How We Are Poisoning Our Children

Episode 96 1h 16m

Overview

Racism is still rampant in our country, and it might exist in places you didn’t expect it. For example, Black and Brown populations are at a higher risk of exposure to environmental toxins and have less access to high-quality medical care or clinical medical studies on their specific populations. This is a major problem that can’t be ignored. And it’s hugely impacting our economy and the success of future generations in multiple ways. Every year we spend 50 billion dollars and lose 23 million IQ points to lead toxicity alone, which affects people of color the most, regardless of social class and income level.

Today on The Doctor’s Farmacy I sit down for an important conversation with Harriet Washington about these issues. Throughout our talk, Harriet breaks down where some of the greatest sources of environmental racism stem from. There are so many government policies and even sanctioned decisions to dump toxins that end up poisoning communities of color and stealing children’s cognition and health.

Combined with a lack of precautionary testing we are ignoring a massive health crisis. And unfortunately, not everyone has access to a doctor like me that has the resources and knowledge to get to the root cause of mysterious symptoms. When it comes to toxins one plus one does not equal two. It might equal one hundred. There is a compounded effect. Plus, many of the “safe” exposure limits for individual toxins that we’ve been told in the past have now been proven much too high. Harriet and I also talk about the major connection between environmental racism and food injustice, along with so much more. I hope you’ll tune in to learn what you can do to improve these important issues of our time.

Harriet Washington’s most recent book is A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind.

Sponsors

This episode is brought to you by and Thrive Market. The Doctor’s Farmacy podcast works with a select group of sponsors to allow for ongoing production and allow it to be zero-cost to anyone who wishes to listen to and watch the podcast.

Topics Covered

  • How communities of color in America are being poisoned due to decisions and policies that expose them to dangerous levels of environmental toxins

    (4:05 - 5:29)

  • The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sanctioned case of toxic dumping in Afton, North Carolina

    (1:01 - 12:25)

  • Lead poisoning, its effects on intelligence and cognition, and the populations it is most affecting

    (14:49 - 16:12)

  • The lack of precautionary testing of chemicals in the United States

    (21:00 - 22:24)

  • Unacknowledged fetal alcohol damage in Hispanic and African American communities

    (29:49 - 31:13)

  • Environmental toxin rates among African American communities across all income levels

    (32:30 - 33:54)

  • How to effectively test for and treat environmental toxin issues

    (38:14 - 39:38)

  • What actions individuals and communities can take to protect themselves from environmental toxins

    (43:05 - 44:29)

  • The connection between environmental racism and food injustice

    (47:15 - 48:39)

  • The role that government, communities, and public health needs to play in protecting citizens from environmental toxins

    (1:05:33 - 1:06:57)

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Ep. 96 - How We Are Poisoning Our Children