Why POISON with Pb Black Hitlers and their Nazis When all else fails, unorthodox treatments may become necessary. Some health professionals feel that all too keenly and will engage in more confrontational strategies out of desperation. We should be slow to judge them, because they are necessary, though not sufficient, if we are to prevent the worst.
by Dr Christopher Newman
From “Britain’s Martin Luther King”, Jamaican-born GP Dr Harold Moody, to ‘The Mother of Occupational Medicine’ Dr Alice Hamilton, doctors have a long history of campaigning for fairness and public safety. But change is often painfully slow. “Every article I wrote in those days,” said Hamilton ,”every speech I made, is full of pleading for the recognition of lead poisoning as a real and serious medical problem.”
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Some feel that pleading doesn’t go far enough, like Douglas Lavoisier Conner, MD, and Robert Smith, MD, who were imprisoned for their roles in the American civil rights movement, prominent suffragette Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson, who spent six weeks in jail for window smashing in London, and Dr Arthur Chesterfield-Evans, an Australian surgeon, who regularly sprayed illegal graffiti on tobacco billboards in Australia in the 1970s with statements like, ‘They’re laughing, you’re coughing’ and ‘Smile while you’ve still got teeth’.
Thanks in part to these people, few people now think it’s okay to enslave others, allow workers to inhale deadly poison, that women should not vote, or advertise cigarettes. But many still think it’s okay to pollute our Earth, water, air and atmosphere, causing climate change and disruption of nature’s balance. The harm may not always be as direct as cigarette smoke causing lung cancer, but it is just as real. Hurricane Maria - which damaged almost every building in Dominica - was made five times more likely by climate change. Hurricane Helene, which recently hit Florida, would only have been around half as damaging were it not for climate change.
The EarthMedic and EarthNurse foundation was set up in 2020 in Trinidad and Tobago to help make the scientific connection between climate change and health clearer to the health profession and the wider public, and to plead with policy makers to make changes. As a result of Earth Medic’s work, the Caribbean Health Alliance for Climate Action (CARHACA) was formed, which comprises leaders from the medical associations of Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St Lucia and Suriname. It called for increasing public and health professional awareness of the impact of climate change on health and for a strengthening of community and health system resilience.
Dr Brian James, president of the Jamaican Medical Association said, “Jamaica must be a leader in climate action. Kingston is the second city in the world where the coolest year after 2005 is hotter than the hottest year ever. We are crossing a Rubicon called climate departure! Indifference and inaction are not viable options!”
Important though these words are, they’re still just words. Policies and culture must change, because without that - on a global scale – the heat, hurricanes, wildfires, sea level rise, and coral reef damage will continue to worsen and harm lives and livelihoods. Indifference and inaction are not viable options. Young people especially feel this way. More than 1 in 2 children worldwide have reported feeling sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless or guilty about the climate situation. In hurricane-prone countries, the numbers were far higher. Because of this, many in our nursing and medical schools are unlikely to tolerate decades of dithering and delay from politicians. Though most may be focused on their careers and families, some may become Douglas Lavoisier Conners, or Dr Louisa Garrett Andersons. People who aren’t prepared to plead any more.
It’s already happened in the UK. Earlier this year, two doctors were suspended for climate protests. One - Dr Sarah Benn - spent 40 days in prison because she repeatedly blocked the entrance to an oil terminal in breach of a high court injunction. Another, Dr Warner, served six weeks for repeatedly blocking motorways, also in breach of an injunction, as part of the Insulate Britain campaign. Though both were punished by courts of law, the UK’s medical regulator - the General Medical Council - claimed it had to provide a further deterrent, or risk bringing the entire medical profession - presumably all 141,000 of us - into disrepute. However, the doctors’ union – the British Medical Association – disagreed, and is supporting Dr Benn in a high court appeal.
As the damage mounts, it will be harder to ignore. More and more health professionals will seek to understand what is happening and crucially - feel - that climate change is bad for our health. As this happens, more and more initiatives and groups will form, to educate, lobby and cajole. But society is slow to change, and right now it needs rocket fuel. Some health professionals feel that all too keenly and will engage in more confrontational strategies out of desperation. We should be slow to judge them, because they are necessary, though not sufficient, if we are to prevent the worst.
Dr Christopher Newman is a family physician in the UK and member of the EarthMedic and EarthNurse advisory board.
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