August 25, 2023 • 9 mins
Stigmas and other barriers often prevent people of African descent from seeking treatment for their mental illness. One of the primary barriers is a lack of Black mental health professionals. This fact has spurred the 988 Diaspora Campaign to develop a listing of local culturally competent mental healthcare providers in addition to promoting use of the 988 Lifeline to the African. Initiated by Fun Times Magazine and funded by the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund, the campaign promotes awareness and use of the federal 988 Mental Health Lifeline. I speak with Marilyn Kai Jewett, campaign consultant for the FUNTIME 988 Diaspora Campaign and therapist Kenneth Bourne II founder and CEO Bourne ANEW LLC/ – which offers a healing-centered approach to therapy for Black men and boys.
https://www.funtimesmagazine.com/pages/mental-health
https://bourneanew.com/
List of culturally competent providers
https://www.funtimesmagazine.com/pages/mental-health
https://www.funtimesmagazine.com/pages/mental-health
https://bourneanew.com/
List of culturally competent providers
https://www.funtimesmagazine.com/pages/mental-health
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Good morning. You're listening to Insight, a show about empowering our community.
I'm Lorraine Ballot Morral. Black womenare more exposed to cancer causing chemicals through
beauty products. We'll tell you whyand what to do about it. We'll
also tell you about a city programto improve lighting in our neighborhoods, and
barbers who Care are offering free cutsand more for kids getting ready for school.
(00:20):
But first joining me right now isRandolph Fisher, President of the Jamaica
Pennsylvania Association and also promoter of theupcoming roots and culture production that is going
to be bringing some reggae to Philadelphia. So Randolph, tell us what's going
to happen on September second. Septembertwo brings the vibrant Jamaican reggae vibe into
(00:41):
the city of Philadelphia for the firsttime. It's first international reggae festival.
Tell us who's going to be performing. We have Richie Spice, Queen I
faka Junior Kelly, we have theWolf, and we have MC Jamaican Dave
and hosts by this pearly grandson everyback but comedian guy from Jamaica. And
(01:02):
we have of course the musical Championof Philadelphia, the Hyperactive sound System.
And where and exactly what time doesall this start? This is going to
be at the tajma All Entertainment Complextwenty six thirteen Huntin Park Avenue at Hunting
Park and Fox Street. There itbegins at nine it's open. Dates open
(01:25):
at six pm. Events start atnine pm. And what's the address twenty
six thirteen Hunting Park Avenue, HuntingPark and Fox Street. All right,
And if people would like tickets,how do they get tickets? People can
go online? Tickets are they cancall one eight hundred two oh three thirteen
sixty two. That's one eight zerozero two zero three one three six two
(01:51):
for all ticket information. I thinkwe are the first two hundred persons that
purchased ticket will get a souvenir ofa lighter a chap Prii T shirt.
And what is the website for moreinformation? The website for more information is
the TajMahal dot com or Defila InternationalReggae Face as a Facebook page. All
(02:14):
information promotions are there. Fantastic RandolphFisher, President of the Jamaica Pennsylvania Association
and promote of the upcoming Roots andCulture production bringing Reggae to Philly on September
second. Thank you so much forjoining us today. Thank you. We're
getting ready for the first day ofschool and we always want to make sure
we've got a sharp cut. Well, Barber's Who Care is offering free cuts
(02:38):
for students and young folks and we'rejoined right now by Kenny Duncan, nationally
known barber, stylist, educator andsalon owner. He has been the barber
for Ceyl Grammy Award winning artists andhas toured the world as the barber for
The Lady Gaga's production team. Sowow, that's pretty spectacular. But you're
also giving back to the community.Tell us more about Barbara's Who Care and
(03:00):
the fourteenth annual Free Haircuts and EducationalResource Fare. Well. Barbara's wit Care
is an organization of Barber's leat bymyself and several other quality, well known,
well respected barbers within the community thatwant to give back. So it's
not about just one barbershop, multiplebarbershop owners and celebrity barbers all coming together
to give out free haircuts to thecommunity. We believe that we can raise
(03:23):
the self esteem of young boys throughhaircuts. My son said to me today
that his badge is raised when hegets a haircut, meaning his skill sets.
