Wow. It’s been a marathon few weeks since the H3SD 2024 Summit. We finished the summit but I had agreed to speak at the Early Childhood Mental Health Conference which is a big regional conference in San Diego. It had been weighing on my mind, and I had agreed to do it in order to give an opportunity for someone who I am mentoring to speak. But in the end because we all live in our own realities of jobs/family/illnesses, we had to pivot and I ended up speaking with one of our premedical students. I am a believer in if things are meant to be , they are meant to be. And the talk at the end stages went fantastic. We were both definitely at the right place at the right time, and with each other at that moment.
We both delivered and I progressed on my thinking of so much of my environmental health work and thinking. I re-watched another recent talk I gave on indoor air pollution which actually was really good – now that I’m rewatching it. I need to move forward with that work as well. I am reminded that I am a very good public speaker, as I was rewatching some of my work.
But this weekend, I honestly need to catch up on sleep. My favorite kdrama is dropping a new episode! I have to help my daughter finish a really big application she is working on. And we want to have some fun and go out to Balboa Park. I also need to do my taxes. I have the money ready to pay my quarterly, but I need to get all my paperwork together. My father was an accountant, so I actually like getting together our tax paperwork.
That’s it! I just wanted to let my blog readership know that I have to really concentrate on my taxes this weekend!
What a relief just to type out the title of this blog. I’m absolutely exhausted. I’m tired. And yes I’m tired of bullies. You know who you are. Everyone has a bully in their life, even my good climate friends have people who have bullied them in their work-homes. And I have mine. There are bullies on city council. There are bullies in HMOs. There are bullies at school. There are bullies on committees. There are bullies at non-profit foundations. There are bullies in universities. And as my back is spasming and I’m thinking about just the mundane day to day of my life, I’m furious at the bullies that exist in my life.
But those bullies, have prepared me for the climate work. There is no bigger bully than the fossil fuel industry, entrenched interests, and those that sit around while the rest of us worker-bees actually work. I’m pretty sure I never bullied anyone in my life. If I have, please text me and I’ll apologize to you. Maybe I was having the same back spasms I’m having right now and was not in my right mind. Maybe the back spasms is a reminder of my own mortality (which I’m acutely aware of).
But now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I am grateful. I’m grateful for the kind-hearted and loving people who are doing climate work. The real work that needs doing. Not the posturing, not the easy stuff. The hard work. The organizing the summits. The fighting the Tijuana Sewage Crisis. The calling of legislators. The passing of bills. The work that is going to the root of systemic racism, environmental racism and addressing head on the climate crisis and global heating. It’s what my mentor Nicole Capretz from Climate Actions Campaign said, “the cavalry is not coming.”
Actually Nicole, the sad imagery is that the cavalry is coming. It’s coming with Dr. Plastic Picker and it’s literal children. Sometimes I look at the premedical students, medical students and high school students that have joined hands with pediatricians to do this work in San Diego – and I realize they are like toddlers in diapers. We have children that are rising up and fighting back. And it’s absolutely daunting.
But those children have done amazing things this week. They’ve written a blogpost that was published in the AAP-CA3 newsletter about their advocacy. They helped form the backbone of the OC Public Health Advisory Council of Climate Actions Campaign. They helped delivery testimony regarding the dangers of hydrogen sulfide gas to developing lungs and children to the San Diego Air Pollution Control District board, and get a promise of 10K air purifiers to the south bay.
That I have my own bullies makes me a better pediatrician. It makes me understand better what so many of my patients especially those that are neurodivergent go through. That I have my own bullies makes me a better mentor for the medical students and premedical students that dare to dream to be physicians, that though they know they have had to overcome so much to get to where they are. They have many more mountains to climb, financial barriers, prejudices about their gender, growing up in communities that they dearly love that are also burdened by pollution. It makes me a better mother, helping my daughter navigate the dicey world of junior year where some around her don’t believe in her dreams. When you try to rise, others will try to pull you down or others will try to push you down. But to my daughter and to so many that I mentor, we’ll rise up. We have to. There is no cavalry coming. There is just us. But we are a powerful force. Thank you for listening. And I feel better, and I’ll show up to work today despite the ridiculous things I have to deal with day to day sometimes in order to be a doctor.
50th time I’ve been mentioned in some kind of news article.
September 14, 2024
by Dr. Plastic Picker
Honestly you can’t make up some of this stuff!!! I called my sister and called our niece Zoe in New York. I’ve told all the details to some friends and patients, but here I can’t tell all the details because the internet is forever. But OMG, honestly life is stranger than fiction sometimes.
We had just almost finished the leaded aviation fuel project which is awaiting the Governor’s signature and then the Tijuana Sewage Hydrogen Sulfide (perhaps there was Hydrogen Cyanide) crisis happened. There was news coverage, gas masks, drones deployed, governor called, chancellor and congressionao delegations, messages to the President of Mexico, competing press conferences, mayors and board of supervisors involved, front line doctors, public health doctors, graphs, talks of swirling eddies and hot spots. But in the end, why I got involved is because I heard about the schools and children that were affected. It was Nestor Language Academy, Southwest High School, Mar Vista High School and Berry Elementary School. These are all schools that our clinic takes care of. So the entire issue hit home.
