- Speaker #0
Welcome to the Not Old Better Show, the show covering all things health, wellness, culture, and more. The show for all of us who aren't old, we're better. Each week, we'll interview superstars, experts, and ordinary people doing extraordinary things, all related to this wonderful experience of getting better, not older. Now, here's your host, the award-winning Paul Vogelsang. Welcome. To another enlightening episode of the Not Old Better Show on radio and podcast, today's show is brought to you by Qualia Sinolytics. We are honored to have a very special guest today, Dr. Deborah Henriksen, who will be discussing her groundbreaking brand new book out July 2nd, The Air They Breathe, a pediatrician on the front lines of climate change. This episode is particularly crucial as it delves into the intersection of climate change and children's. Health, an area of increasing concern and importance for all of us in the Not All Better Show. Audience who are grandparents are soon to be grandparents. Dr. Deborah Hendrickson is a board-certified pediatrician based in Reno, Nevada, the fastest warming city in the United States. I didn't even know that. But with nearly two decades of experience in pediatrics and an impressive background in environmental studies, Dr. Deborah Hendrickson brings a unique and authoritative perspective to this pressing. issue of climate change, particularly as it applies to children. Dr. Deborah Hendrickson's extensive work in both fields makes her an invaluable resource today for understanding how climate change directly affects the health and well-being of our youngest and most vulnerable population. Our children, our grandchildren. In her brand new book, The Air They Breathe, Dr. Deborah Hendrickson provides a timely and revelatory look into the myriad ways that climate change is impacting children's health. Through vivid stories from her clinic, Dr. Hendrickson will share with us, and she shares in her book, heart-wrenching accounts of young patients affected by worsening air quality, extreme heat, and the increasing frequency of natural disasters. These stories are not just medical cases, they are... Urgent calls for action highlighting the immediate need for comprehensive climate policies and community efforts to protect future generations. This book is wonderful. It's not only a critical examination of the health crises that are emerging from a changing climate, but it also is a profound reminder of our moral responsibility to our children and our grandchildren.
- Speaker #1
Just to set it up, this is from the introduction and it's after the Carr and Mendocino complex fires. had left Reno, you know, covered in smoke for weeks. And shortly after that, the city of Paradise had burned down. So we had a lot of refugees basically coming into the city to stay with family members. Shortly after that, the air cleared and I was walking from my clinic into the hospital to see kids in the pediatric ward. And you have to pass through this glass passageway as you do that. And there's a garden down below. And I looked down and saw... A little boy who I just finished seeing in the clinic was down there with his mother and younger brother. I used that scene to explain how his body and physiological processes are connected to everything else in the scene. That the atoms of water and molecules that are swirling around him are flowing through him and might have flowed through many other living things elsewhere, you know, around the world. Which meant that these elements were only borrowed from the atmosphere, not owned. that as he played, the breath he exhaled and the moisture evaporating from his skin, mouth, and lungs were rising back into the clouds to be carried away by the wind, that the water in the urine he voided that night before being tucked into bed would find its way eventually back to the sea. Because the water and air and heat that swirl around the globe and clouds and rivers and oceans and wind also flow through us and every living thing. The atmosphere outside the windows of the clinic and hospital, the backdrop. My patient's visits is part of their bodies, physically linking them to this planet and all its life. Children are creatures of this world. What we do to the earth, we do to them. But children are attached to this world by more than water and air. When my young patient finally caught a raindrop, he threw his fists in the air and ran to his mother, who was sitting on a nearby bench. She smiled and hugged him, and he went limp with mock exhaustion, knowing she would not let him fall. The baby then squealed at being left out. and waddled toward them like a tiny drunk. The older boy turned, crouched down, and tenderly hugged his brother, who had collapsed into his arms. It's okay, I could see him saying. It's okay. For a moment they were in a line, the mother's hands on her son's shoulders, him embracing his brother. Who could doubt, looking at them, that love passes through generations as surely as genes, linking us to everyone who came before. and everyone who will follow. Who could doubt what science now proves and what I tell an audience of medical students every year when I lecture about early childhood, that the love we show our children, like the water they drink and the air they breathe, becomes part of their bodies, literally shaping their brains and hearts and futures. That same love, I hope, will save us, because it is the fiercest love that human beings feel, and no healthy parent, if they see their child is in danger, does nothing.