So when you look good, youfeel good, you do good,
you perform well. And that's whatwe want to transfer to a lot of
individuals who may not have an opportunityto get a haircut as often or has
a hair cut at all, becausea lot of people don't always have the
(03:44):
means to be able to do so. So our thumb print own a community
is free haircuts. So we're givenout book bags, school supplies and free
sneakers and free clothes and some othergoodies we want to give away on that
particular day, September third. Well, that is fantastic. Tell us more,
it's Sunday, September third, giveus all the detail else the time
in the location. The location isa West Philadelphia YMCA and it's going from
nine am to four pm. Andit wouldn't be possible without our partners of
(04:06):
a Change our Future, United Healthcareand all the barbers at a sacrifice in
their town to make sure that wehave a great event and a great space
in the YMCA to give all somefree haircuts and free supplies for the community.
Fantastic. If people want more,information where do they go? They
can tap in with Barbers who Caredot org or follow us on Instagram at
Barbers who Care. I NC fantasticKenny Duncan, who is a nationally known
(04:29):
barber, stylist, educator, andsalon owner. Also someone who's giving back
to the community through Barbers who Care. Thank you so much, Thank you
so much for having it, andI appreciate you. Good street lighting plays
a vital role in creating safe,accessible, and inviting public spaces that benefit
the well being, safety, andoverall quality of life for residents of Philadelphia
(04:54):
and visitors alike. Led street lightingalso offers comprehensive package of benefits it including
energy and cost savings, improved safety, environmental friendliness, and enhanced control capabilities
that can contribute to a more sustainableand efficient urban environment. Join us to
tell us more about what the cityis doing along these lines is Katie Bartelotta,
(05:15):
who is Vice by Dident of Policyand Strategic Partnerships for the Philadelphia Energy
Authority. Before we get into thewhole street lighting thing, tell us who
you are, sure and thanks forhaving me today, Lorraine. My name's
Katie Bartelotta. I'm vice president ofPolicy and strategic partnerships with the Philadelphia Energy
Authority. We are an independent municipalauthority dedicated to building and a robust and
(05:38):
equitable clean energy economy for Philadelphia,and what that means in practice is that
we support the city and holding longterm energy contracts and issuing bonds for those
and other types of financing for thoseprojects, like we did in the instance
of the street lighting project that we'llbe talking about today. But we also
run consumer facing programs that help folksaccess clean energy at their homes, at
(06:00):
their schools, and help folks jointhe clean energy workforce as well. Well.
We know that good street lighting hasa lot of benefits, and the
benefits include better safety, also justincreases the quality of life. But in
addition to that, you're replacing streetlighting with LED lights. So tell us
a little bit more about the programand how it's going to roll out and
(06:21):
when we can see the benefits.Sure, so, after a year of
planning that was really heavy on designand on auditing each and every street light
in the city to make sure weknow where they are, what their status
is, if there are a highpressure sodium bulb that will be changing over,
(06:43):
or if they were already converted toLEDs, as the city has been
doing that in a piecemeal fashion whenevercapital budget is available to do so we
went through that whole process that includedcommunity engagement. We had folks come out
and just see what LEDs look likerelated to the high pressure sodium bulbs that
they had on their block, togive us an indication of between the two
(07:04):
choices, which color temperature they like, Do they like a cooler or warmer
fixture, And ultimately folks wanted awarmer fixture, but some neighborhoods. Another
question that we asked was do youwant more light? Do you feel like
the lighting that you have right nowis adequate? You know, do you
think it would help with your perceptionof safety in the evening, your ability
(07:24):
to see whether you're a pedestrian,a bicyclist, a motorist. What would
really be the right kind of levelfor how you live and navigate your neighborhood.
