Invited Perspective: Assessing the Contaminant Exposure Risks of Urban Gardening: Call for Updated Health Guidelines

For the most part, research and policymaking on urban gardening have focused on community gardens, whether in parks, vacant lots, or other public land. This emphasis, while important for many Midwestern cities, can obscure the significance of privately owned land such as front yard and back yard and their crucial connections with gardening on public land. In this case study, we examine how policies and practices related to gardening and the management of green space in two Midwestern cities exceed narrow visions of urban agriculture. The article explores the cultivation of vacant lot gardens and private yards as two modes of property in similar Midwestern contexts and argues that the management of green space is about more than urban agriculture. Instead, we show how urban gardening occurs across public/private property distinctions and involves a broader set of actors than those typically included in sustainability policies. Gardening also provides a key set of connections through which neighbors understand and practice sustainability in Midwestern cities.

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NIOSH field effort to assess chemical exposure risks to gas and oil workers.

10.26616/nioshpub2010130 ◽

2010 ◽

Keyword(s):

Chemical Exposure ◽

Oil Workers ◽

Exposure Risks

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Responsibility for chemical exposures: perspectives from small beauty salons and auto shops in southern metropolitan Tucson

BMC Public Health ◽

10.1186/s12889-021-10336-4 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Amanda A. Lee ◽

Maia Ingram ◽

Carolina Quijada ◽

Andres Yubeta ◽

Imelda Cortez ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Small Businesses ◽

Chemical Exposure ◽

The United States ◽

Power Structures ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Chemical Exposures ◽

Study Partner ◽

Chemical Products ◽

Beauty Salons ◽

Exposure Risks

Abstract Background Throughout the United States, low-wage, minority workers are disproportionately affected by occupational illnesses and injuries. Chronic exposure to hazardous chemicals at work can lead to serious illnesses, contributing to health inequities. In this article, we expand on theories of ‘responsibilization’ in an occupational health context to reveal how responsibilities for workplace chemical exposures are negotiated by workers and owners in Latinx-owned small businesses. Methods We conducted semi-structured interviews with a total of 22 workers and owners in auto repair shops and beauty salons – two high-risk industries – in Southern Metropolitan Tucson. Participants were asked about their insights into workplace chemical exposures and health. A qualitative analysis team with representation from all study partner organizations collectively coded and reviewed the interview data in QSR International’s NVivo 11 and identified overarching themes across the interviews. Results We identified three primary themes: 1) ambivalence toward risks in the workplace; 2) shifting responsibilities for exposure protection at work; and 3) reflections on the system behind chemical exposure risks. Participants discussed the complexities that small businesses face in reducing chemical exposures. Conclusions Through our analysis of the interviews, we examine how neoliberal occupational and environmental policies funnel responsibility for controlling chemical exposures down to individuals in small businesses with limited resources, obscuring the power structures that maintain environmental health injustices. We conclude with a call for upstream policy changes that more effectively regulate and hold accountable the manufacturers of chemical products used daily by small business workers.

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Antimicrobial Effects of Potential Probiotics of Bacillus spp. Isolated from Human Microbiota: In Vitro and In Silico Methods

Microorganisms ◽

10.3390/microorganisms9081615 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (8) ◽

pp. 1615

Author(s):

Alfonso Torres-Sánchez ◽

Jesús Pardo-Cacho ◽

Ana López-Moreno ◽

Ángel Ruiz-Moreno ◽

Klara Cerk ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gut Microbiota ◽

In Silico ◽

Ecological Impacts ◽

Bacillus Species ◽

Human Gut ◽

Contaminant Exposure ◽

Antimicrobial Effects ◽

Human Gut Microbiota ◽

Bacillus Spp ◽

In Silico Methods

The variable taxa components of human gut microbiota seem to have an enormous biotechnological potential that is not yet well explored. To investigate the usefulness and applications of its biocompounds and/or bioactive substances would have a dual impact, allowing us to better understand the ecology of these microbiota consortia and to obtain resources for extended uses. Our research team has obtained a catalogue of isolated and typified strains from microbiota showing resistance to dietary contaminants and obesogens. Special attention was paid to cultivable Bacillus species as potential next-generation probiotics (NGP) together with their antimicrobial production and ecological impacts. The objective of the present work focused on bioinformatic genome data mining and phenotypic analyses for antimicrobial production. In silico methods were applied over the phylogenetically closest type strain genomes of the microbiota Bacillus spp. isolates and standardized antimicrobial production procedures were used. The main results showed partial and complete gene identification and presence of polyketide (PK) clusters on the whole genome sequences (WGS) analysed. Moreover, specific antimicrobial effects against B. cereus, B. circulans, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Escherichia coli, Serratia marcescens, Klebsiella spp., Pseudomonas spp., and Salmonella spp. confirmed their capacity of antimicrobial production. In conclusion, Bacillus strains isolated from human gut microbiota and taxonomic group, resistant to Bisphenols as xenobiotics type endocrine disruptors, showed parallel PKS biosynthesis and a phenotypic antimicrobial effect. This could modulate the composition of human gut microbiota and therefore its functionalities, becoming a predominant group when high contaminant exposure conditions are present.

