Your Health and Your Environment

the Black Appalachian Coalition partnering with the Ohio River Valley Institute is continuing the Petrochemical Lunch & Learn Series in 2024. Archbishop Marcia Dinkins and Patricia DeMarco have collaborated in producing this series taking a deep dive in 2024 connecting the health of people with the health of the environment. We recognize that too many front line communities experience daily conditions of air, water and land pollution that seriously deteriorate the health of people, especially children and the elderly. We also recognize that the mainstream systems for health care often do not reach communities of color living in the shadow of industrial facilities.

This series of webinars proposes to arm people who live and work with frontline communities with information, resources and tools to understand the situations they face. We hope to provide connection by sharing lived experiences from people who have food solutions and are moving forward.

We believe that health is a human right, not a privilege for those who can buy enough health insurance. We believe that to have healthy people we must have clean air and water, land that provides safe, fresh food accessible to everybody, and free of contamination. We are working together to build connections among communities with common problems from the Appalachian region, to the Gulf South, to the industrial East Coast. We have a common vision of a better future we can build together.

We depend on the living Earth for fresh water, clean air fertile ground and the wonderful array of living things in the interconnected Web of Life, of which humans are but one part. If we preserve our Mother Earth, we will have all we need to survive and to thrive for generations and generations.

2024 Petrochemical Lunch & Learn:  Your Health and Your Environment Production

Archbishop Marcia Dinkins- Convenor and Welcome

Ben Hunkler- Ohio River Valley Institute -Technical support and evaluation surveys

Patricia DeMarco, Ph.D. – Research and Background

Kidest Gebre- BLAC Fellow – Communication and Coordination

Esther Baldwin- BLAC Fellow – Organizing and Support

The 2024 Petrochemical Lunch & Learn Series addressed these topics:

1. Health is a Human Right Feb 21, 2024 explored the connection between people and the environment; every person has the right to breathe clean air, have safe water and freedom from pollution

2. Air Pollution March 21, 2024- sources, health harms and mitigation

3. Water is Life– April 18, 2024 water pollution, health harms and mitigation

4. The Land Beneath Our Feet– May 16, 2024- abandoned mined lands, abandoned oil and gas wells- health effects, amelioration and reclamation

5. Forever Plastics- Everlasting Poisons June 20, 2024 Addressed plastics in our everyday life, avoiding and substitutes

6 When Disaster Strikes– Protecting Vulnerable Populations August 15, 2024

7. Environmental Justice and Building a Clean Energy Economy Sept. 19, 2024

8. Healthy Mothers and Children in a Healthy World Oct. 31, 2024

9. Action Strategy- November 21, 2024. Mobilizing and empowering people to hold polluters accountable. Freedom to Breathe Campaign

Here is a link to the Toolkit assembled by Ben Hunkler including recordings, all speaker presentations and resources for all of the sessions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FLSdlMwHfr20pow0Afqhj7llhDH1Mp3cfXkLC-IEIGo/edit?tab=t.0. You can select a single session at a time.

The programs reached over 1,500 registered attendees from 28 states and three countries. Clearly, there is much work yet to do in bringing frontline communities into a greater state of awareness and empowerment to take action against the chronic and damaging pollution that has become an accepted part of industrial might. This cannot be contiued at the expense of the health of millions of people exposed to toxic materials exposure through contaminated air, land and water.

As we look toward 2025, we will focus on moving from awareness to action. We will harness the power of informed citizens to hold the polluters accountable. BLAC launched the Right to Breathe Campaign at the end of this series. This will carry forward the momentum for health as a human right into the next year.

It has been my honor to be involved with this highly impactful series of programs. Archbishop Marcia Dinkins has inspired many discussions and brought hope to people enduring situations that cannot be considered normal and right, sometimes for generations. Ben Hunkler of the Ohio Valley Research Institute has kept the whole operation operating technically smoothly and has assembled and added to the resources in the Petrochemical Lunch & Learn Toolkit.