the adoption of safer alternatives to food dyes in the UK; the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been petitioned to do the same. An FDA science advisory committee reviewed the new science in April 2011. Developmental brain toxins are also found as additives to other children’s products, like toys and lunch boxes. Child advocates are pushing for policy reforms addressing these risks as well. Join speakers Karen Bowman, MN, RN, COHN-S, Michael Jacobson, PhD, Lawrence Rosen, MD, and David Wallinga, MD, for a discussion of the latest science and the policy reforms now being debated.
Register at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/739194874

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CHE: New Blog on Healthy Aging and the Environment

ohionursesassociation — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:36:43 +0000

AARP has just launched a blog on Healthy Aging and the Environment, which can be found on the AARP website. This inaugural piece links to a number of resources that can help educate AARP’s 35 million members on environmental influences on health including the report Environmental Threats to Healthy Aging

You can help ensure this becomes a regular weekly AARP blog. Visit the site, post a comment to the blog, “like” it on Facebook, Twitter it, etc. to show widespread support for this pivotal new initiative by AARP. If this is successful and AARP continues to reach out to their members with critical information on environmental influences on healthy aging, then many more highly influential people will have the science they need to promote healthy environments across generations.

Visit the blog at http://blog.aarp.org/2012/01/10/a-healthy-environment-and-healthy-aging/

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Designing Healthy Communites: Television Series

ohionursesassociation — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:31:40 +0000

Begins Wednesday, January 11, 2012
The host of the series is Dr. Richard Jackson, pediatrician, former CDC head of environmental science, top public health official in California, and current UCLA Department Chair and Professor of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health.

Go to http://designinghealthycommunities.org/ to preview or view series.

Filed under: News