Clem Onojeghuo Unsplash

A 2015 policy change had led to a reduction in the airborne nicotine levels in Philadelphia public housing, a Drexel University study indicates.

Ann Klassen came to the Dornsife School of Public Health in 2011 and was awarded the Community Transformation Grant shortly afterwards by the Center for Disease Control to further research about the effects of secondhand smoke/airborne nicotine, especially in multi-unit housing. The Secondhand Smoke Exposure Assessment Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University provided Klassen with smoke monitors, which she placed in Philadelphia homes with residents’ permission beginning in 2013.

In 2015, the Philadelphia Housing Authority implemented a no-smoking policy in multi-unit housing complexes. The research team returned once the PHA implemented the no-smoking policy in multi-unit homes and monitored the amount of airborne nicotine. In just one year, the airborne nicotine decreased from it’s original level of 0.44 micrograms per cubic meter in 2013 to 0.23 in 2016.

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health was most concerned with multi-unit housing, high rises and private housing supported by the PHA, which housed over 80,000 people at the time.

After obtaining results, the research team sent educational letters to the families or individuals participating in the study, explaining what the results said about the quality of their air.

“People expect a certain amount of freedom within their own homes. It has taken citizens a while to understand that like playing loud music, what you do in your home does affect others,” Klassen said when asked why a policy like this had not been implemented sooner.

Klassen acknowledged that carrying out a five-year study could be frustrating at points, especially for the students working on it. As a researcher, she said, it can be frustrating to not see the results of your work. Six of her researchers co-authored the publication and have since gone on or will go on to careers in environmental or human health.

She believes the people most affected by secondhand smoke truly want to be educated and learn how to live a more smoke-free lifestyle, whether they smoke or not.

“People understand that if they smoke, it affects children they may have or the elderly around them and it affects any chronic diseases they may be experiencing. Most people don’t understand how pervasive it is or use strategies that are ineffective,” she said.

The PHA has been trying to reduce secondhand smoke through active involvement with organizing forums, providing free classes on the effects of secondhand smoke and designating areas for people to go smoke outside. Mostly, they’ve been trying to listen to the needs of community members, who largely want to reduce secondhand smoke too.

Despite a significant decline in rates of lung cancer over the past 30 to 40 years and the positive effects of the PHAy’s efforts, Klassen expressed a serious concern that secondhand smoke is still a big issue. The air in Philadelphia is difficult to breathe for those with respiratory conditions, and secondhand smoking makes any chronic respiratory issues worse.

“One positive note is that we have learned communities can change their tobacco use behavior with a good support system. Every incremental change is a positive change,” Klassen said.

Klassen believes that with the rise in popularity of marijuana, future concerns for public health will be dual use of tobacco and marijuana. The way in which people become addicted to tobacco may change, leading to new public health concerns.

However, hundreds of local governments in the U.S. are seeking to replicate the PHA’s success in regards to secondhand smoking, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development has required that all housing authorities in the United States put policies in place that prohibit indoor smoking for multi-unit housing.

“I am not a part of this, but I would support it,” Klassen said.

Klassen advises the Philadelphia community and anyone considering living in multi-unit housing look at any health risks associated with it. She encourages talking to the landlord before moving in, especially for college students who usually live in dormitories or other forms of multi-unit housing.

Photo courtesy Drexel University Emergency Medical Services

The rate of assault-related injuries was 14 times higher for paramedics than firefighters in 2010, according to researchers at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health.

Jennifer Taylor and her team of researchers received a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2009 to research violence rates among first responders. The team concluded that the highest rate of injury was among fire department personnel, which includes paramedics, emergency medical transporters and firefighters. The majority of these injuries came from patient assault on emergency medical service responders.

It is not unusual for patients to assault EMS personnel if coming out of an altered mental state. Patients who are intoxicated or feel confused, scared or alone are likely to hit the nearest person.

Taylor and her team are currently seeking constructive ways to stop stretching EMS personnel too thin in cities like Philadelphia. With a population of 1.5 million people, there are not enough EMS personnel to adequately meet Philadelphia’s demand.

Unlike members of the police force, EMS personnel don’t get days off to cope with stress following a traumatic incidents, and the frequency of these events normalizes EMS workers to this trauma.

There is also a challenge in prosecuting people who assault EMS workers. These patients are often in altered mental states, making it difficult to determine intent to assault, a key factor in prosecuting that charge.

“EMS providers are an unusual breed — they will put other’s safety above their own each and every time. However, to go back and see the same patient they treated yesterday in the same situation equipped with no tools to handle the situation is demoralizing,” Taylor said.

