Editor's Note: On Preventing the Preventable Suffering

A remarkable achievement of science over the past 25 years is hard evidence that much of human suffering can be prevented. For example, thirteen years ago, SEHN’s science director, Dr. Ted Schettler co-authored a volume entitled Environmental Threats to Healthy Aging. The authors showed that the risk of key diseases of old age, including Alzheimers and Parkinsons, was substantially reduced in people with lower exposures to a variety of environmental chemicals and pollutants.  

Ted’s report has unfortunately been validated by many newer studies, including a number showing that exposure to air pollution from fossil fuel combustion is consistently linked to an increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia. And, as I was writing this, another study was published concluding that “Elderly people living near or downwind from unconventional oil and gas wells such as fracking sites are more likely to die prematurely."

We have a moral duty to prevent the preventable suffering. Where do we start in fulfilling that duty? 

Consider the fact that fires, floods and hurricanes, birth defects, cancer, asthma, cardiovascular disease are often caused by or made worse by some form of fossil fuel extraction, burning or use. Fossil fuels are made into toxic chemicals, including plastics, that contaminate our food and water. Climate change magnifies ordinary weather events into monstrous storms or fires. 

In a remarkable Atlantic essay SEHN board member Rebecca Altman says: 

“But plastics and climate aren’t separate issues. They are structurally linked problems, and also mutually compounding, with plastics’ facilities spewing climate-relevant emissions and extreme weather further dispersing plastic into the environment. Research is under way to study their interaction—the way, say, thermal stress affects how species respond to toxic exposures. But they have the same root.”

Years ago, Dr. Sandra Steingraber, then a SEHN board member, determined that fracked fossil fuels are the common root of the twin scourges of toxic chemicals and climate change. If we could end fracking then we would end the litany of suffering that is caused by those fossil fuels. 

In this issue of the Networker, we tell two stories about scientists who are working to prevent the preventable suffering. 

In the first essay, Sandra and Carmi Orenstein, co-authors of the Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking (the Compendium), document how they use the science on the health effects of fracking to support grassroots groups that work to obtain bans and moratoriums on fossil fuel extraction. All the evidence shows that the fossil fuel industry has fundamentally altered the Earth’s chemistry, causing extraordinary human health problems and wreaking climate havoc.  Sandra and Carmi first gathered other medical professionals and scientists to review and report the early data on fracking in 2012, and have continued this work as the number of studies—and the evidence for harm—grew dramatically. A new edition of the Compendium will be released soon, and we are taking this opportunity to look back at how science can influence policy and guide action. “Policy” and “action” are dry words but the right policies and actions can lead to lower rates of asthma, less contaminated water, a sporting chance at a stable climate. Health and well-being are anything but dry, as those in the path of the fracking industry have, regrettably, come to know.

In our second story, Dr. Steven Gilbert, recognizing the suffering caused by exposure to toxic chemicals, describes toxicology as the language of hazardous and broken dreams. His book A Small Dose of Toxicology equips the layperson with the keys to understanding toxic chemicals and how they affect living things. If you are curious about the chemicals you or your family are exposed to, Steve’s book will help you make sense of this complex field and take action to avoid harm.

Maybe these issues strike close to home for you. They do for me. This week authorities said the drinking water of my town in Iowa has “forever chemicals” – toxic chemicals that are used in household goods, fracking and fire suppression. Chemicals that are known to cause cancer, immune problems, liver damage and more. Chemicals that shatter dreams.

What do we learn from the two books featured here? It doesn’t have to be this way. We can prevent a litany of suffering. 

Carolyn Raffensperger
Executive director