Advocacy Project: Sanitation, online learning activity

Sanitation Overview Lesson:

I chose the topic of sanitation for my project because it is something I will be working with in my future.

The issue of sanitation is both an issue we face in our day to day lives as well as a global crisis.

For this lesson, I would like to focus a little bit on both of these spectrums.

The purpose of my first part of this lesson is to show how much of a global problem poor sanitation is STILL causing.

My main purpose is that I would like this lesson to show students how necessary it is to have public health inspectors, and that even in our society we need more of them! There is so much that goes on behind closed doors that so many people are unaware of. We need cleaner, safer food for the average consumer.

I have chosen three videos as part of my activity, and I have asked response questions for each.

Everyone is affected by poor sanitation, many of us just don't realize it and take clean air, clean water and clean food for granted. Somewhere, at some point, someone checks these things to ensure our safety. The question that I have is when did this come about? Think about the different decisions that had to be made.

What happens if there is no policy, no regulation, and those who do have the power aren't doing anything?

Think about these questions as you watch the following video.

In the video below which is brought to you by WECF (Women in Europe for a Common Future), we see women uniting to try and find solutions for poor sanitation problems. I chose this video because it features several countries across Europe. Usually when I think of Europe, it seems more developed, more on the ball! There are so many European countries that need help!

After seeing this video, how do you feel about the fact that this whole European program, creating better sanitation for all, is developed and carried out by women?

Poor sanitation in the U.S. still exists as well. We may have more policies, regulations and enforcers, but that does not mean all is well at the home front. Has anyone noticed the high amount of serious foodborne diseases in the recent years? Some of these foods still make me cringe a little bit when I buy them!

On September 14th, 2006 the FDA warns consumers to "not eat bagged spinach due to serious E.Coli breakout." The FDA keeps updating more and more cases of people getting sick up until March 23, 2007! Thats a long period of time to not eat a product that I eat religiously.

THEN, in June 2007 the FDA gives a nationwide recall on certain tomatoes and jalepeno peppers due to a Salmonella outbreak...this one lasted until the end of July before we could start buying tomatoes and feeling *better* about eating the tomatoes that weren't even on the list. We continue to be skeptical about certain types of peanut butter and pistachios both recalled within the last year, but why is this happening so often?

Don't we have policies, food inspectors? How do these recalls affect those selling these products? Think about these questions as you watch the following two videos.

There are gaps in the system.This is a serious problem, and that is why the bill I am supporting (S.1269) is to get more regional food safety centers and put our consumer safety first. These recalls don't only hurt the people, but they greatly affect those marketing these recalled products that are actually safe (i.e. the tomato growers from the video!)

If you are concerned about foodborne outbreaks check out FoodHaacp which is updated daily and has an extensive database of past outbreaks.

Advocacy Project: Letter to Public Official

Danielle Wall

2824 Branch St.

Duluth, MN 55812

December 5, 2009

wall0743@d.umn.edu

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Al Franken

United States Senate
320 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-2304

Dear Senator Franken:

I am writing to ask you to support Bill S.1269, titled:  A bill to provide for enhanced foodborne illness surveillance and food safety capacity, to establish regional food safety centers of excellence, and for other purposes. I am a fourth year student at the University of Minnesota Duluth majoring in Community Health. I did a summer internship at Kandiyohi County Public Health, and I believe that this bill could greatly assist public health facilities.

The purpose of this bill is to help out existing public health facilities as well as establish regional food safety centers.  It proposes enhanced foodborne illness surveillance which is critical in recent times where we have seen huge E. Coli and Salmonella outbreaks. For example, the Salmonella outbreak found in spinach in 2007 forced the recall of 8,000 cartons of spinach, as well as the recall of certain types of peanut butter in 2009 both showed a gap in our food safety system. Bill 1269 would allow for better surveillance to help prevent these types of happenings.

I think that this is an important bill. It will benefit not only consumers by assuring safer production of food products, but it will also benefit the already overwhelmed public health workers. Opening more safety centers will provide more jobs to public health workers while relieving some of the burden on current public health employees.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Danielle Wall

Advocacy Project: Issue Overview

Introduction:

The topic of my advocacy project focuses on reducing foodborne and sanitation related illness. 

Under Healthy People 2010's goal 8, "promoting health for all through a healthy environment," I will focus on objective 8.29 which specifically states "Reduce the global burden of disease due to poor water quality, sanitation, and personal and domestic hygiene."

One main issue is sanitation problems, which can refer the fact that  “Poor sanitation, hygiene and unsafe water claim the lives of an estimated over 1.5 million children under the age of five every year” (WHO 2009). Additionally, 2.5 billion people live without the access to effective urine and feces disposal which is a leading cause of diarrheal disease (wateraid.org). Together, these two issues alone create a domino effect of problems. For example, a child experiencing diarrheal disease due to improper water or sanitation, may also miss school and will need an adult around to take care of them; this adult will then miss work and miss out on the pay for that day/s until the child gets better, leading to more issues. Poor water quality, personal, and domestic hygiene all contribute to the sanitary issue.

The Legislation that addresses this is bill S.1269 which is titled "A bill to provide for enhanced foodborne illness surveillance and food safety capacity, to establish regional food safety centers of excellence, and for other purposes." This bill introduces a way in which we can improve our health at a local level by diminishing sanitation problems.

