Environmental Health (case 2)
Chemical Hazards
You are an Environmental Health Specialist in a Texas Public Health department of the Comal County where you reside. The city council is concerned about mercury pollution in a local lake area that is a major fishing and camping recreational attraction and brings many visitors.
Case Assignment
Your task in this Case Assignment is to:
- Explain to the park community what the risks from fishing and swimming in the lake may be, due to mercury contamination.
- Compare the risks from being in the lake water or eating fish caught in the lake, for different types of lake users:
– pregnant women
– young children
– older children
– adults
- Prepare a list of recommendations and organize the list by potential uses of lake water and consumption of fish caught in the lake.
Assignment Expectations
Use information from your module readings/articles as well as appropriate research to support your paper.
Length: The Case assignment should be 4-5 pages long (double-spaced). APA format, sources cited.
Texas Resources:
Gold Quiros, T. (2018, November 27). Mercury Concentrations in Fish from the Guadalupe River, Texas: Relationships with Body Length and Trophic Position. Retrieved August 10, 2020, from
https://digital.library.txstate.edu/handle/10877/7876
Marcos, S., District, A., Smith, C., Bonds, C., & Director, I. F. (2016). Canyon Reservoir.
Module Resources:
Budnik, L. T. & Casteleyn, L. (2019). Mercury pollution in modern times and its soci-medical consequences. Science of the Total Environment, 654, 720-734. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.408.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017). Workplace safety & health topics: Chemicals. Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/chemical.html
Levy, B. S., Wegman, D. H., Baron, S. L., & Sokas, R. K. (Eds.) (2011). Section I.2: Recognizing and preventing occupational and environmental disease and injury. In Occupational and environmental health: Recognizing and preventing disease and injury (6th ed., pp. 23-54). New York: Oxford University Press.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (n.d.). Industrial hygiene. Retrieved from
https://www.osha.gov/dte/library/industrial_hygiene/industrial_hygiene.html
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (n.d.). Sampling and analysis. Retrieved from
https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/samplinganalysis/
Philip, R. B. (2012). Chapter 2: Water pollution, the usual culprits. In Environmental issues for the twenty-first century and their impact on human health. SAIF Zone, Sharjah, UAE: Bentham Science Publishers.
U.S. National Library of Medicine (2017). Persistent organic pollutants (POPs). ToxTown, National Institutes of Health. Bethesda, Maryland. Retrieved from
https://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/chemicals-and-contaminants/persistent-organic-pollutants-pops
U.S. National Library of Medicine (2018). Section 16: Environmental toxicology, environmental health, and one health. In Toxtutor: Learn essential principles of toxicology. Accessed at
https://toxtutor.nlm.nih.gov/16-000.html
Philip, R. B. (2012). Chapter 3: Water pollution, oceans and great lakes. In Environmental issues for the twenty-first century and their impact on human health. SAIF Zone, Sharjah, UAE: Bentham Science Publishers.