debor015

Hey everyone! Starting today, the last Tuesday of every month will be "Toxic Tip Tuesday!" Perhaps not as cool as Taco Tuesday, but valuable nonetheless. Short but sweet, each Toxic Tip will concisely lay out a new evidence-based way you can better your health!  Today's Toxic Tip! Steer Clear of the Smoking Rear That is, avoid driving directly behind large vehicles such as cargo trucks, buses, and construction vehicles when you're on the road. Why?... read on!  In 2008 I participated in a major air pollution field study led by my atmospheric chemistry professor Dr. Winer (one of my favorite profs!). As an intern for this study, my job was to drive around designated streets in downtown L.A. to measure air pollution. Yes, wi th probes and monitors abound, this  meant piloting what you might call a "Back to the Future" mobile! I never failed to catch the eye of a passerby. Accompanied by a post-doc, I would often switch to passenger seat where I got to monitor ...

       Firefighting a heroic profession no doubt! What you probably didn’t know is that the prevalence of obesity among firefighters is higher than almost any other profession. Yes, it’s surprising, and certainly counterintuitive. But it’s true. According to one study, this stems from fire station eating culture, sedentary work while not fighting fires, among other factors ( Dobson et al. 2013 ). However, the reasons for firefighter obesity won’t be our focus here. Let’s turn to another study, and see what takeaways we might apply in our own lives.        In a recent cross-sectional study by my friend and colleague Dr. Maria Korre at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 400 male U.S. firefighters were randomly assessed to identify significant predictors of left ventricular (LV) mass ( Korre et al. 2016 ). Why LV mass? The left ventricle is an important part of your heart’s pumping system, and its mass turns out to be a strong predictor o...

       As a new component of this blog, I’d like to introduce “Toxic Talk of the Month.” A book review! Each month, Toxic Talk of the Month will feature a new book recommendation from me to you! I promise to ONLY recommend books I have personally read. No insincere recommendations! A perk to this book review is the “no junk” filter I will apply to all reads. As I'll discuss in my next blog, identifying a credible information source can be challenging, particularly relating to complex issues of science and health. So let me do the work! In this review, books full of pseudoscience and informational inaccuracies won’t make the cut.        As you might imagine, featured books will resemble the topics we discuss in Toxic Talks Blog; namely, harmful chemicals, nutrition, and the environment. So if you like this blog, keep your eye out for the Toxic Talk of the Month. Each review will briefly discuss the focus of a book, pointing out any main highlights/...

Hey friends! I want to thank you all for your readership over the years! While blogging I of course notice greater popularity of some topics over others. With that said I'd like to introduce a new feature of this blog titled "Hot Talk Revivals" through which I'll bring back a selected "hot talk," or popular blog, from the past with each coming season. Any new thoughts on the topic? Have you applied any health tips? If so, how'd it go? Or if you're new to the Toxic Talks Blog, Hot Talk Revivals will be your opportunity to catch up on the Talks!  For our first Revival, the Hot Talk I've chosen is an article I coincidentally wrote nearly five years ago today! Titled "Vaccines and Autism," this piece dives into the controversy surrounding vaccines as a potential cause of autism. View the article below:  Vaccines and Autism As a brief followup to this article, it's worth mentioning that the field of environmental health continues to make...

Dear bloggies, I’ve been long-wanting to cover this issues which has been unfolding in North Dakota. It’s heavily tangled in emotion, involving economics and social justice. Or more simply, corporate America vs. Native America. The issue is the Dakota Access Pipeline. It's been all over social media, but peculiarly devoid from most mainstream news. What’s the Issue? The Dakota Access pipeline, if fully constructed, would run 1,100 miles from oil fields in northwest North Dakota to a refinery and port in Illinois. Although most of the pipeline would cross private land owned by Energy Transfer Partners, the project still needs U.S. Army Corps  of Engineers  approval as there are portions that cross federal waterways. Since April, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe along with hundreds of Native protestors have been demonstrating on tribal land near the Missouri River in opposition to the project. The gathering represents one of the largest Native protests in ages. In July, following a...

Imagine a recent conversation where you recommended dietary advice to someone. Or maybe you suggested how best they rid their cold. Or perhaps you were explaining climate science. Now take a step back. Reflect on the assertions you made and the “facts” you knew. Where did you learn your facts? A health magazine? CNN? Online? A family friend? Maybe they were facts you’ve simply always known. My focus in grad school was to understand the world of chemical exposures. Before grad school, I knew a bit about chemical toxicity through word of mouth and reading. While school reinforced and expanded this knowledge, near the end of grad school there were still previously held “facts” of mine that professors failed to mention. Why was this? One such issue was surrounding the chemical Teflon™ used to coat non-stick pots and pans. Since I was a kid I had known Teflon™ was toxic, so I should be careful not to use metal cooking utensils because this would scrape off the toxic Teflon™ particles into m...