Teaching Environmental Health to Children: An Interdisciplinary Approach PDF
Preview Teaching Environmental Health to Children: An Interdisciplinary Approach
SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/8868 David W. Hursh Camille A. Martina With Michael A. Trush and Hillary B. Davis Teaching Environmental Health to Children An Interdisciplinary Approach 123 David W. Hursh Michael A. Trush Warner Graduate School of Education Department of Environmental Health University of Rochester Science Rochester, NY 14627-0425 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg USA School of Public Health e-mail: Preface No matter where we live, we are surrounded by manufactured and natural sub- stances that can negatively affect our health. In the developing world two million people die every year from causes associated with exposures to smoke from cooking with biomass and coal (Legros et al. 2009). Others become ill or die from disassembling electronic waste for the metals, like lead, contained within (Gottesfeld 2009). Some estimate that 750,000 Chinese die prematurely each year from air and water pollution (Barboza 2007). In the United States, the Environ- mental Protection Agency (2004) reports that 44% of streams and 64% of lakes were unfit for fishing and swimming. And, every day we are learning about new dangers such as bisphenal A, perchlorate, and fire retardants. Based on our experience teaching about environmental health and our collab- oration with the projects described in this text, we are convinced that students of all ages—from elementary through secondary school—are interested in and can benefit from learning about environmental health. Furthermore, students can play a significant role in educating other children and adults, and changing their com- munity’s practices and policies. Learning about environmental health should not be merely an academic exercise, but instead an opportunity for students to make a difference in their own and other’s lives. Indeed, a global movement to teach environmental health in schools could prevent thousands of illnesses and save thousands of lives. The lessons described in this text are based on nine Environmental Health Projects funded by the United States National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Complete descriptions of the literally hundreds of lessons created by the different projects are available on the NIEHS website (http://www. niehs.nih.gov/health/scied/teachers/curricular.cfm). Because we neither can nor should reproduce in this text all of the lessons located on the website, we have aimed, instead, to provide educators with some of the key concepts in learning about environmental health, and provided some exemplary lessons regarding air and water pollution, heavy metals, and food. We hope that educators will adapt the pedagogical approaches that we suggest to environmental health issues in their own communities. Together, we can make a difference. v vi Preface References Barboza, D. (2007, July 5). China reportedly urged omitting pollution-death estimates. The New York Times. Gottesfeld, P. (2009, February 20). Lead in the developing world. Living on Earth Accessed December 5, 2010 at: http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00008&segmentID=8 Legros, G., Havet, I., Bruce, N. and Bonjour, S. (2009). The energy access situation in developing countries: a review focusing on the least developed countries and Sub-Saharan Africa. UNDP- WHO. Available at http://content.undp.org/go/newsroom/publications/environment-energy/ www-ee-library/sustainable-energy/undp-who-report-on-energy-access-in-developing- countries-review-of-ldcs—ssas.en United States Environmental Protection Agency (2004). National water quality inventory: Report to congress, 2004 reporting cycle. Washington. D.C.: US Environmental Protection Agency. http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/guidance/cwa/305b/2004report_index.cfm Acknowledgements This book comes out of the work of the project Environmental Health Science as an Integrative Context for Learning (EHSIC), funded by that National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NEIHS). David W. Hursh and Camille A. Martina would like to thank all the grant participants, including teachers in the classrooms from the nine sites around the United States who developed and implemented the curriculum described here. We would also like especially to thank Liam O’Fallon of the NIEHS, who directed the project. We also thank Michael A. Trush and Hillary B. Davis for their work on chapters two through four. We describe the work of two teachers, in particular, whose work we found inspiring: Mike Fantauzzo, social studies teacher in the Rush-Henrietta Central School District (New York) and Dan Sullivan, science teacher in the Rochester City School District (New York). Several of David’s former and current graduate students were helpful in reading and critiquing the manuscript, including Joe Henderson, Oliver Cashman-Brown, and Sabrina Kahn. Janet Moore, administrative assistant, assisted with the manuscript. Dr. Trush acknowledges support from NIEHS Center Grant ES03819. He acknowledges his colleagues at Maryland Public Television, Gail Long, Elisa Hozore, and Cindy Mutryn for the over 15 years of dedication working on NIEHS- supported grants to bring environmental health to teachers and their students. More importantly, Dr. Trush would like to acknowledge and thank the many teachers he interacted with on these projects for their efforts in bringing the connection between the environment and human health to their students. Dr. Davis acknowledge support from NIEHS for RSMAS AMBIENT project, and her colleagues at the University of Miami, Lora Fleming, Ken Goodman and Lisa Pitman for many years of outstanding work on environmental health topics with Dade and Broward county teachers and students. Dr. Davis would especially like to acknowledge the teachers who so powerfully used the ethical reasoning protocol to ignite their students’ interest and passion for environmental health issues in their own communities, particularly Fred Matter and Martha Adams. vii Contents Environmental Health as an Interdisciplinary Subject . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 David W. Hursh and Camille A. Martina Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences . . . . . . . . . . 4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 The Science of Environmental Public Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Michael A. Trush Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 We Live in a World of Environmental Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 ‘‘Does ‘The Dose Make the Poison’?’’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 What Happens Following Exposure? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 How Do Chemicals Cause Toxicity? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 What Accounts for Differences in Response Between Individuals? . . . 22 Linking Environmental Exposures to Human Disease: Environmental Epidemiology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Connecting Exposure to Disease Risk: Environmental Risk Assessment and Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Putting it all Together Through Case Studies: Mercury and Dioxin as Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Case Study on Mercury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Case Study on Dioxin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Social and Psychosocial Factors: New Dimensions of Human Health and the Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Environmental Health Curriculum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Hillary B. Davis, David W. Hursh and Camille A. Martina Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 ix
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