So we did all of that,folded that into a citywide design with
the intent of for all of thenon LED lights will be changing those over
within the next two years. Sowe have a very tight twenty four month
(07:46):
construction schedule that's very much informed bythat auditing that we did, so we
know where every lad is, whattheir status is, so we can be
really efficient in that process. Butreally what we were getting to is how
can we do this project in abig way, in an efficient way to
provide this benefit to the city ofenergy efficient, really nice looking and very
(08:09):
reliable light for folks who are youknow now calling three one one and saying,
hey, our lights are out,we need these six, we need
them changed. And it's just away to really do a citywide, very
efficient process to get us to morereliable, safer, better presenting light citywide.
And it's really it's every corner ofthe city, which is another really
(08:33):
exciting benefit. Well, I knowthat when the city had replaced the lighting
with this sort of high intensity sodiumlighting, there's something about them that you
know, it causes kind of thepink glow over a city. And I
know that LED lights will present differentlyand perhaps will kind of impact that kind
of pervasive pink light from a distancethat kind of blots out the stars and
(08:58):
all that sort of thing. Doesthat a difference that is a big difference
of how this light presents. SoLED lights are much more controllable in the
spread of lights. So with ahigh pressure sodium bulb, you've got a
bulb that kind of distributes light withouta ton of control of where it falls
or how it falls. This isreally part of the design process and the
ability of an LED to really putthe light where it needs to be,
(09:20):
you know, not in your bedroomwindow, but on the street where you
actually need to be able to moveand navigate safely at night. So backliding
concern, the uplighting concern of notbeing able to control the glow, that
is something that is much improved withLEDs. And then also to just that
same kind of that color feature ofit, we selected a warm color temperature
(09:41):
just because we had lots of conversationswith folks about their preferences. There wasn't
a strong preference in either direction whenwe did some of our neighborhood feedback on
the warm versus the cool, Butwe know that warm color temperatures are you
know, just generally a little bitbetter in terms of any sort of potential
concerns with human health or safety.So we went in that direction, but
(10:05):
again just made sure that the lightwas at the level that communities wanted but
generally the lights kind of look verydifferent. And again, we have been
working with designers who are making surethat all of our cobra heads, which
is those the kind of roadway lightsthat we're traditionally accustomed to, will not
have uplighting and are going to bedark Skies compliant. That is a group
(10:26):
that makes sure that for human health, for the health and safety of animals,
and just again kind of making surethat light is controlled and serving its
purpose and not doing more than thathas been incorporated into the project as well.
So let's light pollution as it were, Yes, less light pollution with
(10:48):
this project, and again was areally thoughtful process from community engagement and our
designers to get to what the maximumoutcome could be for communities. I think
the other thing about this particular programis that it's going to give you more
options to monitor where lighting is happeningand if lighting needs to be replaced.
There's sort of like a more centralability to kind of monitor where lighting needs
(11:11):
to be fixed or controlled or adjusted. Right, So this is one of
my favorite features of the project.So I think folks understand you put in
new lights, they're more reliable,they're more energy efficient, that's going to
save us money. But when yousay lighting management system, it doesn't sound
necessarily exciting on its space, butthis is really going to change the ability
(11:33):
for the city and for residents tohave an understanding of how our lighting system
is functioning. So right now,if we need to replace a light a
street light in the city of Philadelphia, someone needs to see it and report
it. So that is just areally very labor intensive system on both the
(11:54):
city side of having crews that areout looking for lights that are out,
on the residents side of having toreport a light every time it's out for
three one one. This is reallyjust eliminating that part of the process of
when a light is out, weknow it instantaneously, and that's going to
be such a big change in howthe city can actually operate and maintain this
(12:18):
lighting system because that lag time ofa light is out and we need to
report it is now taken out ofthe equation thanks to the lighting management system.
