Introduction
Public health has become a major issue in the US. Mental disorders, chronic illness and environmental dangers are making the public vulnerable. The health issues include air pollution, drug abuse, HIV/AIDs, teenage pregnancies, dementia and hearth problems. This essay will cover on air pollution and the measures that have been taken to prevent it in line to health issues.
Agenda Comparison Grid and Fact Sheet or Talking Points Brief Assignment Template for Part 1 and Part 2
Part 1: Agenda Comparison Grid
Use this Agenda Comparison Grid to document information about the population health/healthcare issue your selected and the presidential agendas. By completing this grid, you will develop a more in depth understanding of your selected issue and how you might position it politically based on the presidential agendas.
You will use the information in the Part 1: Agenda Comparison Grid to complete the remaining Part 2 and Part 3 of your Assignment.
| Identify the Population Health concern you selected. | Air pollution and climate change. | ||
| Describe the Population Health concern you selected and the factors that contribute to it. |
Pollution is amongst the most dangerous health concerns that are affecting the American population and the world at large. More specifically, air pollution has been identified as the most common case of pollution. It is causing negative health effects on both the young and old alike. The air pollutants are mainly from industries, chemicals and emissions from vehicle exhausts. In the earth’s atmosphere, the poisonous gases and fumes emitted can accumulate to great heights thereby resulting to the creation of the greenhouse effect. Consequently, bringing a negative change to the entire climate. The changes on the climate triggered by air pollutants have raised health-connected issues on the USA population. In line to the WHO statement, climatic changes and pollution are likely to affect the economic and societal elements of health clean drinking water and air, enough supply of food and protected shelter. The World Health Organization also outlined that air pollution and adverse effects of climate change have led to a close of 200000 deaths annually. The deaths have resulted from heat stress, malnutrition, diarrhea, and malaria caused by air pollutants and climatic parameters. Air pollution can also cause respiratory (Kipen, Laumbach, 2012) and cardiovascular diseases (Kurt, Zhang, & Pinkerton, 2016). Furthermore, a person might develop bronchitis, cancer and even asthma.
Factors that contribute to the overall pollution of the air.
Air pollution can be caused by anthropogenic and natural factors. The natural causes result from natural phenomena hence result from periodic actions, which have no human influence. The pollutants under this category are subject to the natural changes. They include:
1.) Volcanic eruptions. When an eruption occurs, large amounts of ash, chlorine and Sulphur are released into the atmospheric air. The materials block sunrays from reaching the surface of the earth thereby creating a cooling effect.
2.) Wildfires and pungent dust. Dust is mostly evident in bare and arid regions. In the case of sandstorms, dust is filled in the air raising the temperatures. On the other hand, wildfires release carbon (II) oxide and smoke that increase the levels of carbon. The overall effect is the greenhouse.
3.) Plants and animals. When digestion occurs in animals, particularly cattle, methane is given out which is a greenhouse gas hence increasing the temperatures. Plant vegetation cover emit volatile biological compounds that mix with Sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon mixtures to produce a vapor that are sufficient with ozone.
The man-made factors contributing to air pollution and climate change include emissions from fossil fuels, waste in landfills, animal husbandry and crop growing. Heavy manufacturing industries have also contributed to air pollution.
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| Administration (President Name) | President Trump | President Obama | President Bush |
| Describe the administrative agenda focus related to this issue for the current and two previous presidents. |
Trump’s government is in pursuit of efficient guidelines and policies that are aimed at creating a safe surrounding at the same time promoting economic growth and development. The United States have always been maintaining an exemplary record in ensuring that the American citizens are accessing clean air. Although in 2018, under the administration of President Donald Trump, air pollution in America increased. Carbon (IV) oxide emissions got higher due to the economic development and weather issues. However, it was projected that there was to be a decline in 2019 and 2020. Over time under the current president’s administration, the main agenda focus is directed at economic growth and development at the expense of clean air. The governance has rolled back the restrictions placed by the preceding presidents that barred industries from polluting the air and environment. For example, Trump’s leadership has scraped the clean power plan aimed at reducing carbon releases by the lead of EPA and this is likely to threaten the environment (nationalgeographic, 2019).
