Arizona has some of the nation’s filthiest air,

and it’s making our patients sick

Our Opinion Editorial with Dr. Brian Drummond with the Arizona Health Professionals for Climate Action was published in the Arizona Republic recently. Take a look.  Based on the recent Lung Association’s annual State of our Air Report, most Arizonans live in a county with at least one failing air quality grade, which hurts us all.

NPR’s Deep Dive into Plastics

Over the past seven decades, plastic has become embedded in nearly every part of human life.Many scientists say companies make too much plastic now for society to manage sustainably. The U.N. says the problem is further fueled by a "worrying shift" toward single-use plastics, designed to be used once and disposed of. Here'show the plastic industry ingrained the material into our lives— and what activists are trying to do about it. 

➡️Synthetic plastic was patented in the early 1900sand marketed as a sturdy, reusable material. 
➡️In 1956, at an annual conference, trade magazine editor Lloyd Stouffer urged executivesto stop emphasizing plastic's durability and focus instead on making many inexpensive, expendable materials. 
➡️It was hard to convince people to throw away plastic items.Adults in the 1950s lived through the Great Depression and World War II, and they were trained to save, not dispose.
➡️When people became concerned about the amount of plastic litter and waste seen in public,the industry pushed recycling as an environmental solution. However, multiple investigations have shown that plastic industry representatives have long known that recycling would probably never be effective on a large scale.
➡️Activists say lawsuits, like the one New York State Attorney General Letitia James filedagainst PepsiCo for endangering the public with plastic pollution, are one way to hold companies accountable.

What We Are Reading & Listening to This Week

• Everyone You Know will Eventually Be Highly Vulnerable to Extreme Heat (Bloomberg)
• These Teens Adopted an Orphaned Oil Well. Their Goal: Shut It Down (NY Times)
• AZ Corporation Commission approves Black Mountain gas expansion project, reverses committee regulatory review decision (SWEEP)
• Every time you breathe, you could be inhaling microplastics. (WashPost)

Join Us

June 6^th Recording: "PFAS: Federal Drinking Water Standards & Opportunities for Nursing Action" hosted byANHE's Policy & Advocacy Forum. Here is the recording of the June 6 Webinar.

July 9^th: 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm AzNA Climate Change & Health Workgroup June. Zoom Link

Thank you for joining us in making a healthier planet today!