California Desert Communities: Community Science in the Salton Sea
This is a collection of community science in the Salton Sea in California Desert Communities.
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Sara.TillThe documentary follows Ensingmer during his searches for information and during the government hearing regarding the water contamination. This includes multiple interviews with former residents of the base, including former marines who are currently undergoing treatment for cancer and other illnesses caused by VOM's. The film mainly includes input from these residents; while it does provide some information through texts during pauses in the film, it does not provide exact numerical data, and mostly provides emotional appeals. The film also follow those effected as they attempt to collect information about all of those exposed to the contaminated water, including a spreadsheet of former male residents diagnosed with breast cancer.
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Sara.TillUnfortunately, this article does not describe a disaster situation, thus this question is not answerable.
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Sara.TillThis study appears to be through the University of Illinois at Chicago. The vast majority of secondary institution-based studies come from federal grants, usually through National Health Institute or through a specific government agency interested in that topic.
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Sara.Till"The deputy chief of Russia's nuclear operator, Rosatom's Nikolai Spassky, suggested that international law should force countries operation nuclear plants to abide by international safety standards. This proposal amounts to a recognition of the international character of the nuclear energy industry, but it remains unclear as to who would enforce such rules and how-- as of this writing, no international agency has such powers." Schmid, 199
"What knowledge should nuclear safety be based upon, where the science is still contested? And how useful is the notion of transparency in a context where the operation of nuclear power plants is considered an "inalienable right", as the text of probably today's single most important nuclear treaty states (IAEA 1970)? Nuclear specialists around the world are still discussing the existing emergency response organizations and the reasons they ultimately failed." Schmid, 200
"Anthropologists who have studied nuclear workplaces consistently find that the 'culture of control' (that is, attempts to regulate every last action of the operating staff) is too rigid to account for all imaginable situations." Schmid, 201
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Sara.TillThis group has yet to produce a published report; however, they openly provide data about their response time-- which averages less than 4 minutes. This is a significant decrease from outside ambulatory agencies. Additionally, state statistics can be extrapolated to the group, such as noting that the vast majority of homicides still occur with Bed-Stuy, leading to their approximately 100 calls per month.
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Sara.TillOften considered a "social disease" HIV/AIDS can be linked to certain social groups and subsequent behaviors within these groups. Taking this a step further, poor prognosis in treatment can be linked to social stratification. In the early 90's in Baltimore, a study was performed that linked race to reception of timely medical intervention. Modifications to the programs, such as removing insurance status as a determining factor for care, drastically reduced racially-biased outcomes. In the Rwandan campaign, Partners in Health instituted proximal care to rural regions-- the areas where care was most significantly lacking. This, in turn, can greatly mitigate the effects of social violence. Moreover, structural interventions (such as changing the accepted and prescribed practices of international bodies) can greatly reduce the effects of disease within a population. This includes such things as when and how drugs are administered, who is receiving medications, and changing conventional practices proven to enhance the spread of disease.
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Sara.TillThe article primarily argues that, although there are interventions and steps in place, "biosecurity" is not currently a viable or stable entity. The four main areas stated in this article (emerging infectious disease, bioterrorism, cutting-edge life sciences, and food safety) are not formerly understood or controlled enough to make a feasible and honest plan that ensures safety. While steps can be taken and measures used, the dynamic nature of these fields and the human condition prevents us from establishing a truly flawless safety net at this time. One only has to look at the re-emergence of previously extinct diseases such as measles, the prevalence of pertussis, or the assertion of chemotherapy's deadliness to see we do not have a full handle on any of these fields.
A series of visualizations of the concept of "fast disasters."