Environmental Health Division
Highlights

This information is currently newsworthy, seasonally pertinent, or is showcased to promote awareness.

Severe Weather Awareness Week
April 15-19, 2013

The information campaign for Severe Weather Awareness Week is designed to teach and remind Minnesotans about weather hazards.

Each day of the week will focus on a different topic: For More information:

Severe Weather and Flooding

Spring is here, and with spring comes warmer weather and melting snow. Sometimes that means flooding and other severe weather. Be prepared this year, by reading up on what to do before flooding begins and how to prepare yourself and your family for severe weather.



Mold Talks Held in Carlton County

The Northland Flood of 2012 was close to a year ago, but the local public health agencies are still getting calls from the public concerned about lingering mold problems that may be causing health problems for some citizens.  Carlton County requested assistance in developing a press release and educational meetings on the best way to identify and clean-up possible mold problems.

Carlton County scheduled two informational meetings that were held on April 4, 2013. One meeting was for mold clean-up professionals and the other was for the general public. Both meetings were held at the Carlton County Transportation Building. Dan Tranter of MDH's Indoor Air Unit presented practical advice and best practice procedural information for identifying and cleaning up mold contamination to reduce exposures and potential health problems.

More information from MDH:

Statewide Medical Imaging Optimization Initiative

Earlier this year, the X-Ray Unit began a statewide Medical Imaging Optimization initiative.  This initiative involves utilizing the tools and resources developed by numerous national scientific organizations which is recognized as the Image Wisely® and Image Gently® campaigns.

In order to bring these campaigns to the local and state level it was important to engage the Minnesota medical imaging community in conversation and partnership.  The X-Ray Unit successfully engaged the following medical organizations that have members across Minnesota hospitals and clinics:

  • Minnesota Radiological Society,
  • North Central Chapter of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, and
  • The Minnesota Society of Radiologic Technologists

This expands on the MDH mission of promoting, maintaining and improving public health through education and as partners with industry, in addition to our technical, regulatory function. Imaging facilities can pledge to Image Wisely® and Image Gently® to show their commitment to Medical Imaging Optimization.



Completion of the Second Legislative Deadline

On March 22nd, the 88th Legislature arrived at the second deadline, which is the point that both legislative houses are to have passed bills out of designated policy committees. The third deadline, April 19th, is when major appropriation bills need to pass out of finance committees. As of March 22nd, there were 1,661 bills introduced in the House and 1,551 bills in the Senate. MDH Environmental Health has been busy tracking and providing technical assistance on a variety of bills including:

  • Water quality and supply
  • Chemical testing, reporting and bans
  • Radon testing and education
  • Silica sand mining
  • Clean Water Fund activities
  • Healthy Homes
  • Chili contests and restaurant playgrounds

Local Public Health and other partner organizations play a critical role in helping to inform the legislative body and the public about these, and many more issues, as policy and finance bills that affect public health are discussed and debated.

Linda Bruemmer, Environmental Health Division Director, testified in front of the House Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Policy Committee on the benefits of thorough hand washing with ordinary soap and nail brushes. The committee had just heard a presentation on the effects of triclosan in the environment. Triclosan is an anti-microbial compound found in a variety of products.


Great Lakes Fish Consortium

For the past 3 years, under a grant from the EPA, MDH has coordinated the Great Lakes Fish Consortium. The Consortium is a long-standing organization of 8 Great Lakes States, supported by the EPA to harmonize fish consumption advisories among the member states, conduct research and promote healthy fish eating behaviors. This year’s Consortium meeting was held in Chicago, March 5-7, and was attended by state fish advisory staff, EPA and ATSDR Region 5 staff, and Cornell University researchers.

Pat McCann (Fish Advisor), Deborah Durkin (Fish Outreach Coordinator), and Rita Messing (Site Assessment and Consultation Unit supervisor) attended for Minnesota. Pat and Deborah organized the meeting agenda and logistics and Pat chaired the meeting. Topics included fish sampling, data analysis, contaminant risk assessment, sport fish and purchased fish advice.

Cornell staff presented  research on fish consumption behaviors, how the public understands fish consumption advice, and ways that consumption advice can be improved. Other highlights included a talk by Gary Ginsberg (Connecticut Dept. of Health) on a risk/benefit model for cardiovascular disease and neurodevelopmental outcomes that balances nutritional benefits of fish (as represented by omega-3-fatty acid content) versus risks (as represented by methylmercury content).

EPA discussed future Consortium funding, and the likelihood that more emphasis will be placed on Fish Advisory Program plans to promote healthy fish eating behaviors by partnering with other public health programs (e.g., nutrition and maternal and child health). More information about the Consortium can be found at:



Evaluation of Safe Drinking Water Messages

As part of a larger effort to provide consistent drinking water messages, Nancy LaPlante and Tannie Eshenaur are evaluating a brochure about providing safe drinking water used for formula fed infants. The Department of Administration’s Management Analysis and Development group will provide assistance for evaluating the draft brochure with focus groups consisting of new parents whose drinking water comes from public water supplies or private wells. This work builds on a basic communication needs assessment conducted by the Contaminants of Emerging Concern program in 2011.



