New England College Pitcher Oklahoma and Vaccination Discussions Responses

Overview

I'm working on a environmental science discussion question and need support to help me understand better.

The Instructions for the Assignments are attatched below in the word document.

you will also need my Lgn info to do the assignments which i will give to you.

these are the students Discussion posts you have to respond to:

Cody

1. What has happened in Pitcher, Oklahoma, to make it the largest Superfund site in the United States? In the state of Oklahoma, it was a town that was known for being a producer of zinc and lead, and other metals, this led to seeing an increase in production in order to make weapons for World War 2. But doing this as they thought was a great idea, it caused toxins to people that were living there, while also contaminating every part of where residents were getting their water supply from.
2. What are chat piles, and how do they affect Tar Creek? Chat Piles is a pile of waste caused by lead and zinc mining, made up of rock, limestone, and other waste products. The chat piles affected Tar Creek by causing contamination of all water supplies there that are harmful to the residents to drink. When the rain would fall it caused the chat piles to flow into the water streams around and they didn’t have any idea that it was happening.
3. Why were the children the primary targets for Howard Hu’s study of exposure to metal from abandoned zinc and lead mines? They were the primary target for Howard Hu’s study due to the fact that children are part of the most vulnerable population and since exposing them and their teeth as they fall out was a way for them to see how lead and zinc and other metals they were being exposed to. Lead exposures have severe impacts on everyone and caused children's IQ to be decreased compared to children that haven’t been exposed.
4. Robin Whyatt is researching links to birth defects from indoor pesticide use in New York City. What does she believe to be a common misconception about pesticides? Dr. Whyatt research concluded that when it comes to pesticides they are not just in agriculture, they present themselves in other areas in our life and there are ways t5o minimize exposure
5. What are biomarkers and what biomarker(s) did Whyatt use in her pesticide exposure study? Biomarkers are substances that are found in certain parts of the body through the blood, fluid that is where toxins are stored, to also find out how much of an impact the toxins have impacted our body in a negative way. Dr. Whyatt used the biomarkers to show how pesticides impacted children in regards to lead and zinc.

Christine

1. What has happened in Pitcher, Oklahoma, to make it the largest Superfund site in the United States?

Pitcher, Oklahoma, was a metal mining town that was a mass producer of zinc and lead during World War I and World War II. While mining the lead chat form, these chat piles took over Picher, OK, and created more toxic exposure to the residents. Due to the extreme toxic exposure, Picher was declared a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency.

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2. What are chat piles, and how do they affect Tar Creek?

Chat piles are the residue left from extracting different metals such as lead and zinc. This residue is a waste that contains high levels of hazardous metals. Tar Creek was affected by the chat piles due to contamination of water supplies that began to harm individuals due to consumption. The residents were being exposed to lead and being poisoned—the unknowns of the arsenic and other toxic materials hurting the population's health. Tar Creek residents were also unaware of what was in the chat piles; they had birthday parties out on the piles and used the chat to fill in roads and driveways, also going off-roading, leading to toxic exposure.

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3. Why were the children the primary targets for Howard Hu’s study of exposure to metal from abandoned zinc and lead mines?

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Children were the main focus for Howard Hu's study due to the longevity of the lead exposure study. They were using children for this study, allowing for short and long-term assessments. Along with children being the most vulnerable for exposure as their bodies aren't done developing, allowing the ability to understand the health and behavioral effects with exposure to lead and other toxic metals. Also, teeth were a significant factor since lead attaches itself to other proteins like calcium in the body. The children's teeth showed significantly increased lead levels that were remarkable and indicated a need to add to the study.

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4. Robin Whyatt is researching links to birth defects from indoor pesticide use in New York City. What does she believe to be a common misconception about pesticides?

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Robin Whyatt believes that pesticides aren't just used in agriculture. There are low and high-level exposures in daily life.

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5. What are biomarkers and what biomarker(s) did Whyatt use in her pesticide exposure study?

Biomarkers are biological molecules found in blood other body fluids or tissues used as a sign of normal or abnormal process of a condition or disease. Biomarkers may use it to see how well the body responds to a treatment for a disease or condition.

Robin Whyatt used blood samples to identify exposures to pesticides like lead and zinc on a mother and child to understand the levels at which people are being exposed in their daily lives, indoor and outdoor.

