What places/hospitals/doctors in the U.S., if any, ask patients where they have been living the past 10-15 years, along with questions about allergies, medications, and family history?

Molly Vickers

I could find absolutely nothing on this specific topic by searching the internet. Clearly, doctors asking patients where they live and have lived the past 10-15 years to determine what potential environmental health risks they are daily exposed to is uncommon. It is no surprise that there are no answers or comments about this online because no one recognizes it as a current issue that needs to be looked at. I found a news article on USA Today's website of the top 10 most toxic places in the world. Number one on the list is a city in Bangladesh for being the most polluted place in the world. I then looked up health effects of pollution and common symptoms include chest pain, coughing, nausea, and pulmonary congestion. Levels of severity can increase to lung damage (epa.gov).

Use this as an example as to why we need to take a closer look, and possibly add a person's living situation to the list of questions a doctor asked a patient prior to diagnosis. Say a patient comes into the doctor's office with a minor illness that is bothering him. He is coughing all night long so he is unable to sleep, it's hard to breathe, he has a loss of appetite, etc. The doctor thinks he has bronchitis so he gives him an antibiotic. The patient is a businessman who does some work with a company in Dhaka, Bangladesh and makes frequent trips there. Since the patient was never asked where he's been, the doctor was unable to identity Dkakar as a highly polluted city, and link those symptoms to effects of pollution. Instead, he will be taking an antibiotic to kill bacteria in his body that doesn't need to be killed.

Sources:
http://www.epa.gov/region07/air/quality/health.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/news/2013/11/06/10-most-toxic-places-in-the-world/3452707/