According to Taylor, the first step to raising standards of care is to study the healthcare system in Philadelphia and in general. Each medic in the field is going to deal with stress and trauma differently and in their own time — a reason why the technique of Critical Incident Stress Management is so ineffective for healthcare providers.

“Forcing providers to sit in a room and telling them how they should feel about traumatic incidents does not allow for emotional recovery,” Taylor said.

Taylor believes that a paramedicine approach would also be beneficial. This means establishing a more holistic role for EMS, where they can help prevent emergencies instead of just responding to and mitigating the consequences of them. This includes the referral of patients to preventative care and/or education centers if they seem to be having chronic issues. EMS workers’ role could also begin to include the education of their patients on preventative measures and further help if necessary.

“EMS are society’s biggest band-aid’s,” Taylor said.

EMS personnel have little control over where they are called to, when they are called to serve and what situations they will be called to help in. Taylor and her team think that these circumstances put EMS personnel at great risk for burnout.

Taylor said that in an ideal future, there would be enough EMS personnel in densely populated areas to meet the demand without being overworked. She also said that with some first responders receiving over 700 calls a day, enhanced communication with dispatchers would help make the process more efficient.

Camille Prairie, The Triangle

The Forced from Home interactive exhibit, created to offer insight into the plight of international refugees, ran in Old City by Doctors Without Borders Nov. 5 to Nov. 13.

DWB, also known as Medecins sans Frontieres, is a humanitarian organization that offers medical services in war-torn areas, partnering with peacekeeping organizations, notably the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

According to the tour guide, DWB tells the stories of its consenting patients because the organization believes these stories deserve to be heard.

She guided the tour group into a dome that displayed images of helpless people from South Sudan, Honduras, Mexico and Burundi crying out. They have left their families to find a better life and have been severely disappointed.

One mother says she took her family from their home in Burundi to Kenya, believing a brighter reality awaited when all that awaited her family was sickness. She speaks of a better future as her malnourished children play in the mud.

The mood was solemn as the tour moved on from the tent. The attendees are meant to be experiencing what refugees must go through, so they must be on the move.

“You have 60 seconds to pick five things from the back of that wall! These are the only five things you can carry with you on your trip,” the tour guide shouted.

The group sat in a raft, clinging on tightly to placards of water and cut out clothes. The tour guide began to speak about the diverse world of refugees.

Sixty-five million people are fleeing their country or are displaced; they are the ones people think of when they think of refugees. An extremely small percentage of these people will make it to Europe or North America, and many of them will never be granted refugee status or asylum.

Anyone can seek asylum in a foreign country if they have a reason to believe they are in danger and will be persecuted if returned to their home country. If a person is granted the right to seek asylum, their status as an asylum seeker protects them from being deported to their home country. If someone is granted refugee status in a country they are seeking asylum in, they can stay in that country and try to build a new life. Migrants, those who usually come without passports or identification and are looking to resettle for economic reasons, are not covered under the 1951 Refugee Convention.

Camille Prairie, The Triangle

“It is assumed that because migrants don’t have passports and because they are seeking to leave their country, they must be running from the law,” the tour guide said.

The higher up you go on the food chain, from seeking asylum, to being granted asylum, to becoming a refugee, the lower percentage of people you will have with you. Too many people out of those 65 million get separated from their families, never make it to their destination or die on the way.

DWB targets major medical concerns in developing countries, such as unsafe water, bad hygiene, malnutrition, exposure to the elements and lack of access to medical care.

After stepping off the raft, the tour group received a look at what a day in the life would look like for someone resettled at a camp.

Children often waste precious energy going to collect the minimum amount of water for their families and drink it even if it is unclean. This commonly leads to cholera, a leading cause of death in refugee populations. Cholera treatment centers are effective if the patient arrives on time, the tour group was told as they looked at a typical DWB camp setup.

DWB sets up latrines and waste incinerators to prevent the spread of disease through waste, vaccinates people for easily preventable diseases, and provides long-term intensive feeding programs to help the malnourished get back on their feet. DWB expands care beyond the basics to surgical and specialized care as well as making sure the refugees they are with receive clean water every day.

As the visitors on the tour dropped off the final item they had with them on their trip, everyone had substantial food for thought.

After they toured a makeshift tent that could fit a twin-size bed but will fit up to 20 people on a day to day basis, the visitors were free to go to their respective homes.

