Loren Santiago - MPH 632: Environmental Health

Please provide a summary of the highlights of your learning for the semester. I'd also especially like to know how the small group blogging experience was for you? If there are any other comments, including critiques, about the course, PLEASE share them with me and Erin.   This course has truly been a great learning experience! It was actually my favorite course that I took this semester because it was so interesting. I expected to learn about climate change, waste, and all the typical things that people associate with "environmental" health. I did not expect to learn so much about chemicals and products that affect our health. It was very informational and prompted me to reevaluate some of the ways that I do things in my daily life. Everything from the modules about products we buy or consume to water to chemicals and climate change really helped to encourage me to think about things that I had never even considered. Environmental health is a huge topic, and truly does...

As we know, plastic was has built up over time and polluted our oceans and our land. What makes plastic so wasteful is that it never breaks down completely, building up as we continue to manufacture more and more products. Fortunately, with technology and great minds today, there is research being conducted to refine plastic. Jianbo Zhu, a polymer chemist, and his team at Colorado State University in Fort Collins are working on creating a plastic that can be reused again and again. They have been working on this process and have found that by adding another ring to a previous creation allowed for the monomers to stick together at room temperature into polymer chains that are heat-stable. The polymers can hold their shape and stability, but then when they are exposed to higher heat levels or mild chemicals, they will revert to their original monomer molecules. In other words, this means that this plastic can be reused and recycled again and again, which is different (and better) than t...