SU PHE5010 Week 3 Project Latest 2019 September

PHE5010 Environmental and Occupational Health

Week 3 Project

Final Project:
Background Paper

This week, you will
summarize the key background information needed to define the problem in
detail, including why it is a problem, the main causes of the problem, the
severity of the problem, who is affected by the problem, and previous attempts
to solve the problem.

For this assignment:

Gather the key
background information on the specific problem you described in your last week’s
problem statement to further examine and better understand the gap you
identified in Week 2.

Recall the following
example:

Recently, nail salons
have been the focus of worker safety initiatives because they use hazardous
chemicals such as methacrylates, acetates, toluene, and formaldehydes. Are
consumers adequately protected from hazardous chemicals when they receive
services in the nail salons?

The background
information to be gathered for the above example would include the key types of
information needed by a reader to understand the problem statement, which
include the following:

The main health
hazards of the chemicals listed

Chemical exposure
levels in nail salons

The types of worker
safety initiatives in progress and information on the groups or agencies that
are undertaking these initiatives

Differences in
exposure levels when salon workers and salon patrons are compared (average
duration of exposure is an important component of this)

Identification of any
vulnerable populations of consumers, such as pregnant women

Write a 3 to 5-page
background paper in a Microsoft Word document addressing the following:

Begin by stating the
2- to 3-sentence problem statement that you submitted in Week 2.

Provide, in a succinct
manner, the key types of information needed by a reader to understand what the
problem is and why it is a problem. This includes information such as how big
the problem is, who is affected, and the time trends in the problem.

Provide factual
information needed to understand the problem at the local, national, and global
level (background). Include disparities (disadvantaged populations that are
disproportionately affected by the problem or vulnerable populations).

Include appropriate
statistics to document the extent of the problem, medical definitions of
pertinent health problems or diseases, pollutant sources, and toxicity profiles
of chemicals as indicated.

Be sure to provide
enough information for the reader to fully understand the question you posed in
your problem statement.

End the paper with a
transitional statement that leads toward (but not yet discussed) the topics of
Weeks 4 and 5, namely, the landscape and the stakeholders involved in the
problem and the range of options available to address the problem.