- Speaker #0
Dr. Deborah Hendrickson emphasizes that the love and care we show to the youngest members of our society must include a commitment to preserving the environment they will inherit. Dr. Hendrickson's insights you will find today are invaluable. For parents out there, they're going to be so great. For grandparents out there, educators, healthcare professionals, and anyone concerned with the future of our planet, join us as we explore today the compelling narratives and scientific insights presented in Dr. Deborah Hendrickson's new book, The Air They Breathe. We will discuss the specific health threats posed by climate change, particularly some practical steps that can be taken to mitigate these risks and the broader implications for our communities and policies. Dr. Deborah Hendrickson is with us today. You'll appreciate her expertise and her passion. So please join me in welcoming to the Not All Better Show on radio and podcast, Dr. Deborah Hendrickson. Dr. Deborah Hendrickson, welcome to the program.
- Speaker #1
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
- Speaker #0
Thanks so much for joining us today. I'm looking forward to talking to you about the air they breathe. It's a pediatrician who's on the front lines of climate change, you, who's written this wonderful book. Thanks so much for sharing it with me, and I'm excited to share it with our audience. Let's start off with this big hard-hitting part of this, and maybe you'll just elaborate briefly on some of the very specific health threats to children that you discuss in the book, because I think that's what grabbed my attention. Let's get into some of it. I've heard of, but I certainly didn't know the severity.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, so the book is organized around four major categories of illness that are increasing due to climate change and which present particular risks to children. Air quality and respiratory problems, including asthma and allergies, which is mainly related to wildfire smoke and rising ozone levels and allergens, heat illness, the trauma of natural disasters like hurricanes and floods, and infectious disease. I go into detail on each of those. I use stories of kids in particular cities where these problems are more acute, like the air quality chapter is pretty much focused on Reno, where I live, which is the fastest warming city in the country, but it's also a city that's seen big impacts from wildfire smoke over the last 10 years and ozone. And I tried to use the stories of kids who I'd actually seen or knew to explain the science of why they were more vulnerable and being affected more. And there's four big reasons right off. taught as to why children are more vulnerable to environmental change. Their physiology is quite different than adults in some respects. They're smaller, so like the same dose of air pollution or heat for a small body is just going to be more pound for pound. And an adult, their behavior and maturity, you know, is different. So a little kid on a very smoky day or a hot day when their parents are trying to keep them out. might sneak out and not realize the danger they're in. But one of the most significant things I talk about is that their organs are still developing and growing. And in fact, some organs development depend on interaction with the environment. The two big ones that I talk about in the book are the lungs and the brain. And I think probably the most startling information in the book for most parents is going to be the information about particulate pollution, which even if fossil fuels were not causing climate change and wildfire smoke and these surges of particulates we're seeing. Particulate pollution has been recognized as a public health problem for many years because of fossil fuels. But the very tiny particles, and so these are like tiny specks of solids and liquids suspended in air that are produced in huge quantities, for example, by these mega fires in California. When kids inhale them chronically, for example, in some of the most polluted... neighborhoods of Los Angeles, we've followed kids for years who were chronically exposed to significant levels of particle pollution. They tend to have smaller stunted lungs because the lungs literally form through interaction with the air and are shaped by the quality of the air that the kids are breathing. And so, you know, if you get to age 18 and you've got smaller stunted lungs, you know, you're going to be more limited in your job prospects, your health is going to be worse, you're going to be more prone to heart disease and lung disease later, and you're likely going to die younger. So... We know that exposure greatly increases the risk of lung problems, but the tiniest particles don't stop at the lungs. They actually penetrate into the bloodstream. and can reach any organ of the body. And there's more and more histological evidence that these particles can infect every organ of the body. The most alarming thing for parents, I think, is that we know that they can enter the brain and that they're causing brain injuries in children. And there's pretty good evidence now that they are contributing, not the sole cause, but are contributing to the rise of autism and ADHD. in children because we know they cross the placenta and can affect the development of brain architecture even before birth. There was a very large study from Southern California that showed that mothers who were prenatally exposed to particle pollution before the kids were born, their children had a higher risk of autism. And there was a very large study in China that looked at kids after birth who were exposed to them and had higher rates of ADHD. And they can also, it's kind of horrifying, but they can also ascend up the nose through the nerves to the brain and end up in the frontal cortex. and that's an important area of the brain for personality and behavior, the ability to plan ahead, the ability to think clearly. There's a lot of reasons that kids are more at risk from all these categories. That was one I think that most parents don't know about that would be quite alarming.
- Speaker #0
The mental health components are ravaging and enormous as well. As a pediatrician, especially as a full-time in practice pediatrician, you're a busy person. Writing a book on top of all of that is a big job, but congratulations. The research is amazing. When did you have time to do all of this? My gosh, what inspired you to just keep pushing forward with this? Because the topic can be a little bit of a heavy one.
