Environmental Justice

September Williams MD-Author with Director Mike Binder Black & White, at the Mill Valley FIlm Festival, 2014

September Williams Author of Chasing Mercury: The 2020 US Census as An Act of love in the time SARSCoVID-19

March 21, 2020 in Baby Boomers, Bioethics, Death and Desperation, Film, Grief, Healing, Health and Fitness, Health Inequity, Peace, Resistance, September MD-Writer, Social Justice

I very nearly forgot to fill out my household’s United States Census, amid the struggles around the SARS-CoVID19 pandemic. Maintaining social distance is designed to save lives—not to save money and it will do so—if people work hard to adhere to it during the rising phase of this viral epidemic. The USA census is also designed to save lives. Of course, the devil is in the details of the application. But it starts by “We the people” making sure every member of our nations households are fully counted. It’s not about citizenship, but about the distribution of resources in accordance with humanitarian law which demands every nation provide certain things for those living in it. We see the hell on earth when nations stop doing that. By the way, It took me exactly 10 minutes to fill out the US census. Here is how the census is applied. It determines:

1) The way that federal money is distributed to the citizens of the country at local levels when things work at their best—based on the science of health, welfare and economic parameters—consistent with humanitarian law. That includes providing for local communities schools, roads, public services.

2) Funds for preparing for transportation and emergency readiness.

3) THE NUMBER OF SEATS EACH STATE HAS IN THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND YOUR POLITICAL REPRESENTATION AT ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT. Have a look and please fill out the census and make sure every member of your household and your family, community and living soul in this nation is counted.

In that obscure way, that I often put things together, I was reminded about a film I reviewed 5 years ago, while completing the last question of the census, That question asks the race of each member of the household is counted. The question is as lousily written this year as those in the past. It mixes up the fallacy of race with ethnicity and nationality all over the place. The film reviewed was Black or White by Mike Bender. The review got picked up by Mixed Race Studies.

September Williams Author of Chasing Mercury: A short film on mercury in the body →

November 01, 2019 in Bioethics, Baby Boomers, BOOKS, Breast Feeding, Chasing Mercury the Novel, Echo Boomers, Environmental Justice, free grassy.net, greenaction.org, Health and Fitness, Human Rights, ipen.org, mercury pollution, Minamata disease, Nutrition, Peace, Resistance

There is a new very short film on mercury in your body from the Minamata Convention on mercury. There are a whole series of short films on the subject produced by UNESCO with the Convention secretariat. On YouTube under the tag #MakeMercuryHistory there are several short films that might answer questions you have about mercury. People are still asking me about it over the fish couters in various markets.

Remember Governments may come and go, and a million people are tweeting about the USA excutive officer while he gives a life feed speech in Mississippi — but heavy metals are here to stay so the Mercury Convention folks are working internationally to: contain mercury, reduce technology that uses mercury, find alternative technologies to replace them, remediate the environment and the improved or compensate lives that have been damaged by this particular heavy metal. Also, I’ve been updating the Mercury and Minamata Convention on Mercury page of my website. So have a look. And use that #MakeMercuryHistory.

Copy of Copy of September Williams Author of Chasing Mercury's book 'The Elephant in the Room: Bioethical Issues in Human Milk Banking' is a Top 100 on Amazon Today! THANK YOU!

October 16, 2018

Quick does anyone know the relationship between Chasing Mercury and The Elephant in the Room:Bioethical Concerns in Human Milk Banking?

By now you all know that a sports illustrated model breastfed her baby on a Runway during Fashion Week a couple of weeks ago right? ( The baby was wearing noise cancelling head phones.)