“We rescued a ship that could safely fit about 40. It had 140. Twenty people were dead in the bottom — they had died from the fumes in the boat,” the tour guide shared.

Each visitor can walk away from the DWB exhibit knowing that DWB doctors, nurses and officers are out in the field every day.

The exhibit is informative, touching and eye-opening, providing a startling glimpse of how much desolation DWB workers see.

They are a bridge between our world and the world refugees and the displaced live in, giving us perspective on the lives refugees lead and how drastically different they are from our own.  The displaced are a world away.

Millo Ling The Triangle

Drexel University is positioned in the heart of University City, and this puts pedestrians and drivers in close contact.

That’s precisely why Drexel student Jimmy Zhao is advocating for a new speed bump at the intersection of 33rd Street and Lancaster Walk.

“I’m going to be a senior,” Zhao said. “This is for future generations of students and the future community here. I want to leave behind a legacy.”

Zhao was inspired to advocate for a speed bump at Lancaster Avenue and 33rd Street after a personal experience. He’d noticed drivers racing through the area since his first day on campus, but never believed he or anyone else could do anything about it.

Then one night, he was driving back from Southwest Philadelphia and approached a speed bump on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus so quickly he had to slam on the brakes.

This was his lightbulb moment. Why didn’t Drexel have a speed bump to force drivers to slow down like this?

He started his petition for a speed bump at Lancaster Avenue and 33rd Street and has received 260 signatures as of Oct. 27. The first few days the petition was up were a huge rush for Zhao, who says he was surprised by the huge influx of support.

Now that the project’s support is gaining major traction, Zhao wants to continue work on developing his plan and putting out new content in an attempt to keep the conversation going. He plans to put out a video demonstrating his concerns with the crossing.

“If we all corral our voices together as one, no one can stop us from making a change,” Zhao said.

Zhao has heard positive feedback from students so far, but he also understands that drivers are concerned about their cars. 33rd Street is on an uphill slope as it crosses Lancaster Avenue, and as a driver he sympathizes with their viewpoint. Zhao is analyzing every possibility to see which options will be feasible and beneficial to everyone involved. However, he wants to make it clear that for him this is about making students feel safer on campus.

“This isn’t about the drivers. They’re in a vehicle. The fact they care that much about their 30 seconds when they can just accelerate is disrespectful,” Zhao said.

Zhao is working from the bottom up, garnering support from a wide percentage of the student body before he goes to any faculty or administration. Zhao sees the Undergraduate Student Government Association as a liaison between students and administration. USGA is very interested in his idea and has given him the opportunity to present at their next general board meeting.

Zhao has no plans of giving up the momentum he’s gaining unless the negative impacts  outweighs the benefits. He is open to the opinions of others at all times and so far, the input has been mostly positive. Zhao appreciates the support of those who have signed the petition and his fraternity brothers at Pi Alpha Phi, who have been supportive of his cause.

He would love to find others that are just as passionate about pedestrian safety and traffic efficiency so that he can make the project move more quickly. He has not entirely dismissed the idea of passing the project on to someone else once he graduates, but that person would have to be just as passionate as Zhao is.

“I will be able to say I started a cause and that will show leadership experience. I’ve already learned a lot along the way. This is something I can’t do alone,” Zhao said.

Zhao acknowledges that the idea of advocating for a speed bump is unconventional, but he thinks this speaks volumes about how much awareness is needed around pedestrian safety. He said it’s all too easy to let road rage and bad driving become normal while we should be advocating for the safety of pedestrians through one common voice.

You can sign the petition online at here.

Photo Courtesy Gabby Frost

When one of her best friends began to self-harm, 15-year-old Gabby Frost knew that she had to do something to help.

That’s how the Buddy Project was born.

It began as a Twitter account, created to connect young people struggling with mental illness and soon became an international support network for thousands. Three years later, Frost has paired up more than 148,000 individuals ages 18 to 25 to support each other through difficult periods of their lives.

Frost, now a freshman music industry major at Drexel University, claims this project has changed her life.

“I wouldn’t be the person I am today without the Buddy Project,” Frost said.

The Buddy Project operates by receiving requests to be paired with a friend through a Twitter account. Frost then pairs up people by a common interest and if anyone is dissatisfied, they can request to be paired again. It is a multifaceted organization, offering not only pairings of people so that everyone has a friend but also a page of resources and websites people can go to while they are going through hard times and a list of hotline numbers.

Frost created the Buddy Project account based on the idea that people bond over common interests, such as music, and expanded from there, wanting to raise awareness of mental illness and suicidal thoughts.

