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Interview with CHE Partner, Richard Clapp, DSc, MPH

Professor, Department of Environmental Health, Boston University, School of Public Health

Steve Heilig: Tell us a bit about your own background and how you came to do the work you do.

I got my first job in public health in New York City and worked in public health there and in Massachusetts for twenty years. During the period 1980-1989, I was the Director of the Massachusetts Cancer Registry where I became interested in the patterns and causes of cancer. I received two degrees in public health and became a professor at Boston University where I have taught for the last fourteen years. I am also adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. 

What is the primary mission of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell Environmental Health Initiative?

Our group is part of the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production and we are focused on environmental health problems such as asthma and cancer in communities, as well as broader issues of how environmental health science is used in Courts and regulatory policy-setting. We also participate in the work of framing new approaches to environmental and occupational chemical hazards, including bringing the European perspective to the U.S.

What is/are the most striking recent developments related to your work, both scientifically and otherwise?

The information about low-dose and prenatal exposure and how it affects child development and childhood cancer is striking. This has driven efforts in Massachusetts (Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow) and nationally (BeSafe Campaign) to seek safer alternatives to phthalates, PBDEs and carcinogens in consumer and household products. I have noted the steady rise in childhood cancer in various things I have written and talked about and will continue to do this. We mentioned it in our recent report on the Occupational and Environmental Causes of Cancer.

Another striking development is the rapidly advancing knowledge of climate change and its future health impacts. This will undoubtedly be the most important environmental health issue of the coming century and we have to keep talking about it while Nero fiddles.

Can you tell us the most salient lessons you've learned in pursuing your organization's goals?

A few lessons are that there is more raw intelligence and common sense in communities than we realize; the key is figuring out how to tap into it.

Another is that the energy and spirit of youth is the best hope we have; my goal for the rest of my career is to try to be a good teacher and role model for the next generation.

Any comments on how CHE has been useful to you - and how we might do more/better?

This has been an extraordinary effort to build the community of scientifically-informed advocacy for a cleaner and safer environment. I have valued the opportunity to participate in conference calls, regional meetings and the effort to influence the American Cancer Society's understanding of environmental causes of cancer.

What do you see as the most important goal and/or obstacle to improving environmental health in our time?

The most important obstacle is the current political oligarchy, which holds power in the U.S. They will eventually be swept away by history, but it will take years to undo the damage they have done.

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Posted: 8 February 2006