Season 2 - Episode 3

Helpful Links

We want to highlight the work done by the California Community Foundation's Wildfire Recovery Fund. This organization is truly one to recognize, they support recovery efforts for housing, case management, mental health, and medical care for displaced residents. Additionally the work that they do is also to aid rebuilding essential infrastructure like emergency communication systems. If you are able, look into this organization and see if you are able to donate or volunteer with them.

https://www.calfund.org/funds/wildfire-recovery-fund/

Transcript

Hello, welcome to Mirroring Medicine with Kodi and Isabel! Today we will be discussing the complexities and health effects that environmental factors can have on people. We want to first state that we are devastated from the effects of the wildfires in Los Angeles and surrounding areas. The effects of this devastation is unexplainable and we will be mentioning some organizations that are supporting communities in need.  

We want to remind our audience that this podcast is meant to provide an overview and it is not comprehensive, we will be going over the tip of the iceberg in regards to this topic and we recommend the audience researching this topic even further. Additionally, this podcast does not disclose  medical advice, if you would like to inquire further, please contact your doctor. 

Introduction - Isabel 

To start off I want to get into the ways in which your environment, such as where you live, your occupation, access to certain foods, health needs plays an instrumental part in your health and ability to improve your health. The most concise examples are that many people live in what are called “food deserts,” and these areas that are limited in fresh produce do in fact affect the health of the individuals living in this area. Another example would be working as a farmer with excess exposure to pesticides and chemicals that directly harm the health of your self by ingesting large amounts of toxic chemicals. 

In regards to the specifics about how health can be affected by these environmental factors, we wanted to discuss how air quality in particular can either exacerbate current underlying conditions. Short term exposure to pollutants can affect the eyes, and respiratory tract as that is where the pollutants are entering the body. This can lead to symptoms such as coughing, phlegm, wheezing, and difficulty breathing. However, if you have an underlying health problem such as asthma, or heart failure this exposure could worsen these symptoms and even lead to exacerbation of disease (1). This could include bronchitis, inflammation of the bronchioles, the tubes that transport air into the lungs (2), reduced lung function such as reduced oxygen intake. In terms of cardiovascular effects, increased ingestion of pollution with underlying conditions can lead to heart failure, heart attack, and stroke (1). According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the effects on the cardiovascular system occur in 3 ways:

Causing systemic inflammation, the foreign particles in the lungs trigger an immune response and that can lead to increased chronic plaque buildup in the arteries also known as atherosclerosis and blood clots can block arteries or veins (thrombosis).

When the pollutants are extremely small in size they can actually bypass the alveoli-capillary barrier and enter the bloodstream directly. This is especially dangerous because this can promote coagulation or clotting of blood cells and also contribute to plaque (atherosclerosis).

Lastly, particles that are large enough to interact with our pulmonary sensory receptors can actually affect heart rate variability, activate the sympathetic portion of the nervous system responsible for fight or flight which naturally increases blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate even further (3). 

Organization for this podcast: California community foundation has a Wildfire recovery fund that is directly supporting individuals affected by the 2025 LA wildfires. This organization is truly one to recognize, they support recovery efforts for housing, case management, mental health, and medical care for displaced residents. Additionally the work that they do is also to aid rebuilding essential infrastructure like emergency communication systems.  

If you are able please, look into this organization and see if you are able to donate or volunteer with them. We will provide the link in our show note captions. 

Part 2 - Kodi

So continuing our conversation on the relationship between the environment and medicine as a whole, we would like to talk about global warming, climate change, (or war) and its impact on food and access to air, water, or plants. First, we need to establish a few key vocabulary for the audience that might be listening. 

Climate change, according to the United Nations (UN), states that there are long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts in weather patterns or temperatures are contributed to by humans. Fossil fuels are a unique buzzword being thrown around but this is just coal, oil, and gas. (4)  

• Global warming, according to national geographic, refers to the increase in the planet’s overall average temperature in recent decades. (5)

• The greenhouse effect - occurs when the sun’s rays go through the atmosphere and those rays reflect that heat, effectively trapping that heat on Earth. 

• Greenhouse gasses include: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and water vapor. 

