Air Health Our Health

Big Tobacco has a history of targeting the military, from including tobacco in rations to leaked documents showing how they targeted recruits and veterans as ripe for tobacco addiction. Brandy Carpenter was serving in Afghanistan when she received word via the Red Cross that she was about to be made an orphan by Big Tobacco. Join us in a discussion about how this changed her life. Brandy works as a nurse practitioner and a tobacco treatment specialist in a lung cancer screening program. She shares her own story and her wisdom about how to break individuals and our society free of tobacco. Update- lung cancer screening criteria have changed since this episode was published!  The USPSTF recommends annual screening for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) in adults aged 50 to 80 years who have a 20 pack-year smoking history and currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years. Screening should be stopped once a person has not smoked for 15 years or develops a health problem that substantially limits life expectancy or the ability or willingness to have curative lung surgery. Visit blog post for more information, or go to airhealthourhealth.org. Follow and comment on Facebook page and Instagram.  Record a question or comment on the Anchor podcast site or send an e-mail via the website.  

Mary Peveto of Neighbors for Clean Air joins me on the podcast today. We dive into this gap between safety and legality and the many air toxics that are not regulated under the Clean Air Act. Like many Oregonians, I always thought our state had a green reputation and healthy air. I have learned as a lung doctor that is not the case. There is a large gap between what people think is happening with air quality regulation and the reality of our permitting processes that does not protect human health. We also talk about the history of racial injustice in poor air quality, and the difference in action when levels of arsenic were known to be elevated in the historically black community of North Portland vs when cancer causing air toxics were found in whiter neighborhoods. Visit blog post and airhealthourhealth.org for more information. Follow and comment on Facebook page and Instagram. We also talk about what gives her hope, and future needs for diesel mitigation. Learn more about Neighbors for Clean Air and their important work here: http://www.whatsinourair.org/ . Consider donating to their important work! Learn more about Cleaner Air Oregon here. If you live in Oregon, look up your State Senator and Representative here, and tell them how important it is to breathe clean air and that you support a robust permitting standard, benchmarked to human health. 

As a lung and ICU doctor, I have been perplexed by the descriptions of teargas as "non-lethal." In this podcast, I explore the science surrounding the idea of safety and try to assess what the true risks to health and healthcare costs might be.  Visit blog post and airhealthourhealth.org for more information.  Follow and comment on Facebook page and Instagram. 

Join us for a frank discussion of the history of tobacco's devastation of the black community and how we build towards health and equity. Tobacco is a drag on the whole economy, especially pushing communities of color into poverty. Learn more from Cyreena Boston Ashby, who shares her thoughts here.

Join me for a conversation with Dr. Matt Drake, a pulmonary and critical care medicine physician and scientist researching the effects of air pollution on airways, particularly in asthma. Dr. Drake also lives with asthma himself and shares his experience.  Learn more about Dr. Drake here and read more at https://airhealthourhealth.org/blog/ Questions? Comments? Record a question on the Anchor app, or get in touch via the website. Follow and join conversation on Facebook and Instagram!

Lung and ICU doctor looking upstream to prevent what causes patients to need care in the ICU and clinic. Don't light things on fire and breathe them into the lungs. From tobacco to diesel exhaust, dirty air kills. Visit airhealthourhealth.org for more info. Follow on Instagram and Facebook.