Wednesday, September 14, 2022 12pm to 1pm
Alexandra Zissu is a journalist, content consultant, and author. She has written six books in the environmental health realm. Her first, The Complete Organic Pregnancy, was published in 2006. She has spent many years translating science into accessible consumer English for organizations, companies, and individuals. Her goal in all her varied projects is to help people, especially families, find simple preventative ways to live a healthy lifestyle. She sits on the board of Clean and Healthy New York and is a leadership group member of the Childhood Cancer Prevention Initiative.
Title of Talk: When an environmental health journalist becomes a cancer mom
A first person account of what happens when a prevention-obsessed journalist’s 8 year-old daughter is diagnosed with Wilms Tumor. All environmental health concerns must be set aside to get through chemo, surgery, augmented chemo due to chromosomal changes, and radiation. But a running series of questions go through my mind anyway: Why was there no environmental assessment at intake? Why has no one asked us where we live or if we drink well water? And, most importantly, how did our kid get cancer? We did everything “right.” I stay quiet when our beloved oncologist says there’s currently no known environmental cause of Wilms. When we ask our equally beloved nurse practitioner if kids who have recently had lung radiation should hang around outdoor fire pits and are met with a blank stare, we don’t push. When we move out of active treatment, and no one offers us any information on prevention, I despair—especially for the other families. Now I’m trying to find ways to encourage oncologists to speak with their environmental health colleagues. I am hoping what I share today might help start conversations.
Julia Brody, Ph.D., is the executive director and a senior scientist at Silent Spring Institute, a scientific research organization that studies environmental factors and breast cancer. Her current research focuses on reporting back to people who participate in environmental health studies to inform them about their own chemical exposures. With support from the National Institutes of Health, her team developed the Digital Exposure Report-Back Interface (DERBI)—a web-based tool for making high-quality personalized reports practical in studies of any size. She is also studying what Americans know about endocrine disrupting compounds—as part of the emerging field of environmental health literacy. Her interest in returning exposure results grew out of Silent Spring Institute’s Household Exposure Study, the first comprehensive assessment of exposure to endocrine disruptors in homes. Dr. Brody has led several critical reviews of epidemiological studies of environmental chemicals and breast cancer, and she was part of the planning team for a continuing medical education series on environmental factors and cancer cosponsored with Harvard Dana Farber Cancer Institute in 2022. She is an associate editor of Environmental Health Perspectives and research associate in epidemiology at Brown University School of Public Health. She earned her Ph.D. in community psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.
Title of Talk: We know enough to know…” – Strategies for Conversations about Environmental Chemicals When the Health Effects are Uncertain
Scientific discoveries from the past 25 years have revolutionized our understanding of the early life origins of chronic diseases, including cancer – expanding beyond genetic mutation to include effects such as endocrine disruption, inflammation, and immune suppression. At the same time, we have learned that there are hundreds of chemicals used in consumer products or released into the environment that can trigger these effects. “Proof” will remain elusive for ubiquitous chemicals and long-latency disease, but multiple expert panels have concluded that we know enough to act on the science while we pursue further research to better understand the risks. It’s time for doctors and nurses to talk with patients about opportunities to reduce potentially harmful exposures and to add their trusted voices to public discussions of environmental policies. Strategies for these conversations can build on experiences from reporting back to people who participate in biomonitoring studies of chemical exposures. Lessons learned show that people want straightforward information about what scientists know and don’t know. They can understand uncertainty and do not become unduly alarmed. Simple resources, like the smartphone app Detox Me, offer easy steps to reduce exposures. Armed with better information, clinicians and patients can also address exposure disparities and contribute to environmental public health in their communities
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Time: Sept. 14, 2022 12:00 PM Eastern Time
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Meeting ID: 849 9431 8039
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