July 5, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

It’s 7:02am and I’m going to head out to the beach soon and help with the “Morning After Mess” Beach Clean-up after the 4th of July. There were hundreds of thousands of people enjoying the beach, and even the most conscientious beach-goer leaves a bit of trash behind. So there will be lots of people cleaning up the plastic debris before it goes into the ocean. There will be plenty of people on the beach, so I might just clean around the streets and gutters before it goes into the ocean.

I’ve been reflecting lately on what San Diego Pediatricians/Physicians for Clean Air is, and what it is – is really just us. It’s a list-serve of over a 100 folks that are truly connected and in step, trying to help with environmental health. It’s largely our HMO pediatric department, and the medical students and premedical students and residents that we’ve collected on the way. It’s also our own children and our family, that we bring along to participate in events.

I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who is part of this “loose coalition” which is more real and coordinated than official non-profits that have grants and full time staff. We just have ourselves and a $20 website, and honestly that is enough because we are actually doctors who practice and who are responsible for our community and patients.

Gosh, we’ve done a lot. And it 100% has been US. Yes I blog and I go on the news and I coordinate. But I’m mostly talking to everyone and texting folks about issues, and connecting all of us – and then trying to help us figure out together what to do. I don’t do this in a vacuum. It’s all of us.

And I found this picture on my old laptop, and it makes me so incredibly grateful for our pediatric community. We have worked to save the birds from the Sea World fireworks (at least reduced some of the fireworks and the pollution). We have mentored a lot of medical students and premedical students in advocacy, and they are going to continue to do this. We’ve picked up trash together, and hung out on the wetlands together. We helped Rewild Mission Bay, which was HUGE! And we put together now 4 years of H3SD , San Diego’s Heat and Human Health Summit! It started off with pediatricians, and we’ve inspired the internist and emergency room doctors and so many others to help with issues like the Tijuana Sewage Crisis and Nitrogen Fertilizer Pollution. And in all this work, it was pediatricians raising the alarm because environmental pollution disproportionately affects children.

Just going out to the beach to clean up, and feeling grateful to all of you.