Environmental & Public Health

Editor's Note: Kendra Klein recently published a long-form piece in The Nation about her work with hospitals interested in serving sustainably produced food. We asked her to explain how the article came about so other Fellows could benefit from her experience.

How can hospitals improve the food everyone eats? Kendra Klein is a 2011 Switzer Fellow working at the intersection of public health and sustainable agri-food systems. In this video she explains what hospitals can do to advance the agenda of healthy food and sustainable food production systems for everyone.

Amy Clipp gave a webinar for us that offered ideas for bridging the gap between science and policy, with a particular focus on helping scientists apply their work in complex, political environments. Her stories are based on lessons learned advising the State of Louisiana on its 2012 Coastal Master Plan.

UC Berkeley researchers have recorded high levels of the carcinogen formaldehyde at dozens of Northern California day care facilities. Eighty-seven percent of the day care centers studied showed formaldehyde levels above exposure the state considers acceptable during an eight hour period, although not significantly higher than in a typical home. “The primary source is from particle board and other kinds of pressed furniture and plywood,” said Asa Bradman, the study’s lead author. Read more

Thousands of middle income Vermonters could see their health care costs spike when a new federal exchange goes into place in 2014. A group of advocates is urging the Legislature to create a special state subsidy program to make up the difference.

We usually think of hospitals as a beacon of health, but they can have an impact on workers and patients.

In his experience as a firefighter, paramedic, union officer, green chemistry leader, and now Director of the UC Berkeley Labor Occupational Health Program, Switzer Fellow Mike Wilson (2002) has learned that when someone is injured, sickened, or killed on the job, the immediate cause is usually obvious: an unguarded machine, a blocked exit door, a toxic chemical, exposure to silica, and so forth.

At dawn, at the loading dock behind the kitchen at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital of Ann Arbor, Michigan, small lift loaders and handcarts trundle boxes from food trucks to storage rooms. The perishables go straight to immense walk-in refrigerators packed with processed produce—buckets of cubed melons, bags of pre-washed lettuce, packages of onions diced by the quarter-, half-, and three-quarter inch.

The Los Angeles Times also ran an excellent story on this subject: "An exquisite Mexico beach, cursed by plastic" (January 27. 2012)