Donald(Exta Credit Response)

Anti-vaccination and Vaccination

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The most important ways of preventive medicine is safeguarding individual against diseases and infections is through vaccines. Their contribution has been great in minimizing the popular childhood infections, and also eradicated some ailments which were dangerous in the past like smallpox. Also, malaria and polio are diseases which have been curbed by the vaccines. However, it has not ceased the critics by the people against the vaccines.

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Recently, the antivaccination sentiments for COVID 19, have shoot by numbers which argue that introduction of vaccines has brought more harm than good to the children who often are the target. Jean McCarthy and other influential people have dealt accordingly with fear and distraction into guardians and parents thoughts by showing up as experts of autism.

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Moreover, both social media and television hosts have contributed effectively on education against administering of vaccines by giving out credence to their campaign. Consequently, this has dropped the number of vaccines rate across the globe. Therefore, this has resulted into disease outbreaks like COVID 19, which was thought to have ceased.

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Moreover, religious views and other personal reasons are also main contributors to fall in immunization. This has result to vaccinations dropping hence threatening to herd immunity which has been fought for many years by the medical world.

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Therefore, this leaves the only option for safeguarding people from diseases which spread faster as coming up with a disease's resistance which initiates from herd immunity when many individuals are immune after acquiring vaccinations.

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The myths and fear which are against vaccination have been there for ages dating on 18th century. This started with Reverend Massey who termed immunization as "diabolical operations". According to Vasconcellos, Castiel & Griep (2015), he argued that vaccines were ungodly and were helping people evade God's penalty on individuals. Despite the rise and spread of the vaccines, critics against it has never varnished, which is understood differently in various parts of the world, where some are against it due to legal obstacles, skepticism, and theology.

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The debate on the risks of avoiding vaccination and dangers of acquiring vaccination has risen has been on talk almost everywhere nowadays. This has been brought up due to rise in the number of critics which are suggesting that vaccination might be more harmful than helpful. The anti-vaccination movement has been contributed to adversely by the technology, through provision of medical information on the net.

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According to Panchal et al. (2015), this has affected healthcare sector dynamics and patient-physicians interactions.

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Access of medical information has been possible to everyone which is different from what was there before where only medical officers kept it in textbooks and journals. This has therefore resulted in shifting of power from medical officers as exclusive managers regarding care of the patients to the patient themselves. Although this could be assisting in a way, the false evidence and propagation which is misleading that has been online can have a concern which is negative such as parent not prioritizing immunization of their children. Moreover, there has been lots of information which is false talking about immunization and it has been made easier to access.

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There is need to equate the dangers of getting ill and dangers of the adverse effects of vaccination. A number of people opposing vaccination would reduce if majority of people thought from this perspective. This has been vivid through some of the ailments which have been controlled effectively by vaccines that are life-threatening and harmful.

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Moreover, treatment of some diseases is quite expensive in comparison to disease prevention through vaccination. Moreover, it should be noted that majority of people who give wrong information on vaccines are after their gains. In addition, ones history of vaccinations might contribute to their views on immunizations which is cemented by independent or by the media.

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Moreover, there is a broad non uniform group of people who are in doubt about vaccines, hence, therefore, with significance of comprehending about people and groups that do participate in anti-vaccination, a conclusion by scientist should show that individuals that indicate skepticism about immunizations holds the same views, consumes same media, and are from the same background. The cultural and social settings affect both hesitancy and promotion in which messages are conveyed.

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Divergent reasons and being opposed to vaccination are the main reasons why people might not vaccinate. This is because of reasons like lacking reliable access to immunization services, complacency, lacking confidence on immunization and other various immunization issues.

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Scientists can be effective by educating the public on the need of immunization which help them from being swayed away by the wrong information provide by social media and internet. According to Fisher (2015), the continuous use of conspiracy theory thinking on leaders who oppose vaccination stimulates a lack of trust in scientific and medical communities.

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Due to this, enhancing more understanding to some of the vaccine spectrum hesitancy will not be effective since it is not likely to be enough to simply assure people that scientist has ascertained that vaccines are effective and safe when these people already show lack of trust to the experts.

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Hence, therefore, COVID 19 vaccines should be taken seriously and people should avoid critics which are posted on social media in order to raise the number of vaccines and curb life threatening diseases.