Look Inside a State-Wide Environmental Reporting System Project

For three years many California businesses paid a $25 electronic reporting surcharge in addition to their regular annual permit fees. The funds, approximately $10M, were collected to develop a state-wide system known as the California Environmental Reporting System, or CERS.

The expectations for CERS are substantial:

• Eliminate paper by collecting facility forms on the web

• Establish automated workflows for regulators to review/approve applications electronically

• Transfer data to local regulators (e.g., Health Departments) by partnering with commercial software vendors and local IT

• Establish and sustain a state-wide database of facilities and program details
  

Beginning in 2009, state and local regulators worked against budget crisis, furloughs, hiring freezes, and steep technical requirements to achieve these ambitious goals. Commercial software companies continue to focus on bringing their customers along. Small and large businesses watch with interest, some actively resisting, some skeptical, and some excited for the prospect of eliminating paper.

The legal implementation deadline is January, 2013. In this interactive session, let’s review the origins and implementation (the good and bad) of the California Environmental Reporting System (CERS). With only six months to go until the project goes “live,” we will see the dynamic interaction of organizational culture, people, and technology.

While this particular project is limited to six programs in the hazardous materials category, it spotlights a desire held by many state and federal agencies… how can one gain access to the significant data collected and curated at the local level? Also, local agencies will want to know how businesses will respond to special technology fees and the prospect of typing-in their own forms on the web. Finally, and most importantly, can all these moving parts be brought together in time?

Food Safety Inspection Results: 'My Restaurant did what?!![Learning Lab]

Presenters will discuss the need for, barriers to and benefits of having health department inspection results readily available online. In what formats should data be made available and how much data should be accessible online. Learn how having this data available on line can not only benefit industry by making information easily accessible, but also how an interactive system could allow industry to respond back electronically indicating what steps are being taken to rectify identified deficiencies through an electronically submitted risk control plan. Speakers will address these issues from the retail industry as well as the providers of data tracking software providers.

Train-the-Trainer [Pre-Conference Workshop- Full Day]

The FDA’s Foodborne Illness Risk Factor studies concluded that the presence of trained food handlers has a positive effect on overall food safety compliance. Likewise, recent studies have unveiled the need to provide training in a manner to be received by “oral-culture” communicators. For the Environmental Health Specialist, it is critical to communicate information that not only encourages retention of key messages but also motivates individuals to act on the information provided. In essence, the trainer should inspire individual behavior change. This participant-focused learning lab provides a variety of hands-on training activities to increase adult learning and retention through learner-focused involvement and crucial trainer techniques that add energy and emphasis to fundamental messages. The intended outcome is to provide the audience with new skills as learner-focused trainer.

Making the Message Stick [Learning Lab]

The FDA’s Foodborne Illness Risk Factor studies concluded that the presence of trained food handlers has a positive effect on overall food safety compliance. Likewise, recent studies have unveiled the need to provide training in a manner to be received by “oral-culture” communicators. For the Environmental Health Specialist, it is critical to communicate information that not only encourages retention of key messages but also motivates individuals to act on the information provided. In essence, the trainer should inspire individual behavior change. This participant-focused learning lab provides a variety of hands-on training activities to increase adult learning and retention through learner-focused involvement and crucial trainer techniques that add energy and emphasis to fundamental messages. The intended outcome is to providethe audience with new skills as learner-focused trainer.

Proven: Training does impact food safety compliance! So how do we get the message to stick? From time-tested Confucius, Bloom and Maslow, to modern-day Stolovitch and Dale, this participant-focused learning lab provides a variety of hands-on training activities to increase adult learning and retention through “oral culture”-focused involvement. Go home prepared to inspire, motivate, and bring about behavioral change.

The Effects of Indoor Air Pollutants on the Lung Health of Asthmatic Patients

Environmental studies have consistently shown an association between air pollution and exacerbations of illness in people with respiratory diseases such as Asthma (Zhengmin, 2010). Asthma, a chronic disorder in over 160 million people causing one death every twenty seconds, involves the interaction of airflow obstruction, bronchial hyper-responsiveness, and inflammation (WHO, 2005). Medical practitioners currently attribute any degradation in lung health to pathophysiological factors, and routinely suggest expensive steroids and other inhaler treatments to alleviate respiratory disorders. The goal of my research is to uniquely quantify the effect of airborne pollutants on the degredation in lung health of asthmatic patients enabling targeted remediation that incorporates both pathophysiological and environmental factors.

It was hypothesized that the Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF) rate of asthmatic subjects varies inversely with the concentration of each pollutant, including airborne particulate matter (PM10), carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs). In Phase 1, over 100 subjects were recruited to participate in this study. Using scientific and HIPPA compliant methods, over 4 million air quality and PEFR readings. Based on the Pearson R Correlation coefficient, a strong inverse correlation was determined between the degradation in the PEFR and the PM10 and TVOC levels, but not between the CO2 and CO concentration levels.

In Phase 2, I developed a novel mathematical model and an interactive online application to quantify the percent what percent of a subject's PEF degradation is caused by the levels of PM10 and TVOC in each subject's environment. Medical practitioners and Environmental specialists alike could use my mathematical model as it provides a better estimate for the PEF rate and supports targeted remediation of indoor air quality. I have written a letter to the Chairman of the EPA and the U.S. President asking them to allow me to present my findings to them and discuss possible amendment to the Clean Air Act needs to include TVOCs as a criteria pollutant. Possible ideas for future research include engineering a smart thermostat that monitors air quality real-time and studying the effect of TVOC on the endothilial lining of our lungs.

Sanitation Concerns with the Military in Afghanistan

A United States Army Preventive Medicine Medical Detachment provided public health support to over 7000 United States and coalition forces in Regional Command West Afghanistan. This Medical Detachment focused on Occupational and Environmental Health Site Assessments, vector borne surveillance, the Defense Occupational and Environmental Health Readiness System portal, and general site sanitation within forward operating bases (FOB) in western and austere regions of Afghanistan. The three top sanitation issues were solid waste management, chlorination of water and feral animals. Preventive medicine technicians traveled throughout a large area of Afghanistan providing base camp site assessments and working with the FOB leadership to correct deficiencies in sanitation resulting in improved sanitation and a reduction in Disease Non-battle injuries.