Inclusive Integration in The Pacific NW–
Reflections on the 33rd PNW-SETAC conference
Phrases like “storied knowledge,” “toxic geography,” “fancy dirt,” and “children born pre-polluted” provided critical context to this year’s PNW-SETAC conference. The three-day conference opened on a Monday morning with Dr. Sarah Marie Wiebe from the University of Victoria who spoke passionately about seeking the “truth” via monitoring and inclusion.
“See, know and, understand” was her message about the importance of how state actors have to engage their publics. Community-engaged research involves a relational approach that involves listening, humility, reciprocity, and engaging the senses. Sarah’s book, Everyday Exposure, is a useful outline of what frontline communities experience vs. the anonymity of the issues for many others. Everyday Exposure also cites Rob Nixon’s application of “slow violence,” the unfolding of illness, disempowerment, and highly localized, disproportionate impacts of industrial chemical manufacturing. The community itself declared a state of emergency. What follows, however, is an encouraging story that is still being fought. That story is being told.
On the second day of the conference, we heard from a panel regarding Environmental Justice:
- Michael Pouncil, Portland Harbor Community Advisory Group
- Samreen Siddiqui, King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks
- Janet Niessner, Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians
- Nicole Browning, OHSU-PSU School of Public Health
- Tammi Fierro, Portland State University (PSU), undergraduate focusing on microplastics (not in photo)
- Allie Tissot, PhD candidate at PSU
Michael quoted liberally from Nixon’s stunning book. A few notes from this discussion:
- There is a golden handcuff tradeoff- here’s some economic stability but you’ll pay with your health, and possibly your life
- Environmental Justice has distributive implications, or the uneven distribution of harm
- There is a decline in the number of males born in first nation communities because of endocrine-disrupting chemicals
- Heat, sound, vibrations, and smell are all a part of the slow violence
- There is no consistent policing in rural areas
- Lack of representative leadership
- Need for better waste management (and production) of medical plastics
So, what now? A few ideas discussed were to: (1) Fees collected as part of enforcement actions should be returned to the community and not a general fund; (2) There should be a program established for community compensation; (3) remove barriers to participation and meaningful engagement; (4) hold a conference to identify problems in the community; (5) Work to advance environmental justice embeddedness; (6) Cultivate and practice more effective communication about toxics.
Other snippets from the Conference
The following points caught our eyes- this is not a comprehensive list and we are grateful for all the compelling conversations, including ones not mentioned here:
- Commercial laundries in the Snohomish Basin Washington are a major source of PBDEs causing mortality in Juvenile Chinook Salmon.
- 30-40% mortality can cause extinction
- Over 10 years, we added 2,700 miles of new roads and 10,000 fish barriers-
- Most of the issues with salmon were related to cardio-respiratory problems
- PAH exposure to juvenile salmon reduces growth, increases disease susceptibility, alters behavior, and increases mortality, low dietary absorption efficiencies whereby contaminants go straight into the food web.
- Pharma products are designed to be bioreactive in humans so receptor targets are highly conserved.
- Legacy and CECs are being found in edible seaweed, a widely foraged and consumed marine algae/plant.
- High-performance bioretention mix, now dubbed “fancy dirt,” is highly effective at remediating toxics.
- Traditional ecological risk assessment is based on the so-called Red Book, a human health-oriented tome. There is no mention of uncertainties which should be the first thing you talk about- the approach does not work with multiple stressors.
- Plastic bottles take 450 years to break down
- Nano-plastics are 1,000 times smaller than a grain of sand. We need evidence but we don’t currently have the analytical tools.
- Bottle caps can release up to 1 million particles.
- Packaging is the #1 source of nano and microplastics.
- Agriculture practices use 12 Million tons of plastic each year, compelling us to look at terrestrial sources in addition to marine.
- Adverse effects from plastics include (1) food dilution; (2) oxidative stress; and (3) changes in behavior.
- Noted plastic-related policy needs include development and application of a health based framework for informing regulatory action related to exposure to microplastics. The policy framework must also address the effects of plastic incorporated into natural elements like rocks, called “pyroplastics.” The “matrix,” air, water, biota, and sediment, calls for addressing scale, a targeted range of plastic sizes, and forward planning for sample preparation, identification, and analysis. In the case of nanoplastics, surface chemistry is a huge driver… and let’s not forget that tire particles are themselves, plastic.
Brander and Harper Short Course on Micro and Nanoplastics
We are grateful for the heart, passion, excellence, and truth-seeking our regional Pacific Northwest SETAC colleagues bring to making our home more resilient, and to strive for collaborative solutions to these vexing issues.
Heidi Siegelbaum, Board member and Communications Lead