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Evaluation of the population distribution of dietary contaminant exposure in an Arctic population using Monte Carlo statistics.

Environmental Health Perspectives ◽

10.1289/ehp.97105316 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 105 (3) ◽

pp. 316-321 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

H M Chan ◽

P R Berti ◽

O Receveur ◽

H V Kuhnlein

Keyword(s):

Monte Carlo ◽

Population Distribution ◽

Contaminant Exposure

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A robotic irrigation system for urban gardening and agriculture

Journal of Agricultural Engineering ◽

10.4081/jae.2019.966 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 50 (4) ◽

pp. 198-207

Author(s):

Ioannis Gravalos ◽

Avgoustinos Avgousti ◽

Theodoros Gialamas ◽

Nikolaos Alfieris ◽

Georgios Paschalidis

Keyword(s):

Water Content ◽

Food Systems ◽

Management Practices ◽

Irrigation System ◽

Robotic System ◽

Urban Gardening ◽

Irrigation Treatments ◽

Comparison Of The Results ◽

Irrigation Technologies ◽

Sustainable Irrigation

Water supply limits and continued population growth have intensified the search for measures to conserve water in urban gardening and agriculture. The efficiency of water use is depended on performance of the irrigation technologies and management practices. In this study, a robotic irrigation system was developed that consists of a moving bridge manipulator and a sensor-based platform. The manipulator constructed is partly using open-source components and software, and is easily reconfigurable and extendable. In combination to the sensor-based platform this custommade manipulator has the potential to monitor the soil water content (SWC) in real time. The irrigation robotic system was tested in an experimental soil tank. The total surface of the soil tank was divided by a raster into 18 equal quadrants. The water management for maintaining water content in the soil tank within tolerable lower limit (refill point) was based on three irrigation treatments: i) quadrants whose SWC is below the refill point are irrigated; ii) quadrants are irrigated only when the daily mean SWC of the tank is below the refill point and only for those whose actual SWC is lower than that limit; and iii) quadrants are irrigated every two days with constant amount of water. A comparison of the results of the three irrigation treatments showed that the second treatment gave less irrigation events and less applied water. Finally, we could conclude that the performance of the fabricated robotic system is appropriate and it could play an important role in achieving sustainable irrigation into urban food systems.

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Organic contaminant exposure in the Lake St. Clair food web

Hydrobiologia ◽

10.1007/bf00006552 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 281 (1) ◽

pp. 19-27 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

G. D. Haffner ◽

M. Tomczak ◽

R. Lazar

Keyword(s):

Food Web ◽

Organic Contaminant ◽

Contaminant Exposure

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Ancient Settlement, Urban Gardening, and Environment in the Gulf Lowlands of Mexico

Latin American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/25478194 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 385-406 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Barbara L. Stark ◽

Alanna Ossa

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

River Basin ◽

Water Table ◽

Agricultural Intensification ◽

Urban Settlement ◽

Settlement Density ◽

Urban Gardening ◽

Agrarian Societies ◽

Seasonally Flooded ◽

Flooded Areas

Urban settlement in the western lower Papaloapan River basin in the Gulf lowlands was dispersed and likely employed intensive gardening near domiciles. Land surrounding homes also may have played a symbolic role in these agrarian societies. Water works—formal ponds associated with temple platforms and other prominent structures as well as with many residential mounds—support the idea of symbolic as well as practical functions in land use around buildings. Dispersed occupation occurs in low elevations suited to recessional planting, a technique that takes advantage of dry season ground moisture in low areas where rain and flood waters recede as the water table drops. We analyze elevational zones to show greater settlement density in the low-lying Blanco River delta than in higher elevations upriver. Analysis of distances between archaeological residences and wetlands and drainages shows that residences generally were close to seasonally flooded areas. We also highlight anthropogenic qualities in the alluvial landscape, offering a land use perspective distinct from other views of agricultural intensification. The settlement pattern is compatible with Mesoamerican forms of urbanism.

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