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Environmental Health and Environmental Justice Knowledge

An Open Education Resources Curriculum for Post Secondary Students About Environmental Health and Environmental Justice

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You are here: Home / Lessons / A Brief and Recent Environmental Health History – Explorations

Uncategorized / 19 July 2023 by John

A Brief and Recent Environmental Health History – Explorations

Required

  • A Brief and Recent Environmental Health History – Podcast
  • A Brief and Recent Environmental Health History – Essay
  • Complexities Essay

Podcast

Rachel Carson, Theo Colborn, Pete Myers, Carol Kwiatkowski, Arlene Blum, and Lois Gibss are featured in this brief story of environmental health history.

Self-select one chapter of choice each from:

Books

  • Carson, Rachel L. Silent Spring. Mifflin, 1962. 
  • Colborn, Theo, et al. Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival?: A Scientific Detective Story. Dutton, 1999. 
  • Gibbs, Lois, and Murray Levine. Love Canal: My Story. State University of New York Press, 1982. 
Self-select two of the various elements listed below:

Long Version Interviews

Arlene Blum, Green Science Policy Institute

Lois Gibbs, Center for Health, Environment, and Justice

Carol Kwiatkowski, The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, Green Science Policy Institute

Articles

  • “Playing with Fire,” Chicago Tribune series on toxic flame retardants

Videos

  • Arlene Blum, Purpose Prize Winner
  • Dark Waters (rent or buy) film about Dupont polluting farms.
  • Erin Brockovbich (rent or buy) film about a woman who defended a polluted community.
  • The Goldman Prize video “Lois Gibbs”
  • “The Love Canal Disaster: Toxic Waste in the Neighborhood” | Retro Report | The New York Times
  • The Male Predicament – Theo Colborn
  • Silkwood film about Karen Silkwood, whistleblower a a nuclear plant that leaked radiation.
  • Toxic Hot Seat – About the Chicago Tribune series on toxic flame retardants. ROCO Films charges $50 for a one time screening.

Other Podcasts

  • Toxic Avengers with Daniel Rosenberg – Long time environmental health stalwart Daniel Rosenberg interviews environmental health and environmental justice advocates. 

Websites

  • Center for Health, Environment and Justice (Lois Gibbs)
  • Coming Clean
  • Critical Windows of Development (Theo Colborn, Carol Kwiatkowski)
  • Environmental Health News (Pete Myers)
  • Green Science Policy Institute (Arlene Blum, Carol Kwiatkowski)
  • Planetary Health Alliance Education Materials
  • Science Communication Network (Pete Myers) 
  • SUDOC (Pete Myers)
  • The Endocrine Disruption Exchange (Theo Colborn, Carol Kwiatkowski)
  • Wingspread Conference on the Precautionary Principle

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Course Content

Lessons Status
1

Learning Outcomes

2

A Brief and Recent History Instructor Guide

3

Key Concepts

4

A Brief and Recent Environmental Health History – Podcast

5

A Brief and Recent Environmental Health History – Essay

6

A Brief and Recent Environmental Health History – Explorations

QuizzesStatus
1

A Brief and Recent History of Environmental Health: Module Quiz

Key Concepts

All | D E L P R S T W
DDT
Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) is an organochlorine pesticide used broadly in the 1950’s and early 1960’s to kill mosquitoes carrying malaria and typhus. It was the first manmade toxic chemical discovered to be toxic to the environment and human health.The harmful effects on birds was the subject of Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring. It is an endocrine disrupting chemical, linked to breast cancer in daughters and granddaughters of women exposed in childhood.

Definition of Environmental Health
The concept that manmade toxic chemicals can harm the environment and human health.

Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) 
Chemicals that interfere with the endocrine systems, impacting hormonal systems such as thyroid, immune systems, neurological and reproductive systems, even at low doses, and other health systems.

Love Canal
A contaminated Niagara Falls neighbourhood in New York where people became sick. Resident Lois Gibbs organized her neighbours to evacuate the area. The harm was so great that the U.S. government created the Superfund policy to tax corporations to clean up their toxic hazards.

Precautionary Principle
A concept coined at the Wingspread Conference that says that if there is a reasonable risk of harm from something, it should not be allowed in the public sphere.

Rachel Carson and Silent Spring
A biologist and writer and her book that contributed greatly to the launch of recent (last fifty years) environmentalism. Inspired the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other government regulatory agencies worldwide.

Superfund
U.S. EPA policy that states that polluters must pay for their toxic exposures. Inspired by the Love Canal tragedy.

The Ames Test
Test developed using bacteria to determine if a substance is mutagenic (disrupts DNA or genetic codes) and therefore carcinogenic (can trigger cancer).

Wingspread Statement
First ever declaration of concern about manmade toxic chemicals from an array of scientists,. created last the Wingspread Conference hosted by Theo Colborn and Pete Myers.

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