Rising from the Ashes: Toxic Dangers of the Sonoma County Fires

Part of the TNS-Sonoma Series

Sharyle Patton and Host Irwin Keller

In the second of our TNS-Sonoma Living in the Ashes series events exploring issues related to the 2017 North Bay fires, join New School Host Irwin Keller in conversation with Sharyle Patton, director of the Health and Environment Program and the Biomonitoring Resource Center at Commonweal. Much of Sharyle’s work involves understanding and testing the effects of toxic chemicals on our bodies. Particularly, she has been working with firefighters, researching the effects of both smoke inhalation from fires and the chemicals used to fight them. We’ll explore what that research might mean for county residents in the aftermath of the fires.

Listen (audio only)

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Sharyle Patton

Sharyle founded and has been directing the Commonweal Biomonitoring Resource Centerfor 20 years. Her program, working with such entities as Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, the Environmental Working Group, California Department of Public Environmental Health Investigations Branch, International Association of Fire Fighters, and the NGO network, Coming Clean Collaborative, has pioneered the implementation of biomonitoring projects initiated by community-based organizations and the communication of the data from such projects to project participants.

Sharyle is also special projects director for Commonweal’s Collaborative on Health and Environment, a network of more than 3,000 health professionals, scientists, and representatives from health-affected groups interested in exploring linkages between environment and health outcomes. From 1998 to 2001, Sharyle was northern co-chair for the International POPs Elimination Network, which worked closely with governments to formulate the Stockholm Convention, a legally binding treaty that eliminates or severely restricts 12 of POPs chemicals.

Rabbi Irwin Keller

Host

Irwin has served as spiritual leader of Congregation Ner Shalom in Sonoma County since 2008, a post he took while still writing and performing with the San Francisco-based Kinsey Sicks, known as America’s Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet. His legal advocacy work included authoring the City of Chicago’s first comprehensive human rights law, in effect since 1989, and serving as the Executive Director of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel of the San Francisco Bay Area. Photo: Adam Shemper.