How Can Dnp Prepared Nurses Healp With Unsafe Drinking Water in Underdeveloped Countries
By: Cari Nash
"Thousands accept lived without love, not one without water." – W.H. Auden, 1956
Clean, safe and affordable water is easy to take for granted. However, admission to potable drinking h2o varies widely across the U.s.a., depending non just on geography, but besides on race and socioeconomic status. Communities of color are unduly afflicted by contaminated drinking water, placing them at a greater risk of developing agin health outcomes such as lead poisoning and gastrointestinal illness. Few studies have been washed to determine the extent of this disparity; however, here are some striking statistics from a review published in 2011:
- xxx% of people in the Navajo Nation were living without piped water, and 21% of domestic water sources tested positive for coli
- 25,000 Hispanic residents in the Yakima Valley of Washington Land relied on wells, 12% of which tested higher up the nitrate maximum contaminant level
- In California, the counties with the highest number of drinking water violations also had the highest proportion of Latino people
The contempo public health crisis in Flint, Michigan brought environmental justice issues to the forefront. The crisis began in 2022 when public officials inverse the drinking water source to Flint River in an attempt to relieve coin. As a event Flintstone residents, the majority of whom were Blackness and poor, drank contaminated water for at to the lowest degree 18 months; the community'south concerns were largely ignored even equally it became credible that the water was unsafe. At that place was a massive failure to protect Flint residents at all levels of government. Since and so, multiple government officials accept resigned, and regime officials and private employees have been criminally charged for their involvement in the disaster. The nearly serious charges, involuntary manslaughter, were made confronting Michigan's summit health official and four others. Here'due south a timeline of the water crisis from U.Southward. News.
Experts declared Flint'south drinking h2o "rubber" in September 2017, but residents were instructed to continue to use bottled or filtered h2o until all the lead pipes have been replaced, which is expected to be completed in 2020. The full extent of the health impact of this issue may not be apparent for many years. However, co-ordinate to lead poisoning experts Dr. Philip Landrigan and Dr. David Bellinger, pb
"Damages children'due south brains, erodes intelligence, diminishes creativity and the power to weigh consequences and make good decisions, impairs language skills, shortens attention spans, and predisposes children to hyperactive and ambitious behavior…when atomic number 82 exposure is widespread, it can undermine the economic productivity and sustainability of entire societies."
Hurricane Maria's aftermath in Puerto Rico is some other example of the long history of ecology injustices sustained by people of color. Several months after the tempest, millions remain without potable drinking water because the hurricane's devastation was exacerbated by Puerto Rico's socioeconomic factors (a frail economic system and inadequate infrastructure) as well equally the tedious federal response.
Healthy People 2030 aims to "achieve salubrious equity, eliminate disparities…[and] create social and concrete environments that promote attaining full potential for health and well-being for all." These are powerful goals that get at the heart of ecology justice, a movement which seeks to ensure that environmental policies produce outcomes that do not unfairly burden communities on the basis of race or ethnicity. However, the Trump Assistants's proposed federal budget is in direct opposition to these goals. It makes enormous cuts to the Ecology Protection Agency, and in item to the Office of Ecology Justice. While Congress has restored some funding to these programs, the proposed budget cuts ship a clear message that the current administration is not interested in addressing issues of ecology justice and associated health disparities.
In the absence of government recognition, public health nurses take the responsibility to promote environmental justice. Past agreement the disparities that exist and working to eliminate them, public wellness nurses can positively impact environmental justice and be instrumental in achieving health equity for all.
Read more than almost how water and air pollution, hazardous waste sites, and fifty-fifty climate alter disproportionately affect people of color:
5 Things To Know Virtually Communities of Color and Ecology Justice
Cari Nash is a pediatric intensive intendance nurse, and she is pursuing a articulation MSN-FNP/MPH degree. Before her career in nursing, she was a volunteer instructor in the Democracy of the Marshall islands. Her interests include chronic affliction direction, substance use disorders and harm reduction, and social determinants of health.
Stay up to engagement
Get updates on the latest stories, from hot topics, to faculty inquiry, alumni profiles, and more—right in your inbox.
To receive problems of the Johns Hopkins Nursing semi-annual printed magazine, sign up here.
Source: https://magazine.nursing.jhu.edu/2018/03/dialogues-in-health-equity-in-the-u-s-access-to-safe-water-may-depend-on-race-and-ethnicity/
0 Response to "How Can Dnp Prepared Nurses Healp With Unsafe Drinking Water in Underdeveloped Countries"
Post a Comment