Bruce Lanphear

You can really think of plastics as a form of pollution because it's not just one thing.

There's all these additives, whether it's the PFAS chemicals or lead, which is used as a stabilizer.

And so all of them really are kind of integrated into each other, which again, maybe there's some opportunity there if we really were ready to tackle them.

Well, I think that's right, Eric.

And I was reading the tips that you'd written about in preparation for your book release.

And you focused understandably on what each of us can do, right?

How we can modify our own lifestyles.

We almost need six tips about what our government should do.

in order to make it harder for us to become sick or in order for us to encourage those healthy behaviors that you talked about.

That's a big part of it as well.

One of the things, we're celebrating the 100th anniversary.

This is not really something to celebrate, but we are.

The 100th anniversary of the addition of tetraethyl lead to gasoline.

And one of the key things about that addition, there was this debate because when it was being manufactured, 80% of the workers at a plant in New Jersey suffered from severe lead poisoning and five died.

And it was enough that New York City, Philadelphia, and New Jersey banned tetraethyl lead.

Then there was this convening by the U.S.

Surgeon General to determine whether it was safe to add tetraethyl lead to gasoline.

One scientist, Gandalf Henderson, said, absolutely not.

You're going to create a scourge worse than tuberculosis with slow lead poisoning and hardening of the arteries.

Robert Kehoe, who represented the industry, said...