Monday, June 21, 2021, 11:30 AM – 1 PM EDT

Eri Saikawa, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, Rollins School of Public Health

“It All Started with Yak Dung: The Quest for Environmental Justice in Atlanta and Beyond”

Eri Saikawa, the latest subject of a new series of Emory vimeos called “I am an Emory Researcher,” began her research work in emissions linked to air pollution long ago and far away, in Tibet, where the problem was smoke from yak dung fires. (At least she thought that was the problem.) Much of her more recent work has focused on emission issues closer to home, like those tied to agriculture in rural Georgia.  But it is research even closer to home, in the Westside community of Atlanta itself, that has brought her (and her students and their neighborhood collaborators) to the attention of environmentalists everywhere. It was in looking into urban agriculture in this Atlanta area that they made the horrific discovery of toxic levels of lead in the soil of the gardens there—and the backyards and public playgrounds, as well.  The evidence their collaborative venture has gathered has forced the EPA to take responsibility for cleaning up the many hundreds of properties polluted by smelters who moved on and left their waste behind.  It’s no wonder that other researchers-cum-community-activists are reaching out to Eri from elsewhere in the country, hoping she and the colleagues who have just founded the Resilience and Sustainability Collaboratory here at Emory will be able to assist them in identifying and addressing pollution problems—and perhaps especially those that often affect poorer communities (like Westside) disproportionately, another much needed means to the end of social justice for all.