Analyze

In the 1990s, a shift supervisor and wastewater manager at Formosa Plastics, Dale Jurasek, found himself suffering from sores that no doctor in Calhoun County could explain. Only months later, after several visits to a regional medical center associated with the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, did he learn that the reasons were chemicals he was exposed to at the Formosa plant where he worked, causing irreparable damage to his nervous system. Jurasek’s experience exhibits what can be called divisible health care, which runs in a tangled parallel with divisible governance. It is an experience painfully familiar to many people with toxic exposures: seeking health care itself becomes toxic because established health systems can’t register the strange, sometimes highly individualized, effects of toxic harms (Morgan and Fortun; Fortun 2011).

Angry that Formosa harmed his health and likely that of many other workers, Jurasek then contacted the US EPA and FBI as a whistleblower, providing undercover information about worker safety and failed environmental protections at the Calhoun County Formosa plant (Gibbons 2019). After several years of work on the case, however, the FBI dropped it. Jurasek speculates that this was because the FBI’s attention was diverted by a big case against Koch Industries. Again, capacity to govern environmental health was inadequate. 

Jursaek stayed angry. He also learned about Diane Wilson, and in 2008 reached out for a meeting – at a meeting place out of town so they wouldn’t be recognized by neighbors. The result was a coalition between Formosa plant workers and a local shrimp fisher that has had staying power, bringing different perspectives on Formosas together. 

In 2017, Diane Wilson, Dale Jurasek, and Ronnie Hamrick (another former wastewater manager) – organized as the Calhoun County Waterkeepers – filed a landmark citizens lawsuit against Formosa, bringing literally buckets of evidence forward, supporting allegations of rampant and illegal discharge of plastic pellets and other pollutants into Lavaca Bay from Formosa’s Calhoun County plant. The case was led by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which describes the outcome as the largest settlement of a Clean Water Act suit filed by private individuals (Berti Suman & Schade 2021).

An ethnographic moment that stands out to me is when a yearly visitor to the Grand Staircaise Escalante region emphasized the importance of preserving the area under monument status. In a rare moment of recognizing the energy use/demands of even those who are preservation/wilderness proponents, he said "look, I know we have to get our energy from somewhere and maybe for now it's going to be fossil fuels, but please, not here. This place is sacred." Although everyday energy use and the use of petroleum to make such outdoor recreation products as kayaks is occasionally brought into view instead of displaced, these comments are often divorsed from thinking about how people in this area get energy, where the materials extracted from this area go, and what other forms of energy production might replace this extraction. Rather than arguing for a transition of how energy is produced, there seems to be a sense of inevitabilty of extraction but a desire for such industrial processes to be carried out somewhere else.

This study would be useful because it shows the prevalence of overdiagnosis. It shows that while the nuclear disaster did cause an increase in the observed thyroid cancers, this was well above the expected number of cases. While they did not present the dangerous implications of overdiagnosis, this is something that could be researched further. It can be considered a good thing that these cases were found through the Program put in place, but can also cause harm if unnecessary radiation was administered.

Technical professionals can use this data to perhaps launch other studies to analyze the true effects of the disaster in Japan on thyroid cancer rates in adjacent areas. This study and data finings from this can be used to show the need for further studies on the matter in order to determine the correlation between cancer rates and the disaster. The study overall shows that there were high screening rates for thyroid cancer after the disaster, yet attributes it to the possibility of over diagnosis. This study can open the doors for numerous more studies on this matter. This study can also be used down the road as a reference for anyone who wishes to study the degree of fallout and cancer rates caused by a nuclear disaster. Methods used in this study can be modeled down the road for other disasters, with adjustments accounting for the possibility of over diagnosis. 

Professionals could use data from this study to further research the affects of nuclear radiation on the human body. 

Professionals could use data from this study to further research the affects of nuclear radiation on the human body. 

Technical professionals can make use of data from this study to persuade the WHO of the need of global health prevention, through use of gathering supplies, placing infrastructure, and increasing the country's virability in terms of economic and health status. This study can be used to prevent dieases, prep for natural disasters and stree the need for cures for aliments common to these countries.

On a day to day basis as a healthcare professional, this isn’t very important outside of a teaching and understanding standpoint. A disease is, first and foremost, a disease, and needs to be treated accordingly. While healthcare professionals should educate their patients about risk factors that could lead to their increased likelihood of illness, as well as understand and appreciate why some populations are more vulnerable than others, it does not assist in direct disease treatment.

There are several ways that this study can benefit technical professionals. By knowing the factors for the highest risk for communicable diseases, resources can be directed to mitigate the effects of a disaster. The more aware technical professionals are of the risks of communicable diseases, the more likely they will be able to identify when these situations are likely and prevent them from happening.

The data acquired in this study can be used not only for improvement in policies and training for healthcare workers, but also to examine the risk factors for the disease. One example is the age and gender disparities in those nfected. These could be explained by the typical age and gender of healthcare workers, but could also show a trend in risk when coupled with patient data. The data on the districts and their infection rates can be used to help pinpoint the origin of infection.