I got involved with environmental issues in the Sixties. Yes, I go back that far. In fact, I was the only student in my medical school class of eighty (UVA, 1970) that did a stint in Public Health (and then went on to get my Masters in Public Health after my internship). Pollution prevention (P2) is the ultimate preventive medicine, so the connection was easy for me to make. While I am a relative newcomer to the regulatory, bureaucratic and acronymic aspects of this field, the public health and economic benefits have been clear to me for a long time. After twenty years of clinical medicine, I finally realized that my true calling was Public and Environmental Health.
My work with the Hanford Health Information Network (HHIN ) drew me into the worlds of environmental risk assessment, risk communication and toxicology, not to mention environmental justice. Exposure to radioactive materials was the issue there, and I became more and more interested in (and concerned about) the myriad chemicals to which we are exposed and the pathways by which they reach us. PBTs became a special focus of mine, but harmful exposures of all kinds - from woodsmoke to noise (such as leafblowers) to tobacco smoke - have been on my radarscope for years.
I see the biggest challenge to be the non-point sources of environmental contaminants. This means that we need to focus our attention on public education and jurisdictional regulation of traditionally ignored sources of pollution. This also means challenging long-held beliefs and habits that the American public, especially, has held. Consider that the most polluting activities in our neighborhoods include mowing the grass, blowing around the detritus (ugh!), barbecuing in the back yard, having a fire in the fireplace, and driving one's car…. and you can see what a challenge this will be. Fortunately, technologies are evolving at an impressive clip, and as we educate people about the health hazards of things they take for granted - remember when we didn't have seat belts and air bags? - we can offer alternatives to them at the same time.