Four years ago, I founded the Maryland Environmental Health Network, with the desire to increase engagement of health advocates on such major public health threats as climate change and toxic trespass. If the term toxic trespass* gives pause, I introduce it here with deliberate intention. It offers both a counterpoint and a parallel to climate change. Toxic trespass is the ubiquitous presence of known carcinogens, obesegens, endocrine disruptors, and other toxic chemicals in the packaging of our food, the composition of our cosmetics, the treatment of fabrics, and many other daily encounters. We might also apply the term to unregulated forms of air pollution, such as volatile organic compounds spewing invisibly from natural gas compressor stations, to particulates from diesel engine exhaust, and to fracking flowback, the chemical composition of which is never revealed.
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