Hidden in Plain Sight- Red-Lining, Race & Lung Function with Dr. Neeta Thakur

Dr. Neeta Thakur is a pulmonary and critical care physician at the University of California San Francisco, where she serves as the Medical Director of the San Francisco General Hospital Chest Clinic, and studies how social and environmental stress negatively affect people suffering from asthma and COPD.  She is working hard to help us understand the history of race adjustment in lung function testing and what we should do going forward to provide better health for all. 

To Do:

1- To learn more about the history of air pollution’s impact on health, you can go back to the first season for a host of episodes. For example, podcast Episode 2 with Dr. Matt Drake and Episode 17 with Dr. Ritz. Learn about how red-lining can affect those asthma risk in Episode 27 with Prof. Shandas.

2- I am serious about the importance of hope! Learn more about how policy can work- listen to Episode 12 about cleaning up diesel school buses with Dr. Adar and Episode 16 with the American Lung Association’s analysis of the economic stimulus and decrease in asthma we might see with a transition to electric vehicles

3- Listen about one person’s story with asthma growing up in a previously red-lined district by listening to Ashia Allen, a patient of mine.

4- For more about air pollution and air toxics in the Portland Metro area, listen to Episode 5 with Mary Peveto and Episode 7 with Prof. Linda George

5- If you haven’t read “The Fire Next Time,” be sure to do so. If you are in healthcare and care for those with respiratory illness, “Breathing Race into the Machine” is certainly worth reading.

6- Finally, consider a donation to the American Thoracic Society, which works tirelessly for clean air and has funded research like that done by Dr. Thakur early in her career. Full disclosure, I volunteer as a member of the ATS Environmental Health Policy Committee.

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