For the past year, I’ve been anxiously waiting for the federal government to address the growing climate crisis, but month after month new delays to passing healthcare reform brought my desire for a fair, just and ambitious climate bill further and further out of reach. As Senators found excuse after excuse to avoid moving forward, I started thinking back about the fundamental role that healthcare played in motivating my climate change activism.
I grew up in the small rural community of New Town on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. When I was 20 years old I was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer known as a level 4 sarcoma tumor. It’s an extremely rapid spreading cancer that’s usually attached to the muscle or bone. What made it rare was that in my case it wasn’t attached; it was right there on my stomach where I could see it and feel it. I remember the morning I woke up and noticed that the pea sized lump I had discovered on my tummy just a few days before had grown and was now changing color. Because of the fact that so many people on the reservation had already dealt with cancer in the past I knew that it was not good and that I had to get to the doctor. At that point I was in college and my only form of health care was through the Indian Health Service (IHS).
By the time I was able to get into the IHS clinic for an emergency appointment the following week, my lump had gone from pee-size to nickel size and was changing from red to dark purple to blue. I remember feeling scared because I was pretty certain that it was cancer and I remember being completely taken aback when my doctor had asked if I had somehow bumped into a chair. He told me it looked like a bruise and he thought I just had calcium build up from an old scar that was there. As a result he would not give me a referral to see a specialist. Without the referral there was nothing I could do because I had no other form of healthcare and no money. My doctor told me to come back in 30 days and sent me home.
Within less than one week I was back at the IHS clinic talking to the same doctor. The lump on my stomach had grown from nickel size to just over walnut size and the color had spread as well. The doctor took one look, signed my referral papers and I was on my way to Altru clinic in Grand Forks, ND to have surgery to have the tumor removed. The tumor had to be sent to Mayo clinic in Minnesota and my family and I waited over two weeks before we found out for sure that it was a malignant tumor. During that time I tried to sign up for some other type of health care through the college. That’s when I found out that if a person is already sick they most likely won’t be given health care, and when I asked why the answer I got was, “that’s just the way things are.” I was told I would have to wait for up to two years to be eligible for any help with my pre-existing condition. Thank god for Indian Health Service because even though it’s not perfect, I doubt I’d be here today without it.
After that experience my life changed. I became much more aware of just how high the cancer rates were in North Dakota and I wanted to learn more. Through my research on cancer I began noticing clear patterns of health issues in communities that are low-income, minority and low population. There is no question that these communities have disproportionate rates of cancers, asthmas, diabetes and heart attacks. There is also no question that most of these communities are near major pollution sources including coal-fired power plants, coal, oil, gas and uranium extraction sites and nuclear power plant sites.
North Dakota alone is home to the nations first ever coal gasification plant, 7 coal-fired power plants, a huge coal strip mining industry and is our nations 4th largest oil producer. Now, you’ll hear political hacks praise this as ‘development’ and ‘progress’ and ‘jobs’, but to folks who actually live here, all we see are cancers, corruption, and greed. While few get rich, our communities remain poor.
The moment that I committed my life to working on the issue of global climate change and building a clean energy economy was when I realized the troubling connection between fossil fuel use and human health. I have clearly seen that when people live near pollution sources they become sick. To me this is not rocket science; it is just plain common sense.
We are now seeing the bigger picture of what these pollution sources are doing to our planet as a whole. The pollution is contaminating our air, water and soil and is noticeably disturbing earth’s natural cycles including the carbon, sulfur and nitrogen cycles. Even though efforts in congress to a pass a climate bill are being stalled by healthcare, my community doesn’t see them as competing issues. Healthcare and climate reform are mutually reinforcing, with healthcare helping out those of us affected by dirty energy, while climate action would lower healthcare costs by preventing exposure in the first place.
We should be proactive in this country and realize that taking action on both of these issues now will save us money, illness and more troubles in the future. I pray everyday that our leaders will acknowledge this fact and that we will become known as a nation of people who do more than just react to problems.
I want our nation to be known as one that works to prevent the problems in the first place. The first step to achieving this is to acknowledge that healthcare and climate reform are inextricably linked.
Kandi – thank you for sharing this incredibly powerful story. I hope to hear and read more about the developments in ND!
In solidarity,
Gabriel
Hi Kandi, thank you for telling us your remarkable story and making us aware of the conditions in ND. You are a great advocate for systemic changes and we are listening now as never before. Thanks for doing this good work! Becky
i heard the stupidest excuse from a shill for nuclear power, about cancer cases occuring near nuke power plants at a higher rate than normal. he claimed, oh well, u know there are soooo many cancer clusters in the population that just happen, and can’t be accounted for. honestly, it was like listening to the defense attorneys for OJ Simpson.
Be sure to share your story far and wide, but start with the Health care reform folks, and everyone working towards it. part of the problem is if you’re not white and look like a perfect angel, no one cares about these stories. a different color of skin, and people are willing to sign off on you in the first place…racism lies deep in everyone, and comes out often when people are asked to be compassionate for someone other than themselves and their own family, when times are tough on them in the first place. people feel defensive, then guilty, then they try to justify it–after all, native american or black or hispanic, well u didn’t have a future anyways u weren’t worth anything, so y should i care about u being sick now?
make people relate to you–u could have been their child–make them see.
i do understand the frustration–these talking head pundits and shill politicians, they don’t care if u bleed, live or die. and they certainly don’t want the rest of us, for our hearts to bleed for u. when the pundits talk about poverty, they don’t mention stories like yours, or what it’s like to go hungry at night–they talk about how many voters who sympathize with the poor, might vote on it in the next election. the poor themselves have no play.
to study what has gone wrong with the climate bill, the health care bill, and many many other important issues, one might as well study criminology. to dismiss the deaths of the poor, by thinking that there is some pity or even benefit to society by doing so…in criminology it would be called “neutralization”. a defense excuse for getting out of a criminal sentence.
but a crime did occur, and someone did do it.
