Sustainability Series: GREEN WARRIORS: CHILDREN OF LEAD with Dr. Michele Morrone

Watch Trailer Director: Martin Boudot

Across the globe, the Earth bears the past scars and current open wounds of mineral extraction operations. Of particular concern is the toxic metal Lead. Though it has been outlawed as an additive in everyday consumer goods like gasoline, house paint, and plumbing materials, lead is still highly valued as a component for the manufacture of building materials, weapons, and batteries. Wherever lead is extracted, refined, or turned into essential products that keep economies moving, the element leaves a poisonous legacy behind.

This issue is particularly troubling in Évin-Malmaison, a small village in France where contamination from lead refining has left the surrounding environment so damaged that farms, schools, parks, and homes now sit on ground that is too toxic to be safe for families. A team of journalists and scientists have taken up an effort to study and document the area – especially the effect of lead poisoning on the IQ levels of the local children – so as to reveal not just the environmental impacts of lead, but also its more damaging effects on the quality of life of Évin-Malmaison’s residents.

About the Speaker

Dr. Morrone is a professor and coordinator of the nationally accredited Environmental Health Science program at Ohio University and the Chair of the Department of Social and Public Health. She is the author of numerous books and papers about the health impacts from environmental exposures with a specific focus on health equity and environmental justice.

Check out the rest of our line-up of Sustainability Films

The series is made possible thanks to the support of: University Libraries, Honors Tutorial College, Office of Sustainability, and The Voinovich School’s Environmental Studies Program.