Those affected most by this issue are those living in developing countries, but you can find sanitation problems just about anywhere, including here in America. Anywhere that there are large amounts of people with very poor sanitation problems will arise that can greatly reduce human health as well and lessen the quality of life. According to WHO, the main routes in which human health is affected by poor sanitation include polluted drinking water, contamination into the food chain, dirty areas that provide breeding grounds for insects such as flies whom spread disease, and environmental pollution that limits certain sources of food such as fish. 

THe Development Goal (MDG) target is to "reduce by half the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation by 2015." If this were to happen The gains would be that people wouldn't have as many problems with poor hygiene which leads to "loss of productivity, preventable health costs, low educational achievement, high morbidity and poor social development" (WHO). These situations happen in America as well but not as extreme in most areas; if bill S.1269 does pass the losses may include a small increase in taxes to ensure that we are able to provide better surveillance when it comes to preventing foodborne illness, and establish these regional safety centers. 

We know the severity of this issue, but the consequences of putting another bill in place that would ensure better food safety and sanitation would be the need for funding. At the moment, I can't seem to find any information on how this bill will be funded whether it be by a specific health organization or the government. For those most affected by the issue, it seems as if the benefits would weigh out the consequences; for society these benefits would equal lower rates of foodborne illness contributing to better quality of life overall.

I may have touched on some of the economic impacts previously, but if bill S.1269 were to pass, and more regional safety centers were opened as well as more food safety surveillance, more jobs would be created in health services! Our economy seems to be at an all time low, so creating jobs seems like a really good boost, as well as lessening foodborne illness outbreaks. Overall, this bill should pay itself off over time rather than be a burden. "For every $1 spent on sanitation, up to $9 is returned in reduced healthcare burden and increased productivity."

I mentioned social impacts previously, and how better sanitation creates a domino effect of better health, better quality of life, less disease, better productivity, etc. for all people. As mentioned earlier, it is possible that the funding could slightly effect taxes, but at the moment we have no idea what the costs would be. 

 The barriers to addressing better sanitation worldwide includes many variables. Better education and cleaner availability of resources are key. In America, we have to reach out to areas that have the poorest sanitation, and make sure that we are educating and making these resources available to lessen the cases of foodborne illness. 

We will need resources such as funding for buildings for these safety centers, as well as resources to pay workers at the new jobs that will be created. Resources that least burden the general public is the number one goal. Restructuring county buildings where food safety surveillance could be optimized could also be a less expensive route. 

The history of the sanitation issue has expanded with time itself; as we have become more educated, sanitation issues have lessened. In the state of Minnesota, I have found that many food safety workers are over-worked due to some multi-county centers with very few workers trying address way too many problems, therefore, it is more likely that some problems get overlooked or don't get the attention they need. In many rural communities, it appears as if nothing is being done to address this problem. We need more safety centers/workers if we want to prevent foodborne illness.

It is likely that most public health workers would definitely be for this bill, I for one would recommend this bill. We need to put our health first!

Advocacy Project: Healthy People/THOMAS

My focus for my advocacy project will be on reducing foodborne illness; I am especially interested in this topic because I plan on going into health inspecting/ environmental safety sanitarian eventually after I graduate. 


1.The objective that I believe fits my interests the best is objective 8-29 which is to "Reduce the global burden of disease due to poor water quality, sanitation, and personal and domestic hygiene."


2. Expanding on the objective, according to the progress quotient chart, this target has been met by 161% since 1990. Some emerging issues discussed in this focus area are the fact that clean water issues as well as lack of water in many countries further creates sanitary issues as well, for example, the deterioration of sewer and water systems.  This focus area shows an overall goal of 
"improving the environmental health of people and their communities has positive social and economic benefits."


3. Environmental Health Bill  S.1269  


  Title: A bill to provide for enhanced foodborne illness surveillance and food safety capacity, to establish regional food safety centers of excellence, and for other purposes.
  Sponsor: Senator Amy Klobuchar, [MN] (introduced 6/16/2009) 2 Cosponsors
  Latest Major Action: 6/16/2009 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. 



.
Recommendation: Vote Yes for Environmental Health Bill  S.1269  
My Political Representative: Senator Amy Klobuchar

Advocacy Project: My Political Representatives

My representatives!

For the first advocacy project, I will list my political representatives and ways in which to contact them such as their website. 

You can call or write to the President of the United States, Barack Obama, using this website or the office address below:

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

To contact congressmen/ women of Minnesota, this website provides contact links to each individual.
Al Franken: 320 Hart Senate office building

      Washington DC 20510

      Phone: 202-224-5641

The governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, can be contacted at: (651) 296-3391 or via email.

Minnesota state legislators can be contacted via a database at http://www.leg.state.mn.us/.
John Kline:

101 West Burnsville Parkway

  #201 Burnsville, MN

Phone: (952) 808-1213

The county board president of Kandiyohi County is Richard Falk, here is a link to the commissioners home page
320-235-0271

627 NW Knollwood Drive

Willmar, MN  56201

The mayor of my hometown is Denny Baker, the Spicer mayor homepage gives his contact information as well as other city board members. 
(320) 796-5218




Email:
denny@bprinting.com

Welcome to Danielle's Discoveries

I am Danielle Wall, an art and community health student, and I am all about discovering the beauty in our natural surroundings. So far I have highlighted my interests in art and nature, and I would like to tie that into my blog and doing my part in preserving our natural environment, and helping others become healthier, well informed decision makers!



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