- Speaker #1
It can, and obviously that's inescapable in talking about this, but I also really parents to realize. And the final chapter of the book is called The Possible World. You know, we're on the cusp of being able to create a world so much better than the world that fossil fuels leaves us with. As I said, you know, even without climate change, these fuels are causing so many public health problems. And to be this transition to green energy really opens the opportunity to have so many benefits for kids and everyone else, for pregnant women, for everyone's self.
- Speaker #0
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- Speaker #1
Right, right. Yeah, we're the fastest warming city in the country. but air quality has been the biggest issue here. When we think about what to do about all these problems, it's good to categorize our efforts into what's, you know, sort of a sustainability category. that adaptation category. So sustainability is the idea that, you know, what are we doing to keep the problem from getting worse? And that's basically electrifying everything and getting the electricity from renewable sources, you know, that we and then storing that energy in large storage batteries. That's the trend that we're trying to move toward. And I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. But I think what you're asking more about is adaptation, like what do we do to protect kids during these events?
- Speaker #0
Yes, absolutely. What kind of things can we start doing right now?
- Speaker #1
Okay. For example, when we have wildfire smoke here, parents can, if their HVAC system can support it, there's a filter you can put in your air conditioner called a MERV13, M-E-R-V-13. If you have enough power to use one of these filters, it filters out the particulates in wildfire smoke. So as long as the kids are indoors, they'll be fairly protected. Sometimes you have to seal the spaces around windows and doors also. We can also buy or build freestanding air purifiers. I have a bunch of them because we've had so much smoke here. I have families who can't afford them. They've built them themselves from instructions that are online. I tell parents to get an air quality app on their phone. And you know, when it's really bad here, everybody knows it's bad, of course. But stays that are just kind of hazy or when the ozone's high, that they may not realize that there's a risk and those will alert them. when the kids need to not be outside at certain times. Even before COVID-19, I told parents for kids who are old enough to wear a mask, that they do sell pediatric N95 masks. And so when it's really bad here, that's the best thing to do if you have to go somewhere or put a damp baby blanket or one of those covers over the car seats if they're too little to wear a mask. So those are things we can do for air quality. For heat, all heat warnings, like right now there's a big heat dome over the west. Yeah, yeah. I think parents if they're going to be outdoors a lot they like to do a lot of sports for example with their kids if their kids are on a soccer team or football team it's worth investing in a wet bulb globe thermometer that you get through Amazon it measures not just the temperature but the humidity the wind speed the solar intensity it gives you a real idea of the heat risks to from all those things combined you want to avoid the hottest part of the day do your errands early in the day and One very important thing regarding heat is to make sure your car has a rear seat alarm that alerts you if there's weight on the back seat. So you don't accidentally walk off and leave a toddler or a baby in the seat, which happens more often than you think because people are just busy. A lot of cars, fortunately, are starting to install them automatically, but you can also buy them separately. if your kids are in sports, especially football, you want to talk to coaches, make sure they have a cooling tub on the field. So if one of the kids does start to show signs of heat illness, they can just dunk them in ice cold water. Football players are the highest risk, especially linebackers, because they tend to be heavier. A lot of coaches, well, I think they're catching up now, but they don't quite appreciate the risks in a city like Reno, for example, because we haven't had that much problem with heat in the past. It's more of a new problem we're facing. So those are some ideas for HEAT.
- Speaker #0
I really found the book to be instructional, very educational, of course. And I wonder, as a pediatrician, are you seeing more collaboration amongst fellow pediatricians on this subject? Is it something that's being taught in educational institutions in medical school? Are you starting to see the impact of climate change, for example, on a pediatric practice and certainly kids?
- Speaker #1
Absolutely. Yeah, there's a whole network of pediatricians across the country. Each state has members, they're called climate representatives, like I'm the climate representative for Nevada. and with pediatrics. And we have a Zoom meeting once a month where we talk about what's going on in your state. What are you doing? We share ideas and legislative updates. It's led by Lori Byron, who was the star witness, the expert witness in the Held versus Montana case that was announced last year that said that Montana's failure to consider the climate change impacts of fossil fuel projects was a violation of kids'constitutional rights under their state constitution. So she's very involved in that. There's another pediatrician who's a friend of mine, Samantha Aduit in Virginia, who founded this first group. It was called Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action. And now it's been replicated all over some colleagues of mine, and I founded one here in Nevada as well. It's just a group of not just pediatricians, but all kinds of medical personnel who are interested in this topic, want to become more educated on things going on at the legislative level. at the community level in both adaptation and sustainability, whatever we can do. You know, and part of the value of this too is talking to each other and making connections. You know, it lifts you, it gets you motivated, and one action tends to beget another. And in answer to your question about medical school, yeah, part of the work of these groups has been to bring medical education, to bring climate change into medical education and make it part of the curriculum at medical schools. There are now questions on board exams about climate change so that people can recognize climate change impacts in their practices. So there's a lot going on.
- Speaker #0
Again, congratulations. Our guest today is Dr. Deborah Hendrickson, who has written the wonderful new book, The Air They Breathe. The book is going to be out on July 2nd. We'll have links so that our audience can find out more about Dr. Hendrickson, her new book, and all of the resources and information that she presents. This is a subject for all of us. It's good to hear that. pediatric community is working together closely. You really do emphasize in the book, The Air They Breed, that there's a moral responsibility for all of us towards future generations. And I wonder if you talk for a second about your perspective on that subject in particular, that the time is now, but we really need to think ahead so that we're accomplishing something that is meaningful for these generations that are coming up.
- Speaker #1
You can probably tell in the book, I have a certain amount of moral outrage about the situation.
- Speaker #0
I think we do. I think we do, yeah.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, because, you know, everyone knows now that the fossil fuel companies have known for decades that this was coming. And when I look at kids, you know, I have that scene in the book that really launched the whole book for me, which was when that one little baby came in during the rimfire, you know, for them to breathe. When I look at these kids, it's hard for me not to think. here's the most powerful industry on earth that unloaded the cost of its business onto babies, you know, and the least powerful population. So I characterize it as the greatest moral crisis we've ever faced. And I'm not the only one who said that. For that reason, we've transferred all this burden to billions of people, born and unborn. So we have an obligation to do something for them. But I think, too, for parents, it's just the same way we're obligated to put our kids into car seats. brush their teeth, take them to their checkups, put on sunscreen. It's just part of caring for our kids is caring for the world they're going to inherit. And so I just see it as on a continuum with that. It's harder for people to grasp because we can't directly see it. The impacts are indirect, and so it's harder for people. But now that the impacts are moving into the present, I think it is motivating more people to get involved.
- Speaker #0
I think there have been certain segments of our population, boomers in particular, many in my generation who are perhaps doubters, yet to be proven some of this, but I think we are seeing it all around us. I think in particular, wildfires impact older community as well as younger community members, both of those two extremes. what would you say to kind of my age group about getting involved? Do you see any examples out there of those who are a little bit older, some of the boomers that are kind of taking responsibility and not only educating themselves, but educating their children and their grandchildren about this subject?
- Speaker #1
I think the big example, I don't know if you've heard of Third Act, Bill McKibben's group that he established for older adults too. So they're very involved and they intentionally reach out to younger people too and younger climate activists and try to bridge that. that age gap. I have a lot of friends who are in their 50s and 60s and feel very concerned about their grandchildren and very active. And I think one thing about older people too, that, you know, as we're watching all the D-Day celebrations this week, those of us who are older, 50s, 60s, we remember a world that these kids are not going to remember. So we're a kind of historical memory that could be lost. And we have to, we're probably more motivated in some ways by that to try to preserve something of the world we've known for the generations that are going to follow us. And that's an important thing that younger groups can't bring to this.
- Speaker #0
What did you find in your research for the air they breathe that can overcome some of this hopelessness? Because I think there are some steps that go towards recognition of this issue being as real as it is. And so what did you see that really lit a fire under you that said, if we know that? we can then get past some of this feeling of hopelessness and start to say, we're going to take some small steps to improve our future.
- Speaker #1
I think it's really important to know that it is still technically possible to avoid the worst. There was analysis by Stanford just a year or two ago that I put in the book that showed that if we focused on this the way we focused on World War II or some massive event like that, we wouldn't have together worked on it. that we could rapidly transition off of fossil fuels and prevent these worst out. It's completely feasible from a technological point of view. All the barriers now are political and just human. That being said, I think doing something, not letting yourself sink into that helplessness, but doing something, anything, no matter how small, because each pound of carbon makes a difference in the world we're going to leave them. And as I said earlier, too, every time we do something, it does motivate us to do something more. I think the other really critical thing is joining with others, talking to others, and forming communities around this. Some people have argued that thinking about, you know, what am I good at, what makes me happy, what can I contribute, and just trying to find some pure, a good writer, writing an op-ed for the paper, if we can, that type of thing.
- Speaker #0
Right.
- Speaker #1
And it's very important to remember, too, that this feeling of helplessness, this learned helplessness, this is actually like a weapon or strategy that's been cultivated. Yeah.