Kandi,
Thank you for posting your moving story. Others in North Dakota are also thinking about the connection between coal and human health. For example, ranchers and farmers in South Heart (near Theodore Roosevelt National Park) are very concerned that their children’s health is going to be sacrificed to coal projects that would turn their rural, agricultural area into a coal industrial zone. State and county government in North Dakota are pushing the projects through against the will of those who would be living next door to them.
This video, made last year, tells their story.
Kelly Fuller
Communications Director
Plains Justice
Vermillion, South Dakota
I read your blog post and it confirms a lot of my previous beliefs about the relationship between climate reform and health care. I am especially aware of the impacts of coal on the climate with regards to CO2 and especially the effects of heavy radioactive metals. I am also well aware of the radiological effects due to nuclear power (having a physics degree and being a nuclear operator) and although we disagree on the severity of nuclear power radiological releases, I respect your concern and civic duty to address nuclear policy.
I am pro nuclear (and pro healthcare reform), but I also take the time to question controversies in our industry, and I do not simply brush these concerns aside by calling it “public fear”. These concerns are legitimate, especially when they involve radiological releases and even more so when they concern unintended radiological releases (for example tritium leaks at Vermont Yankee, Braidwood, Byron, and several others). I am sure you have heard (and don’t agree with) scientific arguments to why nuclear power plants do not increase cancer rates (read a public study by Illinois http://www.idph.state.il.us/cancer/pdf/nuclear%20study%20final%20report%20ERS06_1.pdf), so I will not get into that, but I will address the most recent controversy that plagues the industry, tritium leaks at Vermont Yankee (please read New York Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/us/25nuke.html).
As you have been told the tritium leaks at Vermont Yankee do not pose a public health threat, as of yet, because no tritium increases have been found in local well water. It should be noted that it is almost impossible to account for any leakage into the Conneticut river due to dillution and the fact that the river is large (where and how many water samples do you take?). Although dillution eliminates the risks, it is frustrating to not know if there was a release to the river. The radioactive release is unacceptable and embarrasing for the industry. As nuclear operators we are supposed to be the last line of defense in the prevention of radiological releases to the public, but in this case the operators failed. The failure is even more evident when neither the public nor the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commsion) were notified when levels exceeded notification limits (Not drinking water limits. There is a difference). Also, it appears that there was miscommunication between the site VP of Vermont Yankee and the state legislature as to possible sources of the leak (There are no details available on the miscommunication). Due to these recent events I will argue that the root of the issue is not a public health concern, but instead a public trust concern. Most people do not study or work with radiation, which is normal, but those that are knowledgable and responsible for managing radiation are entrusted with the publics safety. When Vermont Yankee and other plants had unintended releases of radiation they were not in complete control of the plant. They missed something (a big something) and lost the publics trust. I think this is repairable, but it will take time, action, and long term solutions. Leaks cannot continue because it undermines the operators complete control over the radiation the plant produces.
Currently, the government has found that all the tritium leaks pose no threat to the public, however, they will continue to investigate all the leaks and hold each site accountable. Check out the Nuclear Regulatory Commisions website to learn more about the tritium leaks. (http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/ops-experience/grndwtr-contam-tritium.html). Also try clicking on Frequently Asked Questions to get a better understanding of tritium. It is important that you have an understanding of what tritium is and the minimal threat it currently poses for the public. Also, you can read one of the two oppositions to tritium leakage by checking out greenpeace Canada here
(http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/campaigns/end-the-nuclear-threat/threats/waste/questions-and-answers-about-tr)
and here
(http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/documents-and-links/publications/tritium-hazard-report-pollu).
It should be noted that the acceptable tritium levels in drinking water in Canada (7000 Bq/L) is over 9 times the acceptable standard in the United States (740 Bq/L reference the Safe Drinking Water Act), which heats up the debate much more in Canada.
So you might be asking, what is my point? There are challenges with Nuclear power, but the issue is with the control of radiation. In other cases where plants release radiation it is extremely small doses, controlled and continuously monitored. In the case of tritium it is uncontrolled.
I have to ask, what would you have the industry do? Would you have all of the plants close shop? Is nuclear not a better solution than coal? I like wind, hydro and solar power, but we need a wind farm the size of Alaska to meet our needs and that is assuming they are running at all times. We have constructed dams on just about every river that we can and solar power is promising, but its current potential is more grim than wind. I also believe in global warming, and I agree that it’s getting hot in here.
I also want to note that I do not represent my company in any form by writing the above statement. It is strictly from my own research, and experiences of nuclear power.
Our generation needs this congress to get it’s act together and do what they were elected to do. Too many of us either don’t have healthcare or will be loosing it as soon as they graduate. This is absolutely unacceptable, especially as we live in an increasingly polluted and dangerous world due to our addiction to fossil fuel!
Thanks for sharing your story and for being one of the most dedicated leaders of the climate movement!
Kandi Mossett, you are my hero! Thank you for sharing, and thank you for your amazing work and contrbutions to bettering our country.