Mayor Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins
After moving from Los Angeles, California to Collegeville, PA in 1991 it took about six months before we realized a profound improvement in the health of my wife, Betty and our then, nine-year-old and daughter, Imani. Betty had been suffering from debilitating headaches for about three years prior, and Imani had had a difficult childhood with asthma related symptoms.
We loved our house. It was beautiful and spacious. In the evenings we would sit in the backyard patio listening to music while watching the twinkling lights on the structures and buildings in the near distance in the valley below. We had not given much thought as to what those structure were, focused as we were primarily on our own house; our own block in the community; and our own immediate living space. The fact was, we lived only two miles from a massive oil refinery.
The health effects of living near that refinery proved to be chronic and gradual. Invisible fumes crept into our lives making Imani susceptible to labored and shallow breathing. Those imperceptible gases skulked into our lives, causing Betty to experience excruciating pain several times a week. Inhalers and Tylenol became a regular part of our lives, not realizing then that where we lived, as beautiful as it was, was killing us. We did not realize then that where lived was causing cancers, birth defects, neurological damage, cardiovascular harm, and blood disorders among the community members we loved.
Sadly, then and even now, minoritized groups are disproportionately affected by the toxic harm of refineries and are often pushed into the frontlines due to poor city planning and wealth gaps. Those refineries were killing us softly.
Today, I am learning that there is perhaps an even more deadly killer amongst all of us. That killer is indiscriminate and impacts lives regardless of a person’s race, religion, gender, or economic status. That killer is plastics and, in particular is micro-plastics.
Plastic is a poisonous pollutant of unique concern. It is monstrous in that it does not break down quickly while simultaneously accumulating in the environment as more and more is produced. Plastic carries toxic effects throughout its life cycle — from the impacts of oil and gas drilling, learning that to plastic refining and manufacturing, to waste management, to plastic effluence that ends up in our oceans and the environment. If plastic production continues to expand and expected rates, twenty-five years from now, plastic in our streams. Rivers and oceans alone will outweigh the fish that make their home in them. Microplastics are particles smaller than five millimeters deriving from the degradation of plastic objects present in the environment. Microplastics can move from the environment to living organisms, including mammals.
Recently, I’ve been in conversations with students studying environmental science at ursinus College. Many of them belong to a group of advocates called, “Reimagine Ursinus-Collegeville. They work toward and promote the environmental well-being of our community. I learned recently from our conversations together that the average person in the USA is ingesting a credit card’s worth of microplastics every week. That is frightening. Microplastics are making their way into unborn fetuses, and into the major organs of the human body.
All it took for my wife and daughter to begin feeling better 31 years ago, was moving away from the oil refineries that were killing us softly. Microplastics and polystyrene chemicals are causing liver, kidney, and circulatory problems for all of us regardless of where we live. Moving won’t solve our problem. But perhaps a movement may.
Over the next few weeks, I will continue to learn about this silent killer, engaging in conversations with students, residents, business owners and others to help determine what we in Collegeville can do to mitigate this silent killer among us. Perhaps, by addressing this issue, we can help make Collegeville an even greater place to come home to.