Inaugural Food Safety Class at MDH

Thank you to MDH staff James Topie, for designing and kicking off the first MDH Food, Pools and Lodging Services (FPLS) section training in food safety. This inaugural food safety class had a mix of sanitarians from MDH FPLS and delegated public health agencies of Saint Paul and Wabasha County. The training class evaluations were very positive. Out of a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 was disagree and 5 was agree, there were more 5's than 4's, a few 3's, and zero 1's and 2's, as well as a few hand written 6, 7, and 8's! We appreciated the participants feedback and will use their suggestions for improvements to future classes.



Minneapolis Drinking Water Hotwash

Staff from the City of Minneapolis (Water Works, Communications, Environmental Health, Health Emergency Preparedness, and Emergency Management) and MDH (Drinking Water Protection, Food Plus, EH, MDH Communications) met February 7th for a Minneapolis Drinking Water Advisory Hotwash as follow-up to the water main break in downtown Minneapolis on January 3.

The purpose of the hotwash was to gather feedback for suggested improvements when it comes to large scale emergency response events (incidents that may occur in Minneapolis or other Minnesota communities, and include water main breaks and/or other drinking-water related events). Several hotwash participants noted that the time was well spent, and a follow-up meeting/conference call will be held in mid to late May to discuss the status of Action Items identified during the hotwash. Each Action Item is linked to helping reduce time needed for decision-making and notification processes.


National Groundwater Awareness Week
~ March 10th -16th ~

Do you have a private well? Do you know what's in your water? More than 1 million people in Minnesota rely on private wells as their source of drinking water, but too many of them are not tested on a regular basis for things that can make people sick, such as bacteria, arsenic, or nitrate. While wells can provide high quality drinking water, state health officials estimate that at any given time as many as 25 percent of private wells in Minnesota have detectable levels of total coliform bacteria, an indication that surface contamination has entered the well or water system. More Information:


MCLEAN/Healthy Homes Minnesota Meeting

The MCLEAN (MN Collaborative Lead Assessment Network) and Healthy Homes supporters gathered to update each other on their work, discuss legislative developments, and ways to move work forward. They covered both lead poisoning prevention and healthy homes issues.

For questions about MCLEAN/Healthy Homes Minnesota, see:

Minnesota Collaborative Lead Education and Assessment Network


Advancement of Healthy School
Environments in Minnesota

The Indoor Air Unit initiated a 2-year project to advance healthy school environments in Minnesota. John Olson is the project manager. The project will unite existing state school environmental health activities, using the EPA’s, "State School Environmental Health Guidelines" as a guiding framework. The project objective is to help Minnesota schools create healthier environments. Expected outputs include:

    1. a new state-level school environmental health steering committee;
    2. a state plan to implement education and outreach;
    3. compilation of all pertinent standards and guidelines at a single web portal;
    4. development of additional guidance, resources, and trainings;
    5. dissemination of resources through new and existing communication channels;
    6. training programs to assist schools;
    7. a survey of public schools; and
    8. a school recognition program.

Radon Resistant New Construction Study

The Indoor Air Unit has started a project to assess the effectiveness of Radon Resistant New Construction (RRNC) practices, as installed by licensed residential contractors in Minnesota. Since June 2009 all new Minnesota homes have been required by the state building code to have passive RRNC features installed to reduce the radon levels. There have been only a few studies in other states and countries, that have compared the difference of passive to active RRNC features in the same housing stock. The project will evaluate:

  • the radon concentrations in an estimated 1,000 Minnesota homes with ‘as-built’ passive RRNC features.
  • the change in radon concentrations when 100 of these passive RRNC homes are converted to active RRNC by installing a radon fan in the existing passive radon pipe.
  • the radon concentrations in 100 ‘as-built’ active RRNC homes with features consistent with the MDH Gold Standard.

FEMA Brings Radiological Event Training to Minnesota

Kelly Daigle, Lynn Fortier, Justine Greene, Brandon Juran, Craig Verke, and Tou Xiong of the Indoor Environments and Radiation Section attended the Radiological Accident Assessment Concepts (RAAC) course. The course was presented by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) January 28 through February 1, and was hosted by Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM) in downtown St. Paul.

Typically, MDH sends members of the Radiological Emergency Preparedness (REP) program to Emmitsburg, Maryland for this course but because there were several people from MDH, HSEM, and surrounding states interested in this training, FEMA arranged to bring the training to Minnesota. The course covered dose modeling techniques in the early and intermediate phases of a nuclear power plant incident. The concepts and techniques taught in this course are an integral part of the technical skills required for members of the Planning and Assessment Center (PAC) to respond effectively during a radiological event. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to include six staff members in this training.



Minnesota Clean Air Dialogue

For the last year, Hillary Carpenter and Jim Kelly of the Environmental Surveillance & Assessment Section have participated in the Minnesota Clean Air Dialogue. This is a conversation amongst leaders in the business, government and nonprofit sectors, to explore new opportunities for air pollution emissions reductions. These converstions lay the groundwork for future collaboration to improve air quality in Minnesota and to respond to potential nonattainment designations under federal regulations.

