Blog #7

1. How does your community/area/country identify, manage, and pay for the cost of environmentally-related conditions?I believe it is through taxes. The tobacco tax has contributed to many programs to treat lung cancer.
   • How can you, as a health care provider, help to alleviate those costs?As a provider, I can help reduce the costs by educating my patients about the potential risk such as with mercury and lead. If they know what to avoid, they can improve their health.
2. Were you already aware of the potential links between environmental health exposures and neuro-developmental disorders? Yes, I was aware of lead and mercury exposure. But since this class I have learned of many I did not know existed.
   
   • How will this change your practice? I will continue to make it a priority to include at least one item of environmental entity at every visit.
3. If you are engaged in maternal and child health services, does your practice already incorporate the recommendations from the international group of obstetricians? In my practice I see OB and pediatrics. We do have some systems in place such as educational videos for OB patients.  During the CHDP visit much information is given about lead and mercury. Children are routinely checked for lead.
4. The relationship between environmental health exposures and reproductive effects can be extremely complex. How can you incorporate what you've learned from the UCSF video into your practice? I would need to simplify the material to be given to patients and only present one concept per visit in order to ensure proper understanding.
5. Considering Dr. Lamphear's short video, how will you educate pregnant women on newborn care? I would emphasize the importance of doing everything possible to avoid at least the toxins and exposures that they maybe aware of such as lead and mercury. I would share with my patients the risks posed on the brain by these chemicals/toxins.