HJNO Nov/Dec 2020

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  NOV / DEC 2020 13 LaVeist I actually have sympathy for both of those arguments. I do realize that we need economic activity, but if you’re going to say we’re going to have lax environmental laws because we need economic activity—it has to happen somewhere, so it will happen in Louisiana—then why don’t we say since we know that we’re going to have more people who will get sick because of it, we’ll make sure that we provide necessary resources for those people. There’s a trade-off: we’re taking on all of the negative environmental impact for the good of the country’s econ- omy, so we know that more of our people are going to have occupational-related dis- eases, but, we’ll also make sure that when they do have those health problems, there will be healthcare for them. Editor Generations, including our own, caught enough crawfish in ditches to enjoy in a boil. Now, I know you are from Brook- lyn, but would you eat crawfish caught out of a ditch today? LaVeist You’re trying to get me in trouble! I haven’t fully warmed up to crawfish at all, so no, I would be leery about that. Literally, as I’m talking to you right now, I’m standing on the banks of the Bayou St. John, which is where I live. A lot of people fish in the bayou, but the water is black, and I don’t know how healthy it would be to eat the fish out of this bayou. Editor If you wake up early on a humid morning in Baton Rouge, you often times smell faint chemicals in the air. Is there something that should be done to stop that? LaVeist Well, I mean the easy answer is, “yes,” but without me knowing more about what’s causing that—what’s producing the smell. I lived in rural Maryland for a while, and we had the same situation there. It was coming from the chicken processing plant nearby, which was probably the largest pri- vate employer in that part of the state, so that’s where people worked. That’s what made it possible to have a viable economy. I don’t know how harmful it is, so I would want to have somebody who’s more expert in environmental health issues make a determination about what the chemicals were that are producing the smells. Editor The water that comes through the taps in New Orleans, how safe is it to drink? Do you have a filter on your home water source? LaVeist I do not have a water filter in my house. I use the normal tap water out of New Orleans. As long as we’re not under a boil water order, I do drink the water, just as I used to drink the water in NewYork. Editor Do you feel the environmental dam- age done to Louisiana is beyond repair— that perhaps we should just let this part of the country be more polluted for the sake of the rest? LaVeist No, I don’t think that. The first part of the question, “do I think that the environment has been polluted beyond repair,” I am not a climate scientist, but I do believe the climate scientists who say that in some aspects, we’ve already passed the point of no return. I do accept their exper- tise. I would say probably that is the case— that we’re beyond repair. But, I don’t think that we should just give up. I don’t think we should just say this is the polluted part of Former Newcomb Art Gallery director Monica Ramirez-Montagut with the dean.