I’m happy to Share that The Elephant in the Room: Bioethical Concerns in Human Milk Banking is in the top 100 of three amazon ebook areas: And also the print book his holding her own as well. The book is a fundraiser with proceeds going to Mothers Milk Bank San Jose so …. You might want to read the Bridge the Gap

Mothers Milk Bank San Jose is my Fiscal Sharing Partner for this project — The Elephant… http://www.mothersmilk.org In Amazon ebook: The book is available in Ebook and Paper Back. It is currently on Amazon and will be in Ingram Partners distribution (independent books stores too) by the end of November. IT’s a short quick read as well as a bit of a primer on bioethics and narrative. It might be particularly useful for students not just of medicine but psychology, writing, film & TV, sociology

September Williams' Chasing Mercury Continues to Hold Her Own

September 03, 2018 in Bioethics, Baby Boomers, Chasing Mercury the Novel, Cove International, Eco-Fiction, Human Rights, Environmental Justice, mercury pollution, Occupational Disease, Peace, Resistance, greenaction.org, free grassy.net, ipen.org

Well, this year has been a heck of a ride — On August 16, 2017 the World Minamata Convention on Mercury was ratified and thus transitioned from a convention to treaty to international with the strength of international law . That means the first year anniversary of the treaty has just passed.http://www.mercuryconvention.org.) I was able to be at the first convention of the parties signatory to the convention in Geneva this past September. Over this year my romance suspense novel Chasing Mercury seems to have opened up the dialog on environmental toxins to several thousands of people who otherwise might not have cared as much — and hopefully more will come. Here are some reviews from the past month— but what is clear to me is what readers are appreciating is not me — but the story of a group of people who came together to make change and who are still working at it. Hope people will continue to support Chasing Mercury and remember that a portion of the proceeds continue to go to greenaction.org and http://freegrassy.net/mercuryhome/

Surprising, mysterious, romantic, and smart. A must read!

Chasing Mercury is an incredibly unique book, one that made me realize that I didn’t know there was an entire new way to put together a historical romance, and I was definitely...Read more

Wow! That was my reaction to the quality and fun time I had reading this book, just wow!
Fantastic read, strongly recommend

Tracking the process of application to the convention has been brought with joy and fear as I begin to understand how hard people worked to achieve the convention and how much work still has to be done —

Mercury is a natural element: it is found in the Earth’s crust and naturally released through volcanic activity and weathering of rocks. It exists in various forms, each with a varying degree of toxicity but all equally harmful, affecting the nervous system, the brain, the heart, the kidneys, the lungs and the immune system of all living beings. Because exposure to mercury – even small amounts – may cause serious health problems, including in utero, the World Health Organization considers it one of the top ten chemicals of major public health concern.

September Williams Author of Chasing Mercury goes to Geneva for COP1 Minamata Convention on Mercury

September 16, 2017

Big news! I’m going to Geneva with Chasing Mercury next week. I'll be covering the 1st Conference of the Parties Signatory to the Minamata Convention on Mercury since the treaty went into force, August 16, 2017. The primary themes of Chasing Mercury were inspired by the signing of the Minamata Convention by a UNESCO initiative in 2013 at the Kumamoto Prefecture of Japan, nearly sixty years after the toxic effects of the persistent organic pollutant methyl mercury was found to cause Minamata disease— and forty-five years after a ballerina named Sicily met a powwow dancer whistleblower journalist name Forest.

BREAST MILK IS SAFER THAN FORMULA EVEN IF THERE IS MERCURY CONTAMINATION

April 12, 2017 in September MD-Writer, Breast Feeding

What we do know is that Breast Feeding improves the health of both mothers and babies which far outweighs any toxic effects of mercury-- in most circumstances. IF you are worried and are in an environment where there is know to be high Mercury levels see a clinician. Know that if Mercury is present ( and there is some everywhere) Levels go down within in 2-3 months after birth -- and again there is more mercury in cows milk based formula's than in human breast milk. The damage of not breast feeding an infant is far more lethal in terms of disease than mercury. However-- an environment where a mother is exposed to high levels of mercury during pregnancy -- can be dangerous and cause Minamata disease --but that mercury is passed across the placenta into the blood stream of the baby. But Mercury is poorly transmitted to and through breast milk. If you have the luxury of avoiding mercury ingestion by all means do. But if you have to choose between breast feeding and not -- mercury contamination is not your biggest problem. You might see the film Breast Milk and follow journalist, writer health communicator Kimberly Seals Allers (author of the Big LetDown).

September Williams Novel Chasing Mercury meets Micheal Friedman's Album Random Acts Of Tuning-Why Berlin?

April 06, 2017 in Eco-Fiction, Romance Novels, September MD-Writer, Environmental Justice, Social Justice, Occupational Disease, Destiny, Baby Boomers, Bioethics

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