This Wa. bill is trying to move beyond an environmental justice checklist
Imagine growing up along your city's only river, in a culturally diverse community that is also overrun by environmental pollution like black carbon and heavy metals. The pollution is generated by nearby freeways, airports, a seaport, and dozens of manufacturing facilities. Would you stay or would you leave?
This real-life dilemma is one that Christian Poulsen, a parent of two, and many others face as they live in an area with the highest rates of asthma hospitalizations in Seattle. “My family seems healthier when they’re not here, and that scares me,” Poulsen tells Prism. “I have to prioritize how much I love this community with how much I love my kids and how much I understand [the risks].”
Poulsen is a policy analyst for Duwamish River Community Coalition (DRCC), an organization that empowers the Duwamish Valley community to build sustainable environmental solutions. He and other advocates are pushing for a bill that takes an anti-racist approach and prioritizes places and people who suffer from environmental harms. The bill, Cumulative Risk Burden Pollution Act, would create a health risk standard that would allow agencies to deny permits for new facilities whose pollution impact exceeds the standard.
🚀
You can now find our partners' essential intersectional reporting and perspectives at our new URL Media website updated daily. Dive into the stories that matter. Check us out here!
Common asthma drug Singulair can cause side effects in kids. Here's what you need to know.
It has been reported that the asthma drug Singulair, known by its generic name montelukast, can cause psychological side effects such as nightmares, depression and suicidal ideation in children. But knowledge of the potential consequences of taking the drug often doesn’t reach families, Outlier Media reports. And in a high-risk city like Detroit, where an estimated 14.6 percent of children have asthma, the news is alarming. "I never recommend it," says Dr. Elizabeth Secord, a pediatrics professor at Wayne State University. “There are other medications that I always choose first.”
The outlet also references a recent investigation by the New York Times that found 1.6 million children in the U.S. are prescribed montelukast. This suggests that doctors are either unaware of the drug's side effects or are aware of it but are not concerned enough to justify no longer prescribing it.
Alaska Natives have the highest rate of colon cancer in the world, a new report saysThe American Cancer Society recently released a report that found Alaska Natives have the highest colon cancer rates in the world. Colon cancer is actually the leading cause of cancer death in men under 60 in the U.S. and the second leading cause of death in women under 50. As Indigenous people often receive late diagnoses when the cancer has advanced and become aggressive, colon cancer screening is recommended for Native Americans between 45 and 75 years old.
Native News Online highlights the symptoms of colon cancer and provides further guidance from the report on what you or a your loved one can do to protect your health →
More: Dr. King’s legacy: The fight for health justice continues (Black Voice News)
Meet the Game Changers
Highlighting the innovators transforming health outcomes in our communities
A University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa study on dementia risk among multiethnic groups in Hawai’i and Los Angeles found that 24 percent of Black participants and 14 percent of Native Hawaiians were diagnosed with the disease after a nine-year follow up from the initial study. The study’s lead author, Dr. Song Yi-Park, said while there is no cure for Alzheimer’s, preventing or delaying the disease by reducing controllable risk factors should be an urgent public health priority