Chemical policies should be widely available and informative to the entire community. If people are unaware of chemicals and other hazardous substances that they are exposed to, they cannot appropriately protect themselves from harm. People have the right to know fo these hazards, but data on these products are either insufficiently disclosed or not disclosed at all. Policies must serve to protect the individual and the population. It is important for reporting regulations to mandate manufacturers’ full disclosure regardless of how hazardous their products may be. These disclosures and other relevant information must be uploaded into a database, where consumers can properly educate themselves and make personal choices based on the provided information. The health information technology field is critical to the implementation of these policies and database updates because the reporting process must be simple, standardized, relevant, and timely in order for manufacturers to actually follow through with reporting and accurately inform consumers. However, it’ll be even more important to find a standard for reporting because more information does not necessarily result in positive outcomes. There needs to be a medium for what will and how much will be reported. Inclusion and exclusion criteria must be documented and accessible on the database, so whomever is in charge of the reporting process can monitor and update the data.
Using the “What’s on my food” website, I searched the general food items which comprised the previous night’s dinner: chicken breast, rice, green beans, and water. My search began with mild results, but became progressively worse as I went to the next food item. Chicken breast was found to have 7 pesticide residues; 2 presenting with developmental or reproductive toxins. Rice was found to have 15 residues, with 10 suspected hormone disruptors. Green beans had 44 residues; 21 of which were suspected hormone disruptors and 11 were neurotoxins. For water, there were 14 suspected hormone disruptors and 9 developmental or reproductive toxins among the 59 residues found. These findings are nothing to be proud of, but it made me realize how our diet greatly impacts our overall health. Although the general population may be working towards a well-balanced diet, the food items they consume—no matter how “healthy”—are actually causing internal chaos as the pesticide residues wrea...
The saying, "what we don't know won't hurt us" seems to be the manufactures mentality. Unfortunately, consumers put faith in the government and most feel that products have deemed safe otherwise why would stores sell them.
ReplyDeleteManufacturer's must maintain transparency in order to get the consumer's trust. It is unfortunate that many consumers are unknowingly buying dangerous products. I like your idea of empowering the health information technology field. Easy access and bridging this communication gap is the first step to establishing a manufacturers transparency and may hold the manufacturer responsible.
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