Researcher Theo Colborn Pleads with Obama to Help Stop Chemical Exposures

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

December 20, 2012 | 4:55 PM

Chemical exposure researcher Dr. Theo Colborn, who founded the Endocrine Disruption Exchange (TEDX), recently gave a public talk on the health impacts of chemical exposures. The event was organized by TEDx, a speaker’s series with a mission to facilitate discussion on “ideas worth spreading.” (Although the two organizations bear the same name, they are not related.)
Colborn’s work focuses on how small doses of chemicals within the environment impact the endocrine system, which fuels a child’s development. Colborn read a long letter to President Obama, asking for his help in reducing chemical exposures. In the past several years, Colborn has focused much of her research on the oil and gas industry, and says increasing health problems associated with endocrine disruptions in the womb, are related to fossil fuel production.
“By drilling deep into the bowels of the earth for coal, oil and natural gas,” says Colborn, “we have unwittingly and catastrophically altered the chemistry of the biosphere and the human womb.” To hear more, watch the video below: