AUGUST 16, 2025
Dear Jane,
Look up and be dazzled by a blue sky, drink a glass of clean water, and savor a delicious dinner of wholesome food. What you are seeing and tasting is a direct result of public policy.
Who gets to see a blue sky, drink clean water, and eat healthy food is also a function of public policy as these decisions dictate where toxic pollution is permitted, where it is not, and who has access to healthy food “choices.”
We cannot as individuals shop our way out of our climate emergency. If you want to buy an electric car or better yet take public transit, public policy will dictate whether these options are available to you.
Our health is a collective endeavor, and public policy is where we come together to decide on how, whether, and who we want to be healthy and in the face of our climate emergency, survive.
Health protective public policy is now being dismantled at an astonishing rate as exemplified by the unraveling of EPA’s Endangerment Finding. We urge you to write a unique letter (not a form letter) to defend this policy that provides a foundation for climate action. Our letters will serve as the historical record that can be used in later lawsuits to try to reinstate the finding. Consider it a love letter to future generations. Please take a moment to write your comments using our Action Alert HERE.
SF Bay PSR and members of our Environmental Health Committee are tireless in their advocacy for public policy on a wide range of issues that influence health and promote environmental equity and justice. As health professionals, we have a critical role to play in advocating for protections that reduce emissions, improve air quality, protect immigrants and other vulnerable communities, and preserve democracy. The health voice is crucial to advancing myriad solutions to securing planetary survival and environmental justice. The health voice is also essential to countering the biased science perpetuated by the fossil fuel and other polluting industries trying to bend public policy to the needs of profits not patients and communities.
Our SF Bay PSR GALA on September 10 will reveal much about the role of public policy in protecting health and securing justice. We are honored to be hosting Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH, Director of and Alison S. Carlson Endowed Professor for the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE). Woodruff will speak about How the Government Really Works: They say they want clean air and water, but the opposite is happening . BUY TICKETS here. She is a renowned expert on environmental health and policy and a former senior scientist and policy expert at the US EPA’s Office of Policy. In addition to research and policy advocacy on preventing exposure to toxic environmental chemicals, Woodruff and other UCSF scientists are working to address the rise in chronic diseases through public policy and advocacy at the UCSF Center to End Corporate Harm.
I invite you to channel your outrage at the cruel dismantling of environmental health, justice, and democracy through collective action. Please attend our GALA: Gathering for Action, Leadership, and Advocacy on September 10 where together, we’ll explore how to push back against the dismantling of public protections, environmental health research, and advance a vision of a healthier, more just democracy. BUY TICKETS here.
I also warmly welcome you to join our SF Bay PSR Environmental Health Committee (EHC), which meets every other month, to listen, learn, and find ways to participate that inspire and support action. This year, in addition to trying to protect the federal EPA, we have been working to support the Make Polluters Pay bills; to protect the CA Environmental Quality Act (CEQA); and to educate the public and policy makers about the health and climate benefits of electric home appliances; and much more. Next week please keep your eyes out for more Actions and Events for you.
We at SF Bay PSR look forward to working together to secure public policy that supports planetary health and survival.
To learn more about our GALA, visit our here.
With gratitude,
Patrice Sutton, MPH
SF Bay PSR Environmental Health Chair