She often met people on her personal Twitter account who were experiencing suicidal thoughts or dark times in their lives who felt like they had no friends to turn to. She would reach out and tweet encouraging thoughts to them — now, the account for the Buddy Project continues that tradition.

The first day the Buddy Project had a Twitter account, she gained more than 3,000 followers and requests for pairings, and thousands more in the following days.

She initially felt overwhelmed and had a friend helping her as well as her mother. As of 2016, she is the only person running the account that belongs to the Buddy Project.

“The biggest thing is to listen to people. Often, people talk over those with mental illness. It’s important to know how mental illness arises and what it is. Listening and educating yourself are two very important things,” Frost said.

The Buddy Project has garnered a lot of attention from youth leadership outlets. Gabby has been to San Francisco for a youth leadership conference, where she received the idea to make the Buddy Project a nonprofit, and to New York several times to speak about her work with the Buddy Project and attend workshops for youth leaders in social entrepreneurship.

The Buddy Project gained tax-exempt status as a charitable nonprofit in December 2015, and recently got its own website and started fundraising through a Booster account. Now that the Buddy Project is formally classified as a  501(c)(3) organization under the tax code, Gabby can also seek funding and grants. All profits benefit the Buddy Project. Gabby hopes to be able to help others achieve their dreams using her experience when it comes to starting non-profits in the future.

“I’m just so grateful for the opportunities I’ve had. Not everyone gets access to resources like the Buddy Project has,” Frost said.

Frost looks forward to being able to use the resources Drexel offers and learn more about social entrepreneurship during her time here. She would like to give back to behavioral health centers in the future, in the form of resources or scientific research on mental health and wants to hold events that partners can come to in the future so she can put a face to the names of the people whose lives she has affected.

Though she appreciates that her nonprofit has a younger audience, Frost admits that it is tough not being able to see the impact she has all of the time since most of her work is virtual. She is very excited about the potential for a Buddy Project app in the future, so that users will not have to have social media to use the service, although the Buddy Project just added a sign-up through Instagram.

Frost is grateful that she has had the opportunity to be positively impacted by the Buddy Project and for the change and growth she has experienced over the last three years. Frost has had a huge impact on those around the world struggling with mental illness, and the Buddy Project continues to have a huge impact on her.

Rachel Wisniewski The Triangle

Drexel University’s W.W. Hagerty Library, which opened in 1984 on the corner of Market and 33rd streets, is often a subject of student criticism. The primary complaint is lack of space. The library can only seat five percent of the Drexel student body, and questions have been raised about why the library has not been moved or renovated to accommodate the student population.

“People do say they love the library — and they say they need more,” Vice President of University Facilities Robert Francis said.

Francis and Dean of Libraries Danuta Nitecki are proud to say that they are both Drexel alumni. Nitecki and Francis agree that libraries are the heart of a campus, not just physically, but as places that draw students together. “Librariness,” a word coined by Francis, is central to every campus and they assert that Drexel’s library is in the perfect central spot.  

“It’s not just the space. We ask ourselves not only how we help you find information but how we help you use it,” Nitecki explained.

The library offers workshops, social events involving things such as Italian ice, orientations, resources for graduate students and rehearsal space for big presentations. Nitecki explained that as we come into the age where most information is located online, the library is more about how the student can explore information at the library and outside of the library.  It has interdisciplinary functions — the multiple spaces in which students can utilize information and build bridges between majors allows students to cohesively work together. For this it offers four physical spaces, the W.W. Hagerty Library, the Hahnemann Library in Center City, the Library Learning Terrace and a library on the Queen Lane campus. The library considers its fifth space to be cyberspace, now that 98 percent of funds go towards making sure students have electronic resources wherever they are, whenever they need them.

Francis said that the library’s only limitation is its physical space — it is impossible to vertically expand the building. Nitecki and Francis said they have considered other spaces on campus for the library, but above all they want the library to remain in a central location on campus, and the present location on Market and 33rd streets is central indeed.

Nitecki pointed out two distinct traits of Drexel students — first, they are grateful to have a study space at all. Second, Drexel students tend to have lower expectations of study spaces.

When students were asked to name their ideal study space, opinions ranged from a quiet area on the academic quad to the squash court. Francis reinforced the idea of moving forward with what the library has instead of focusing on moving it completely. He pointed out that no matter how many seats are added to the library, students will still ask for more.

The $10 million the library has in funding from private donors and the Hagerty family keeps the doors open, keeps the library hours running later during exam weeks and allows Nitecki and Francis to sit down and plan how to expand.