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The center of emphasis under the Obama governance was to combat the issues of global warming, which resulted from coal firms emitting high amounts of carbon to the environment. The administration prioritized more on better quality air standards to ensure that the American people were safe from harmful air pollutants (obamawhitehouse, 2015). |
George Bush put emphasis on the Clear Skies project. The program called on power industries to reduce on the release of Sulphur oxide, mercury and nitrogen oxide to the surrounding. Thus, air pollution reduced by 12 % in his full term in office. |
| Identify the allocations of financial and other resources that the current and two previous presidents dedicated to this issue. |
Despite Trump’s administration putting more emphasis on economic growth than in environmental protection, it has funded for environmental restoration projects and allocating more than 500 million US dollars in the rehabilitation of the environment. For example in the Herbert Hoover Dike rehabilitation and Florida Everglades.
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The Obama administration has funded for alternative energy production firms like in the solar industries sector to mitigate the release of greenhouse gases to the environment. His leadership provided 15 billion dollars for the production of clean energy in the US. | President George Bush’s administration provided tax incentives amounting to 4 billion US dollars to promote the utilizations of hygienic, renewable energy and energy effective techs, which included domestic solar heating structures, renewable wind and biomass energy. They also encouraged the use of hybrid energy cells in vehicles to minimize lead emissions into the air. |
| Explain how each of the presidential administrations approached the issue. |
President Donald has offered a directive to EPA to ensure that quality air standards are attained more efficiently to safeguard human health and the surrounding.
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President Obama had enacted the clean power plan to prevent greenhouse emission gases like carbon. He further encouraged industries to use alternative renewable sources of energy like natural gas and solar. | President Bush, approached the air pollution and climate change issue by coming up with the Clear Skies initiative that aimed at reducing the greenhouses gases in the air. Secondly, his governance came up with the Clean Interstate rule where power-producing companies had to reduce the release of nitrogen oxide and Sulphur oxide. He also pushed energy firms to regulate the emission of mercury. |
Part 2: Agenda Comparison Grid Analysis
Using the information, you recorded in Part 1: Agenda Comparison Grid, complete the following to document information about the population health/healthcare issue your selected
| Administration (President Name) | President Trump | President Obama | President Bush |
| Which administrative agency would most likely be responsible for helping you address the healthcare issue you selected?
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President Obama’s governmental organization will stand the best chance to addressing the air pollution and climate change health concern. It invested much in projects that were aimed at reducing air pollution and climate change by the introduction of sustainable renewable energy plans. | |
| How do you think your selected healthcare issue might get on the agenda for the current and two previous presidents? How does it stay there? | The head of state should be informed on the importance of clean air and come up with measures to ensure that pollution is reduced. Additional funds should be set aside to cater for air pollution. | By involving international bodies like the WHO, the UNEP and the UN. | By appreciating and understanding, the benefits that come with a clean air. |
| Who would you choose to be the entrepreneur/ champion/sponsor of the healthcare issue you selected for the current and two previous presidents? | The World Health Organization and the BreatheLife campaign. The UN organization. | The WHO, the Coca cola company, Power-producing companies in America. The Environmental Protection Agency. | The Coalition for Clean Air, the EPA and the Bay Air Quality Management District. |
Part 3: Facts and Points in Brief.
Air contamination is now a major public health concern in USA and the world as a whole. Air pollutants range from natural to man made. In the USA, it has been observed that most of the pollutants are from power producing firms. The past and current governments had come with guidelines on how to combat air pollution without undermining economic development and growth. Both President George Bush and President Obama’s administrations had provided measures on how to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. President Bush came up with the Clear Skies initiative as outlined in part 1. Obama’s governance had schemed the clean power plan.
Combating air pollution is essentially important and has to be incorporated in the plan for legislation. A number of people in the US and around the world are losing lives due to the diseases that result from air pollutants. Inhaling these air pollutants might cause respiratory health issues and even cause cancer (Balmes 2019;Hoffman, 2019; Kim, 2019; De Matteis, 2019 ). Moreover, the inhaled polluted air can move to the brain causing asthma and reducing the lifespan of a person. The young and the old are vulnerable to the poisonous gases emitted. When it comes to plants, air pollution causes acidification and eutrophication of the environment thereby reducing agricultural production. Therefore, this health concern has to be addressed through legislation.
In conclusion, nurses should take stake in ensuring that emerging health issues are solved. They should be at the upfront in making sure that certain health legislation are met. They should identify issues and work in conjunction with other organs of the state in promoting health policies.