The project was facilitated by the Environmental Initiative, and supported by the MPCA. The full working group and various technical work groups have developed a series of recommendations for improving air quality in Minnesota that will lead to improvements in public health and help motivate and engage a wider community of stakeholders on the issues of air quality and the potential for nonattainment of new federal air quality standards.



An Interagency Effort
Addressing Harmful Algal Blooms in Minnesota Lakes

Algal blooms in Minnesota lakes were the focus of an Interagency Risk Assessment Meeting organized by the Site Assessment and Consultation (SAC) Unit in the Environmental Health (EH) Division of MDH. The speakers were Emily Hansen, Pat McCann and Ginny Yingling from SAC; Julie Dady and Chris Greene from MDH's Health Risk Assessment (HRA) Unit in EH; Jeff Brenner from MDH's Public Health Laboratory; and Steve Hieskary from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

Topics included:
  • environmental management strategies for algal blooms in Minnesota and other states;
  • MDH drinking water guidance for Microcystin-LR;
  • laboratory best practices to identify harmful algae;
  • MPCA monitoring data and Minnesota case studies;
  • fish consumption information; and
  • occurrence data in drinking water supply source water.
Participating agencies:
  • Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA)
  • Minnesota Department of Health (MDH)
  • Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT)
  • Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA)

Over forty people attended the meeting. All involved agreed that continued collaboration is needed to increase our understanding of the health impacts of algal blooms on people, animals, and environments in Minnesota; and to develop a coordinated effort to manage harmful algal blooms.


MDH Fond du Lac Community Biomonitoring Study Begins

MDH and tribal partners successfully started the Fond du Lac community biomonitoring study. On January 2nd, biomonitoring staff at Min No Aya Win clinic in Cloquet, MN began enrolling people chosen to participate in the study. The study is the result of collaboration between MDH staff in the Environmental Surveillance and Assessment (ESA) section of EH and the Public Health Laboratory; and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. People who are affiliated with any tribal nation and live in northeast Minnesota are eligible to participate.

The study is funded by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), as part of the U.S. EPA’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. ATSDR is supporting public health agencies in Minnesota, Michigan, and New York to conduct human biomonitoring studies of other vulnerable populations living near contaminated sites around the Great Lakes who may be more exposed to persistent environmental chemicals, including mercury and other metals, PCBs, PAHs and pesticides. Other chemicals found in consumer products, such as PFCs, bisphenol A and triclosan will also be measured. A questionnaire will seek to determine ways that people are exposed to these chemicals.



National Radon Action Month

January was, National Radon Action Month, and proclaimed, Radon Action Month in Minnesota by Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton. MDH has been working with most counties in the state, to conduct outreach to local communities and distribute thousands of radon test kits. In addition, educational radio spots were aired on KS95; and ads have been placed in the skyways and malls around the metro and state.

A press release in early January garnered tremendous media interest with all four major TV news stations, the Pioneer Press, and many media in greater MN running stories. The quarterly radon stakeholder meeting was very well attended by about 75 partners consisting of contractors, health, housing and other partners. There has been a large increase in web activity and test kit orders in January, and we anticipate high levels of radon testing and mitigation this year.


Healthy Homes
Education of Minnesota Child Care Providers

The Indoor Air Unit began a two-year healthy homes education project targeting in-home family child care providers. The goal of the project is to promote an integrated approach to reducing exposure to indoor air contaminants and other safety hazards in homes that also function as child care settings.

The project objectives are for in-home family child care providers to:
  1. learn about hazards through web-based training materials;
  2. assess their homes for hazards, including radon testing; and
  3. implement recommendations to control hazards, including assistance with radon mitigation.

Josh Miller is the project manager. More information about maintaining a healthy home can be found on the following website:



Winter Hazard Awareness
picture of a snow storm

The winter of 2011-12 was relatively mild and dry for Minnesota – but don’t be fooled – the previous winter of 2010-2011 gave Minnesota its fourth snowiest winter on record! Everyone in Minnesota still needs to prepare for the outdoor hazards of a cold, snowy, icy winter and the indoor hazards that occur every winter. For a safer winter season, follow the links below:

  • Winter Storms and Weather – Ice storms, blizzards, sub-zero temperatures, winter weather watches and warnings and wind-chill
  • Outdoor Winter Safety – Safety on ice, snowmobile safety, hypothermia and frostbite
  • Winter Fire Safety – Winter and holiday fire safety, alternative heat sources, smoke detectors, cooking safety, candle and decorations
  • Indoor Winter Safety – Carbon monoxide, radon, mold and general home care
  • Winter Driving – auto safety, snowplows, road conditions, using 5-1-1, winter driving tips, car survival kits and calling 911 on a cell phone

More information from MDH:



Go to > top

For Environmental Health information in other languages, visit the Environmental Protection Agency's multilingual websites at:
Chinese | Chinese (Simple) | Spanish | Korean | Vietnamese

Updated Friday, 26-Apr-2013 13:36:31 CDT