April
2007
Talking Women, Health, and Environment with Teresa Heinz Kerry12 Comments. Your turn!
by Meredith Efken
Good things come to those who wait, and I’m sure you’ll agree that this was worth the wait today. Thank you to those of you who participated in my “guess my guest” contest. I’ll be announcing the winner at the end of the interview.
I’m very pleased to welcome an extraordinary woman to Violet Voices today…Teresa Heinz-Kerry. Mrs. Heinz-Kerry has been conducting a blog tour for the past couple of weeks to raise awareness of her Women’s Health and the Environment conference, which was held in Pittsburgh, PA, on April 20th.
I only knew Mrs. Heinz-Kerry as the wife of a senator I highly respect and admire. But after getting the opportunity to meet her in person this past December, I’ve become a fan-for-life. She is tirelessly dedicated to improving the lives of families, especially women, and she has a humility and genuine passion to serve others. She views her efforts to take care of the environment and to help improve the health of women and children as a moral mandate that transcends politics. I’ve found her to be an inspiring role model, and I’m so excited to get to introduce you all to this special lady.
VV: Was there a point in time or a certain event that first sparked your concern or passion about the environment? What is it about the connection between the environment and women’s health that motivates you to take action?
THK: Great questions – let me address each separately:
I think my interest and concern for the environment came from growing up in Africa. The combination of the laws of nature and lessons about cause and effect were important ones. My father was a doctor and shepherded me by his caring for people and working so hard to stem disease. My mother’s gardening and constant nurturing helped me to begin to see how one gets results—or does not!
The environment was real and tangible in Africa – there was an immediacy to it that you couldn’t ignore. One key lesson I remember is that all animals go to the water at sunset and sunrise, so you don’t go then. As a child, I learned to be a curious, caring healer, to protect and nurture, and to be practical about it.
Spending time with my father when he was providing medical care to the native people in the African bush, I began to understand very quickly how precious and valuable our surroundings are. The people of the savannah would kill animals only for food, not sport.
But Africa is very vulnerable to droughts and flooding. Africa is suffering terribly now because of the environmental issues.
With regard to my interest in the connection between women’s health and the environment, it is actually quite simple: we and our children are exposed every day to thousands of man-made chemicals. Hundreds of those chemicals can now be found in the tissue of every human being on the planet, including ones who are still in the womb. Most of us don’t know what chemicals are in the products we use, and there are no warning labels. Even though we know about phthalates and bisphenol A and other individual chemicals, we don’t know what the “cocktail effect†is. Some of the ingredients may be inactive by themselves, but mixed with others inside our bodies, they may be dangerous, especially to children. We can do biomonitoring on the body burdens of each chemical, but that information still doesn’t tell us how these chemicals may interact.
Our skin is our largest organ, remember. Everything we put onto it, we absorb just as if we were like eating or drinking it.
We have a Food and Drug Administration for food and drugs, and an Environmental Protection Agency for water and air quality, but we do not have an agency that monitors health and personal care products. Those products can be toxic, and women are more vulnerable than men because we use more than men, and our hormones are affected by some of the chemicals in these products. The European Union has outlawed 250 of the typical personal care products, whereas we have we outlawed only five. That’s because the EU utilizes the precautionary principle, whereby the manufacturer of a product has to prove it is safe before it goes onto the market. In the United States, it’s us getting sick or not who show whether a product is safe or not safe. The U.S. approach is shortsighted and punitive; it’s not the American way.
These kinds of questions led me to initiate the Women’s Health and Environment conferences we launched in Boston in 1996. And, this year, we just finished a wonderful conference in Pittsburgh. It was a full day of identifying problems and proposing solutions.
It is important to me that women and men have the information they need to make informed decisions, know how to find specific answers, or where to go with questions. Educating a woman means educating the whole family and I am happy to support that kind of learning.
VV: Africa sounds beautiful–I can see how you would come to care about our world so much by living in that sort of natural beauty. And the effects you’ve described of health and beauty products is truly chilling. Thank you for your efforts to bring these dangers to our attention.
A lot of us on this blog are moms. So I was wondering, as you were raising your children, what were some things you found helpful in teaching them to care for the environment?
THK: I didn’t start out being an environmentalist; I started out as a mother. I taught my boys about health, about beauty, and we witnessed as much creation as we could. Today, they are all good cooks; they care about healthy ingredients. We grew vegetables, and raised our own grass-fed steers on the farm when they were growing up. Food was and is a source of nutrition and wellness and pleasure. It was important to me that we had a lot of enjoyment around the table. But that takes some effort.
One of my grown children lives almost completely off the grid, and his family are healthy vegetarians. Another son loves to go to restaurants and he is an environmentalist who travels and fosters a healthier approach to life. My third son is aware and caring but not yet attached to a way of doing this. But all three are disciplined about the environmental impact of what they buy.
