Category: Voices from the Field

Stressful Environments: Coping with Contamination in Your Community

stress

Imagine scanning your Facebook feed and learning that toxic chemicals have been discovered in your neighborhood air, water, or soil. You might feel worried and have questions: Is my health at risk? What about my children’s health? Who’s going to fix the problem, and when? Despite your best efforts, you might not find satisfying answers—or Read More >

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CASPER helps community identify environmental health needs in South Gate, CA

The California Department of Public Health’s Site Assessment Section (CDPH) – left to right Gabriele Windgasse, Principal Investigator; Armando Chevez, Health Assessor; Nancy Villasenor, Health Educator; Danny Kwon, Health Assessor; Russ Bartlett, Health Assessor.

Are you concerned about how your neighborhood environment may affect your family’s health and safety? In the City of South Gate, California, residents had a chance to express those concerns through a process that brought state health department and City staff directly to their doors. Facing environmental health challenges The City of South Gate is Read More >

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Community environmental health activism in South Gate, Los Angeles County, CA

CEHAT Chairman Josue Gonzalez and CEHAT member Iris Verduzco stand with workshop participants who live adjacent to a polluting site.

Imagine that you are attending a community workshop about cleaning up the environment in your city. Local environmental justice activists are there to explain how the effects of pollution are disproportionately higher in your area than in other parts of the county. Read More >

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ATSDR Stories from the Field

ATSDr stories from field

Health Communication and Education Specialists and Scientists at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) work around the clock to educate and keep you safe from harmful substances in the air you breathe, the water you drink, and the soil under your feet. Read More >

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Meet the Scientist: Lora Siegmann Werner

Werner family at Mount Rainier National Park, Washington (2015). Photos courtesy of Lora Siegmann Werne.

Lora sees herself carrying on an open door tradition started by the founder of the ATSDR Region 3 office, Charles “Bucky” Walters. Back in the early days when ATSDR was first developing approaches to evaluating chemical exposures in communities, “anyone in EPA could come in and we would do our best to help them.” Read More >

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Uranium Awareness Training Course Empowers over 90 Navajo Community Health Representatives

Uranium awareness poster for the Shiprock Area; one of 9 versions of the poster.

How much do you know about uranium? Do you know that it is naturally present in nearly all rocks, soils, and air? Or that nearly everyone is exposed to low amounts of uranium in food and water? For much of the U.S. population, uranium exposure stays at these low levels. But in the 1940s, federal Read More >

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Voices from the Field featuring Candis Hunter

In this NCEH/ATSDR blog series titled “Voices from the Field,” readers gain first-hand accounts of NCEH/ATSDR staff experiences working in communities to protect public health. This post features LCDR Candis M. Hunter, a project officer and environmental epidemiologist in the Division of Toxicology and Human Health Sciences, Environmental Epidemiology Branch. Read on to learn more Read More >

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Voices from the Field: Susan McBreairty

NCEH/ATSDR’s blog series titled “Voices from the Field” gives readers first-hand accounts of NCEH/ATSDR staff experiences working in communities to protect public health. This post features NCEH/ATSDR Health Communication Specialist, Susan McBreairty. Read on to learn how Susan helped facilitate communication technical support for the CDC/Liberia Ebola response. Off to Liberia! When people ask me Read More >

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GRASP Supports CDC Ebola Response

The 2014 Ebola epidemic is the largest in history— affecting multiple countries in West Africa and leaving death, despair, and devastation in its wake. Scores of professionals from around the world, including CDC staff and volunteers, are working tirelessly to stop the virus in its tracks and save lives. Read More >

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A Year in Review: 2014

Arizona, BPA, arsenic, Haiti, American Indian/Alaskan Native Tribes, mercury, foodborne illness, Palau, epidemiology, contaminated water. What do these seemingly random items have in common? They all appeared in “Your Health, Your Environment” blog posts about NCEH/ATSDR staff in 2014. Our “Meet the Scientist” and “Voices from the Field” series aim to put a face on Read More >

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