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:

1. Explain      to the park community what the risks from fishing and swimming in the lake may be, due to mercury contamination.


2. 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

1. 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.