In the end, I’ll keep the details to myself. If you know me in real life, I told you my version of the story. But this is what is on public record. This is the letter we sent to the Governor of California, Board of Supervisors, San Diego Air Pollution Control District and posted all over our socials. We were told that our letter made a difference, and that at least our patients will be getting air purifiers.
Re: Tijuana Sewage Crisis We are concerned. As pediatricians who take care of children in the South Bay in particular infants and children living in and around the Nestor area, and those thousands of students attending Southwest High School, Mar Vista High School, Berry Elementary and Nestor Language Academy, we have been informed by our colleagues that the concentration of several toxic gases are at unacceptable levels. This concurs with what we have seen in our clinics, which are many cases of new onset migraine headaches, gastrointestinal illnesses, asthma exacerbations, respiratory infections and conjunctivitis in children living around the Nestor area. Our front-line experience mirrors what other physicians in Imperial Beach have documented.
We have been in open communication with Professor Kim Prather from UC San Diego Scripps Oceanographic Institute and Professor Paula Granados from SDSU School of Public Health, who have shared with us their data. This has been through natural networks of concerned citizens and community leaders, that want to do what is right and just for the communities we serve. The various measured levels of multiple airborne pollutants from the Tijuana River include hydrogen sulfide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) pose an immediate danger to our patients.
As community pediatricians we are well equipped to understand the physiology of children. Per the CDC, children exposed to the same levels of hydrogen sulfide as adults may receive larger doses because they have greater lung surface area:body weight ratios and increased minute volumes:weight ratios. In addition, they may be exposed to higher levels than adults in the same location because of their short stature and the higher levels of hydrogen sulfide found nearer to the ground. Children may be more vulnerable to corrosive agents than adults because of the relatively smaller diameter of their airways. We do not know the long-term side effects of such high levels of chronic hydrogen sulfide and VOCs exposure to a community already burdened by environmental pollution and historic racism. For these reasons, as individual practicing pediatricians who will follow and care for these children long-term, we urge the different government agencies and responsible organizations to deploy as rapidly as possible air purifiers to the homes with infants and children as a short-term solution. We defer to the County Public Health Agency for further instructions to ensure public health. We defer to our government agencies to address the root cause of the Tijuana Sewage Crisis, but to treat it as such – an immediate threat to the short-term and long-term health of our pediatric patients. We hope that our shared community will treat infants and children affected like their own and provide for them the same safety measures and protections that children of other more affluent areas would receive. We are concerned. And we are fulfilling our duties as pediatricians, to speak up and advocate for those that cannot do so for themselves.
With respect, lots of doctors (25 signatures)
And with that, I made the news for the 50th time. It was wild for sure! For now our part is done. I have to email and thank everyone! But the funniest thing I texted my niece and a few of the students is that in my mind I was thinking the entire time “Why do we need nuclear weapons when you have sewage? Countries can just build sewage treatment plants at different borders, and when they get mad at each other just stop the plants, and then Hydrogen Cyanide will just waft over to the other side.” LOL. A reason to get rid of nuclear weapons.
I feel better. I feel better just titling the blog post “It’s hot. I’m tired.” I just sent the Public Health Advisory Council San Diego email group and a included a few other doctors and medical students a plea for someone to show up on September 17 at the Vista Unified School District at 6pm to help present with one of the staff. All this work is volunteer, but the volunteers are very busy physicians like myself. I just wanted to remind them that there is some work that is important, and since we are laser focused on decarbonization – electrifying this school district is very important.
It felt very good to send the following email snippet
“One last plea for anyone who might be available to speak at Sept 17 at 6pm with Climate Actions Campaign to help Serena with the work up in Vista to help electrify. We asked PHAC members first, but I’m including some of my AAP peds colleagues and some of our medical students who might know someone. As long as it’s a med student, pediatrician or other physician – we can catch you up easy.
I’m asking because if no one volunteers, I will go. But I will be honest, I’m completely exhausted. I have a PHAC OC press conference that morning (because we are doing a press release for the CAP report there which is hugely important) but the VISTA work is important too. No one in OC can physically be there yet, as I’m trying to build up the council. And I have realized I need to figure out how to fit in a bunch of dental stuff for myself and my daughter because her wisdom teeth are coming in. So asking for help, if anyone can do it. If not I will do it, and it will be fine. But it helps me to ask knowing that I reached out. I’m not as good as Bruce as keeping connected with everyone, but would like to start making sure I ask because I know everyone wants to help with impactful stuff – and helping VISTA get to district electrification is fundamental decarbonbization and important.”
I’m glad I can just type stuff on this blog. I posted on Instagram and it’s true, whenever it’s time to retreat and delete the social media – I’ll be okay. I’ll always keep the blog and my personal emails. But the social media Instagram stuff, I’m not sure how much of it is real? You know? I’m tired because I have real stuff I need to catch up on. My daughter has real teeth that we already went through braces, and her wisdom teeth are starting to move. I also need to see the dentists myself. I also need to do my real taxes. I totally forgot we could paid yesterday. But I need to pay the government their substantial portion so I need to file our taxes. I started real folding and organizing our closet, and I need to move our teens ceramics from the extra dining room table we have to the upstairs game room that has a perfectly good display case already. Lots of real things that need to be done today.
Decarbonization is real work as well. So I hope one of my other PHAC and doctor friends shows up in REAL life to help do a presentation. If not, I’ll do it. But I’m hot and I’m tired because there is a heat wave. But at least I was on KPBS for it! That was COOL!