One of most interesting tools I used when they were growing up was to quote my father; I would tell them that they would get dyspepsia if they drank pop all the time! They had a little ginger ale at birthday parties, but no sweets in packages. Food should be of high quality, and they did not get a lot of sugar either. My late husband, John Heinz, was working on a bill on diabetes research in 1972. I read through it and decided it was time to make some changes! Sundays after church was the only day they could have sweets. I discovered the wisdom of this approach later on. They were much more disciplined about their intake of foods that were not healthy and when they arrived at the age when many children begin to experiment with drugs, they had a basic respect for self and for moderation and quality. Create the capacity for making good healthy choices and later that just takes over. It takes a lot of stubbornness to be a parent. I learned this from my own parents, not from a book, but it seems to have worked out.
It is also worth remembering that Pittsburgh’s air was for years laden with thick black smoke from the steel mills, and I think this impacted or enhanced their understanding. Kids know about asthma and other environmentally influenced sicknesses.
VV: Wow! That is actually so encouraging to me–the things you did with your children were so…normal. I can do those things. In fact, some of them, like limiting candy and junk food, I’m already doing. Whew…maybe I’m doing better at this mom-stuff than I thought. Thank you so much!
Okay, one last question: I’m 32 and a stay-at-home mom of two girls. As an experienced mom and someone who has been an active proponent of women’s health (as well as a rather wise lady with valuable life experience), what advice do you have for me in terms of either my own health or environmental safety at this stage in my life?
THK: Since our skin is our largest organ, I would begin by understanding what impact the cosmetics, personal and household products are having in both the short and long term. I have talked about this issue before but it bears repeating.
Second, I would look at the website for the Environmental Working Group to make sure the personal care products your daughters are using are not adversely impacting their normal growth process.
Third, look for ways to increase what you might be able to buy from local organic farmers, and if there aren’t any organic farmers nearby, at least get to know your local farmers and see what they sell and eat themselves. Are they responsible consumers and caring cultivators?
Try your hand at growing some things yourself. And look at the Environmental Working Group site for food safety hints. For example, hard-skinned fruit is generally safer, but you should buy organic soft skin fruit, preferably locally grown so you know the source. Make sure your meat (chicken and beef) does not have antibiotics, as well as your milk. It is preferable to look for grass-fed beef, pasture-fed cows, and corn-fed chicken, if you can find it. Eat vegetables from the broccoli family, including cabbage and cauliflower that are high in antioxidants. Wash them all well, of course, but don’t eat soft lettuce and spinach unless they very clean and/or organic because it is hard to get the pesticides off. If you can’t afford to buy organic milk or it is hard to find, one cup a day of the organic type is better than the hormone-laden regular milk. We do not want hormones in kid’s bodies. And if you’re want to eat meat, look into eating rabbit, which is high in protein with no fat.
Fourth, the future of the environment depends upon the willingness of each of us to get involved, whether locally or nationally, in an effort to create greater accountability of elected officials and the laws they pass regarding the environment. The old phrase “think globally and act locally†still rings true today, perhaps more than ever.
VV: Thanks so much, Teresa. These are great suggestions, and I appreciate how practical and doable they are. Sometimes, trying to be more careful about our health and taking care of our world seems really intimidating. It’s hard to know where to start. I appreciate the simple steps and suggestions. Thank you for all your efforts, and for being an inspiration and role model for all of us.
Be sure to check out the new Women’s Health and the Environment web site, and the rest of Mrs. Heinz-Kerry’s blog tour –there’s a wealth of information in every single one of her interviews, and several more days to go. Also, for a look at what other “normal people” are doing across the country to help improve the environment, take a look at the new book she and Senator Kerry co-authored:
This Moment on Earth: Today’s New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future
Tomorrow’s blog tour stop is one you won’t want to miss! For all you stay-at-home moms and for all you unschoolers, as well as anyone who enjoys the high-spirited and the off-beat, Cocking A Snook is a must-visit blog. (And if you don’t know what that phrase means, you’ll just have to visit the blog to find out. It’s not what you might think!) They’ll be hosting Mrs. Heinz-Kerry for another great interview, so stop by.
Now, for the winner of my “guess my guest” contest… *drum roll*
Kajudy!!!
(In my best game-show announcer voice:) Congratulations, Kajudy, you have just won an all-expense paid trip to Amazon.com where you will be able to spend a gift certificate on your choice of thousands of great products! (Hopefully environmentally friendly, healthy ones!) I’ll email you!
Thanks again, everyone, for helping make this special guest appearance so much fun. And a final thanks to Teresa Heinz-Kerry for her willingness to share a bit of her story with us. I think she qualifies as a Violet Voice, don’t you think?
Written By: Meredith Efken
Posted under: On Being a Parent, Stay At Home Parents, Women's Voices . 
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