4.5 Minutes on Urban Environmental Health for Children

​It seems like nowadays, whenever we hear the word "environment" in the media, it refers to the latest disaster caused by the climate crisis or the latest commonplace chemical found to cause cancer.  Children, of course, are exposed to this barrage of information and feel helpless and hopeless.  The environment is bad, and there's nothing they can do about it.
Yes.  The situation is dire.  But unless we give some sense of empowerment to children, how can we expect them to care?  Some children have turned to activism, but it is not every day that students can walk out of class in protest.  For the most part, all that children hear is the predictions of environmental doom.  And they are going to tune it off.  
With that in mind, I agreed to participate in this great new TV program called Mission Unstoppable.  With support from the Lyda Hill Philanthropies, it aims to show how STEM can be part of our everyday lives, and for at least some of us, STEM can also be at the center of our careers.  The show focuses on women doing all kinds of STEM things, because well, why not? It doesn't beat you over the head to say that "girls can do anything."  Instead, it shows you diverse girls doing everything and anything that has to do with STEM skills.  
The producers filmed 8 hours of me talking for a 4-minute feature!  That in itself was eyeopening for me.  I didn't know how much work it takes to produce TV content.  
In the interview, I tried to show that:

• The "environment" is not some amorphous faraway thing that we only interact with when we go camping.  The environment is all around us, even in the city, and it can affect our health in positive and negative ways,
• That the pollution we produce as a society doesn't disappear.  It can always come back in different forms to affect our health,
• That people, cities and even children can make a difference with the choices that they  make every day to improve the environment,
• And, of course, that a girl with an accent can be an environmental health scientist.

With the help of my student Chrystal Galan, we created an environmental scavenger hunt that children can do in their neighborhoods, homes, and schools.  It is intended to show children that the environment is everything that surrounds us and to give them some things that they can do to improve it.
As my daughter said when she saw the show: "That was really cool."  For me, to go from dork to cool, even if only for four minutes, is a step forward.

Thanks to Adina Pliskin and Robyn Ramirez from Litton TV and to interviewer Erica Hernandez. Thanks also to Mount Sinai staff and students Marlene Naanes, Lisa Cole, Chrystal Galan Rivera, and Frances Morales Ramos, for their assistance during the long hours of filming.