- Speaker #0
Yeah.
- Speaker #1
Try to make us disengage and give up. Yeah. And one of the ways we can fight back is to not give into that and to keep working at making this world better.
- Speaker #0
So well said, Debra. Hendrickson has written this wonderful new book, The Air They Breathe. I think what goes along with this idea of helplessness and hopelessness is this. lack of understanding of the mental health aspects of this condition. And you touched on right at the outset, these very severe physical impacts that particulates play. There's also a mental health aspect of it too, that you talk about in the book. And I wonder if you just touch on that a little bit and tell us a little bit about the sense of frustration, perhaps, and despair that's growing among young children. We might not even give them credit for some of that yet. And yet it is there.
- Speaker #1
Yeah. It's not brought up spontaneously too often. I do tell the story in the book of a 16-year-old who had done a science project about global warming and was feeling a lot of distress. But I think it's hard to explain. These kids have been born into a situation where they're constantly hearing that they've been born into the end of the world, basically. everything is so bleak and things are trending so badly because of this. And so I think it's one of the key messages we can give them, because I do think it's underlying a lot of the epidemic of anxiety we're seeing. They're aware of this. They feel hopeless about it. I think it's very, very important to give them a sense of agency, that they can do things just like we're talking about with older adults, that all of us can do something to make this better. I told the story near the end of the little girl in New York, too, who had fallen into this as well and got out of it by creating her own website and getting her parents'apartment building to look at other ways to heat the building, you know, helped her. And I think that's really, really key. They have to feel like there's something they can do and also understand that it's urgent. We're all going to join in together and exercise our agency to address the problem.
- Speaker #0
It's all very inspirational too, I thought, Dr. Hendrickson. Well, I have one final question. Would you wrap it up and give us a sense from the book about a couple of resources that our audiences, both throughout families and then our older audience, might go ahead and seek out to learn more and to act and to take a small step?
- Speaker #1
Yeah. So there's only been two books that I know I've written about this topic. Like mine, you're interested in a more academic... that really goes into the details of the science without the stories that I've put in, told the science through. Frederica Pereira wrote an academic book that was called Children's Health in the Peril of Climate Change. So that's a good resource as well. And then the American Academy of Pediatrics has a website for parents called healthychildren.org. And they have multiple articles about climate change and the various risks to children from it. And then there are the American Academy of Pediatrics policy statements and technical papers. They're updated about every seven years, and there's been several now dating the science.
- Speaker #0
Dr. Deborah Hendrickson, thank you so much for your time. This is excellent. New book coming out July 2nd. We'll have links to the resources that Dr. Hendrickson just mentioned, as well as direct links to. The book and all of Dr. Hendrickson's work, my best to you, Dr. Hendrickson. I would love to have you back as you do more work on this subject. I know our audience is going to be interested in it. So selfishly, please consider coming back and updating us and telling us where things stand. And we sure appreciate all you're doing. Congratulations on this fantastic book.
- Speaker #1
Absolutely. Thank you so much. I'd be happy to.
- Speaker #0
My thanks to Dr. Debra. Thank you, Dr. Hendrickson, for her time today, her passion, her expertise. This is a wonderful conversation. Remember, Dr. Hendrickson's book is The Air They Breathe. Check it out. My thanks, of course, to Qualius Analytics. Check out Qualius Analytics. They are the sponsor of today's episode. Please support our sponsors because they, in turn, support us. All of this information, including links to savings, will be in our show notes today, so please check it out. My thanks as well to Sam Henniger for his work as executive producer. Sam does all the audio design and a lot more. My thanks to you, our wonderful audience here on Radio M Podcast for the Not Old Better Show. Please be well, be safe, stay cool. And remember, let's do better. The Not Old Better Show on Radio M Podcast. Thanks, everybody. We will see you next week. Thanks for joining us this week on the Not Old Better Show. To find out more about all of today's stories or to view our extensive back catalog of previous shows. simply visit not old dash better.com. Join us again next time. As we deep dive into some of the most fascinating real life stories from across the world, all focused on this wonderful experience of getting better, not just older. Let's talk about better the not old, better show. I would find all thing. Please check out our website for this episode and all episodes at not old. dash better.com or subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts and be sure to check out your local radio stations to find out more about the not old better show on podcast and radio. You can find us all over social media. Our Twitter feed is not old better. And we're on Instagram at not old better to the not old better show is a production of NOBS studios. I'm Paul Vogelsang and I hope you'll join me again next time to talk about better the not old better show. Thanks everybody. We'll see you next week.