Due to climate change and/or global warming, flooding is an increasing issue with precipitation becoming stronger, heavier, and more frequent. Droughts are also becoming more common especially in the Western part, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S Department of Commerce. (6) So we already see the opposite of both sides, containing flooding in some parts of the US, and droughts in the other. Snowpack is an important source of water, as global warming increases, snow is not as readily available and will melt due to the increasing temperature of it all. Food supply will also be affected. This is because droughts and floods will cause challenges for farmers trying to grow crops that are either seasonal or in the opposite environmental condition. Not to mention with increasing global warming in the environment, farmers have higher occupational hazards like heat stroke, heat exhaustion, and increased risk for heart attacks. 

Health is affected as well. Mosquitos, ticks, and other parasitic insects will carry to novel environments due to the growth of global warming. Additionally, dry conditions from global warming could give rise to wildfires which can greatly reduce the air quality by increasing the amount of greenhouse gasses, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and other various dangerous organic compounds, according to the CDC. (7) These effects of climate change release harmful pollutants into the air which, according to the CDC, can cause breathing and heart-related hospitalizations, emergency department visits, the need for medication for asthma, bronchitis, chest pain, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (also known as COPD) and other respiratory infections. (7) 

What are potential solutions that we can perform as humans: 

Three actions can be performed according to the United Nations, this includes: cutting emissions, adapting to climate impacts, and financing required adjustments. (4)

• A movement away from fossil fuels can decrease the production of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide and methane. Alternative energy options are solar/wind. Large declines in coal, oil, and gas need to be cut. 

• Some individualistic solutions that we can perform are: (8)

• Saving energy at home, improving energy efficiency. Switch to LED. reducing heating and cooling use. 

• Walk, bike, or take public transport, or switch to electric vehicles. 

• Taking fewer flights, instead take a train. 

• Reduce, reuse, repair, and recycle. 

• Eat more vegetables. Throw away less food. Plant native species, clean up the environment (do not litter)

• Speak up and spread the word!

What is Agent Orange? 

Additionally, we wanted to cover another topic in history which was the Herbicide program during the Vietnam war also known as Agent Orange. This was to destroy the crops and the ecosystem of Vietnam but it affected both the environment and humans as a whole. This was successful in eliminating the quote unquote United States enemy, but affected both the US soldiers and the Vietnamese people until this day. This includes a list of symptoms including acne of the face, blackheads, getting infections frequently, numbness, prickly or tingling feeling in your hands and feet, fatigue, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, swelling of feet and legs (edema), tremors while your muscles are at rest, AL amyloidsis, severe birth defects, bladder cancer, B-cell leukemia, chloroacne, type 2 diabetes, hodgekin lymphoma, hypothyroidism, heart disease, multiple myeloma, parkinsons, neuropathy, porphyria, prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, and soft tissue sarcoma according to the cleveland clinic. This is one of the dangers of war and was life-threatening and caused death from this environmental impact that it produced. (9)

Citations

1. United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). "Health Effects Attributed to Wildfire Smoke." Wildfire Smoke Course, 2024, ⁠https://www.epa.gov/wildfire-smoke-course/health-effects-attributed-wildfire-smoke⁠. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

2. Cleveland Clinic. "Bronchitis." Cleveland Clinic, 13 June 2023, ⁠https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/3993-bronchitis⁠. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

3. United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). "Particle Pollution and Cardiovascular Effects." Particle Pollution Course, 2024, ⁠https://www.epa.gov/pmcourse/particle-pollution-and-cardiovascular-effects#:~:text=The%20mechanisms%20by%20which%20exposure,Translocation%20into%20the%20blood⁠. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

4. United Nations. "What Is Climate Change?" United Nations,⁠ https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/what-is-climate-change⁠. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

5. National Geographic Society. "Global Warming." National Geographic Society,⁠ https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/global-warming/⁠. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

6. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Climate Change Impacts." National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,⁠ https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/climate/climate-change-impacts⁠. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

7. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Wildfires." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2 Mar. 2024,⁠ https://www.cdc.gov/climate-health/php/effects/wildfires.html⁠. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

8. United Nations. "Actions for a Healthy Planet." United Nations,⁠ https://www.un.org/en/actnow/ten-actions⁠. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

9. Cleveland Clinic. "Agent Orange Effects & Symptoms." Cleveland Clinic,⁠ https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/24689-agent-orange-effects⁠. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.