“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” has been famously attributed to Benjamin Franklin. Today, an ounce of prevention is worth more like $820 billion when you estimate the health costs of climate change and air pollution, per year in the U.S., according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. A vastly disproportionate amount of this burden is placed on low income and communities of color.
Many chronic and preventable health issues can stem from environmental exposures, including preterm birth, brain development issues, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Each affects health over the lifespan, increases stress, and can negatively affect mental health. So, what can health professionals prescribe to help their patients reduce exposures to environmental pollutants and avoid their harms?
Prescriptions for Prevention
UCSF’s Western States Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (WSPEHSU) developed the Pediatric Environmental Health: e-Toolkit for Prevention, a free, online tool for health professionals covering more than 30 environmental health topics. With input from all 10 national Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty units across the country and supported by the UCSF Environmental Research and Translation for Health (EaRTH) Center, the Toolkit allows you to search for chemicals (like BPA, lead, or PFAS), sources of contaminants (like air or water), and provides guidance by age. For in-depth exploration of environmental health topics, you can enroll in free, self-paced, continuing education courses on wildfires, children’s cancer, asthma, cognitive decline, infertility and developmental disabilities.
Every topic in the Pediatric Environmental Health Toolkit has a companion Prescriptions for Prevention, an online tool for preventing chemical exposures and resulting health effects. With emphasis on parents, each prescription shares simple things patients need to know as well as easy do’s and don’ts that are largely low or no cost. Its free and available in English and Spanish. There are also short, animated videos on climate change and health impacts of heat stress, plastics and natural disaster preparedness.
Better Protections for the Frontlines
When it comes to environmental exposures, everyone is on the frontlines. But pregnant people and young children are most vulnerable, they eat and breathe more than fully grown adults and are in a period of biological susceptibility. Though we are increasingly exposed to chemicals, many of which have not been thoroughly tested for safety, we can arm ourselves with knowledge and action: which chemicals to avoid and how to avoid them.
Through partnerships between WSPEHSU, the EaRTH Center, and other groups at UCSF, we are working on including climate and environmental health issues in UCSF classrooms and hope to see them in every medical school across the country. We are also working to integrate the Prescriptions for Prevention into UCSF’s electronic medical system (APeX), and are exploring opportunities to integrate the program into hospital systems around the country. In the long term, we hope to prescribe low-income and communities of color reduced-cost organic foods, air purifiers, HEPA filters, N95 masks and other items that have powerful impacts on patient health.
Policy change needed
But we know these prescriptions can’t address all exposures. With about 350,000 chemicals on the marketplace and global chemical production projected to triple by 2050, people are typically exposed to a complex combination of chemicals from a variety of sources. Low-income people and communities of color are often at even higher risk as polluting plants are typically located in their neighborhoods – and stress from poverty and discrimination can make the effects of chemical exposures even worse.
While there is much that health care professionals and individuals can do, policy change is needed to protect people and health from the onslaught of harmful chemicals in our homes, workplaces, everyday products, and communities. We need to prevent these harms before they occur. Stronger chemical regulations are needed to protect health and the environment, especially those most at risk of toxic harms such as pregnant people and young children.
About the author
James Earl Schier Nolan, MPH is the Associate Director of the Community Engagement Core at the EaRTH Center and Community Engagement Manager for the WSPEHSU. His work focuses on bridge building and strategic community-researcher collaborations. He earned his MPH from Berkeley Public Health, specializing in social determinants of health disparities associated with racism, classism, sexism and geography.
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