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Conclusion
Health effects of air pollutants need to be better understood and controlled. Future concerns should include an increased focus on the growing use of nanoparticles of many types for many purposes because these, too, may carry significant health risks, and we are only at the beginning of their use.
As outlined, justice-related issues may come into play when communities of color and poorer communities are disproportionately exposed to environmental pollutants. Health professionals should consider the cumulative exposures of their patients that come from work, personal habits, and living locations. Patients with recognized social vulnerabilities need to be appreciated and efforts made to assist individuals in such communities to coalesce around positive changes that could be made in regard to exposures. Interaction with policy makers who often control what occurs in such communities can be helpful. Lastly, healthcare providers should remember their own role in the improvement of the collective health of communities, not just the care and well-being of their own individual patients.
Resource
For more information from the American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) on EJ and the legal rights of patients, check out the free CME/MOC Webcast, "The Right to Breathe: The Medical-Legal Effort to Clean Up Indoor Air," available at www.acpm.org/education/IAQ/index.htm.
References
Medscape Education © 2009
https://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/589135
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You can't see radon ... smell it ... or taste it. You must test for it!
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