Nitecki said the library used to have a food service, which she would appreciate having back for students, and the library is far away from having the money it would need to renovate or move to a new location.

“The library would have to be in a good, stable place to move if the funding was there — and I’m not sure we’re in that place right now. We can do more at our current location for students than we could if we moved,” Nitecki said.

Nitecki sought to clarify that there is a difference between the library and the dropdown study spaces on campus. In fact, she proudly said study spaces such as at the Race Street Residences contribute to a student’s ability to access information and use the space to suit their needs in a very different way than the library does, pointing out their use as gathering spaces for study groups, especially in the Gerri C. LeBow College of Business. She made it clear the library is not trying to compete with the study spaces on campus, and the study spaces are not trying to compete with the library; they each serve students well and Nitecki said she would personally like more study spaces.

“The library will have its turn. The University has other priorities right now. Yes, it is getting higher on the list,” Nitecki declared.

It was not just Nitecki and Francis who wanted to express that the library’s capacity to work for its students transcends the physical boundaries of the building. When asked, student opinion showed a repeated trend of favoring the library, despite contrary opinions in the past. “I love to be there,” biology major William Hart said.

The library is seeking to offer its programs and resources on every Drexel campus, in classrooms and online as well by utilizing the funding it receives in a way that will suit the best interest of students.  Even though it isn’t a top priority facility, the Hagerty Library is striving to serve students every day despite the confines of its physical location.

Ana Venegas/Orange County Register/TNS

The James E. Marks Intercultural Center,  which among others hosts the Student Center for Inclusion and Culture (SCIC), was abruptly relocated a year and a half ago due to construction of the Study hotel at University City.  Despite the uproar surrounding this decision, new director Alexandra Daniels-Iannucci (ali36@drexel.edu) wants the Drexel University community to know the SCIC is focused on thriving as a student-centered organization.

“If I could spend all day talking with students, I would,” Iannucci said.

Iannucci is currently bringing more staff on board, and the need for more workers at the SCIC not only reflects the transition period of beginning as the director at the SCIC but displays the larger ripple effect the move to Arch Street from the location on 33rd and Chestnut streets may have had. Hospitality 3 joined forces with Drexel to build The Study at University City, where the James E. Marks Intercultural Center was, and broke ground in May 2015. According to Drexel President John A. Fry, the “lifestyle hotel” is the missing piece for students, families, visitors and anyone visiting this outstanding environment for fostering intellectual achievements and growth.  

The Study at University City has yet to be completed and the Office of Student Life was unable to speak on how the hotel’s construction and eventual completion will affect students and their families. Many students and others in the Drexel community were outraged that the Intercultural Center was demolished for the construction of this hotel, claiming that it would take away from the inclusive environment here and that the SCIC should not have had to relocate to much smaller offices because its resources would be diminished.

Iannucci says she is actively working to create inclusive space in all areas of the Drexel community so that a welcoming atmosphere exists everywhere. She does this at the SCIC by making herself a resource for students, providing public education programs and building relationships and collaborations through these programs.

“We need a unified idea of what inclusion is. Inclusion is a shared effort,” Iannucci said.

The SCIC, with Iannucci at the helm, has made it clear that the Arch Street location is a new start. Iannucci is using every waking minute to take in all of the information about the Drexel community, knowing how important the culture of a community is to understanding its needs.

Iannucci is not looking back at the past, and encourages the Drexel community to focus solely on the future. The SCIC is building from the new, and working with students and faculty alike to create inclusive spaces that community members can participate in maintaining.  Right now the organization is placing a large emphasis on getting involved in the Drexel community and meeting others, seeking to say hello to students on the street  as well as connect with community organizations.

“You have to know where you’re starting to know where you’re going. Drexel is headed in a great direction and I am excited to be here,” Iannucci said,  discussing her outlook on her new position at the university.

The global vision of inclusion is very real for the SCIC, but the staff takes a personal approach by talking to people and engaging students. Iannucci loves emails from students in her inbox and welcomes students to apply for work study positions, volunteer positions and welcomes engagement from community organizations. The SCIC wants students to know it is here for them as a resource under any circumstance.

Iannucci, who graduated from St. Joseph’s University and is a long time LGBT advocate, is thrilled to be the new director of the SCIC. The SCIC wants to make sure the community has an easy way to access resources they can use to work towards creating a more inclusive community for themselves and others.  A student-centered organization making a new beginning in many ways, the SCIC is here for all Drexel students and the community they live in to utilize.