The Perfect Storm?

As a person who practiced hematology, I learned to ask a few questions early in my career and early in my physician-patient relationships: what kind of work do you do now and what kind of work have you done?  Where do you live now  and where did you live before moving to your current location?  Do you have any occasion to handle toxic materials at work or in your personal life.  Do you live down-wind from a refinery?  When you were in the armed services, did you come into contact with toxic materials, including radiation and chemical warfare or biologic materials? Tell me about your hobbies, and specifically whether you are exposed to wood dust or fine shavings?.  Tell me about your use of alcoholic beverages, drugs and other substances. Tell me about your smoking history.

While all of this may be interesting to my readers, few probably think that it is relevant to them, but environmental toxic exposures play a major role in causing disease.  You may keep your weight under control, be careful about taking saturated fats, never pick up a salt shaker and exercise regularly, but if you are exposed to toxic substances in your environment, in your food and in your home, you may develop leukemia, cancers (bladder, lung, skin, testicles and others), black lung disease, serious infections, emphysema, brain disorders, and a host of other disabling, fatal and expensive-to-treat diseases. And if we allow our children to have those exposures, they are also at risk.

All of which, at a time when the country is working desperately to control its health care costs, makes me wonder why any political party would seek to weaken our environmental laws. Does it make sense to try to roll-back health reform and simultaneously roll back the environmental protections which America - with much effort - has invoked to protect its children, men and women?  Has this become a country in which we cannot trust one another to take reasonable care of our children, workers and vulnerable citizens?  Is the tension between financial interest and the well-being of our citizens always to be resolved in favor of financial interests?