And I think it's just one ofthose really kind of simple things that
you know, the technology is there. It's not something that's super flashy,
but it's going to save so muchtime on the side of the city and
(12:39):
on the side of residence and leadto a much more reliable product. Yeah,
I think people are going to appreciatethe fact that the turnaround for replacing
a broken light will be much faster. Now. One of the other aspects
of it which I'm curious about,because I understand that this provides a communication
network for future smart city applications.What are smart city applications and what does
(13:03):
that mean for us? Sure,So we worked really closely with the Office
of Innovation and Technology in this citywhen we were considering that lighting management system,
which serves a really kind of basicpurpose and function under this project,
to understand how that could be leveragedin the future for other applications that the
city is interested in. The cityalready uses something that I think would fall
(13:24):
under a smart city application of videocameras throughout the city, So, for
example, how does that work togetherwith our lighting management system? Is there
any way to leverage that? Butthere are plenty of other types of sensors
that can be affixed to a lightingmanagement system to check on things from air
quality to noise pollution to anything inbetween. So there's a really vast world
(13:46):
of smart city applications out there.Our scope of this project was pretty narrow
just because of the contracting the vehiclethat we used, but we wanted to
make sure that anything that we selectedthrough this project could be maximally leverage for
any smart city applications in the future, and I think we did a pretty
thorough job at evaluating that for anypotential future uses outside of the slope of
(14:09):
this project. Well, we knowthe good lighting plays a vital role in
creating safe, accessible, and invitingpublic spaces, and the City of Philadelphia
is actually doing something about that byproviding the Philly street Light Improvement project.
And if people would like more informationon this project, how do they find
out more? Yes, you cango to Philly street Light Improvement dot com.
(14:31):
We have a robust website with alist of faqes for folks who want
to learn a little bit more aboutthe process and about what they can expect
over the next couple of years ofconstruction. And we also have an installation
map that is being updated in realtime on the website so that folks can
see where our crews are currently,where they've completed work, and where they're
(14:54):
off to next in the next twoweeks, so they can have an understanding
of when cruise maybe in the ourneighborhoods. Fantastic Katie Bartelotta, who is
rice President of Policy and Strategic Partnershipsfor the Philadelphia Energy Authority, Thank you
so much. Vary is evidence tosuggest that black women may be more vulnerable
to higher levels of beauty product relatedenvironmental chemicals compared to other demographic groups.
(15:20):
Joining us as Award winning journalist atEnvironmental Health Sciences and author Christina Marusik,
who's written New War on Cancer,The Unlikely Heroes Revolutionizing Prevention. She sheds
light on the fact that women ofcolor are at higher risk of getting cancer
through beauty products. Well, let'stalk about, first of all, what
(15:41):
are some of the factors that arerelated to this higher usage of potentially toxic
material. Certainly cultural and societal factorsmake a difference, and marketing, right,
A lot of the marketing has todo with the products that perhaps are
the most potentially carson genic tell usmore. Yeah, you're absolutely right.
(16:03):
So products that are marketed toward womenof color, and particularly black women in
the United States tend to have higherlevels of toxic chemicals than products that are
marketed to white women. And wealso know, you know, studies have
shown that women that black women spendeighty percent more on cosmetics and twice as
(16:27):
much as in care than their whitecounterparts, and they also have a higher
risk of developing cancer and reproductive healthissues compared to white women. So scientists
that study environmental health are are kindof at the beginning stages of considering these
things as risk factors. So they'rejust starting to dig into the research indicating
(16:49):
that these toxic chemicals in some ofthese hair products, specifically relaxers and hair
straighteners, and then also some ofthe chemicals that are found in synthetic hair,
like braiding hair, maybe contributing tothose higher races and higher risk for
cancer and other diseases. Right,And we also talk about the marketing of
(17:11):
products, because there is a certainbeauty standard that's promoted through marketing and that
in turn encourages women to meet thatstandard by buying some of these products.
Is that right, Yeah, that'strue. So this kind of cultural drive
for black women to have straight hairand to live up to these you know,
(17:36):
very particular beauty standards started out asa survival adaptation so long long ago
white colonizers and white enslavers used realor perceived racial differences like ging cone and
hair texture as reasons to treat Blackwomen as less than human, and so
(17:56):
it became a survival technique to drivefor lighter skin and straighter hair. And
obviously things have changed a lot sincethen, but some of these cultural norms
have persisted in these communities for thoseyou know, very early, very formful
reasons. So actually today in somestates, it's still legal for workplaces to
(18:23):
have bands on traditional hairstyles for blackwomen. There was a bill that was
up for consideration at the federal levellast year called the Crown Act that would
have made it illegal to discriminate onthe basis of hair texture at the workplace,
and it did not go through.It failed to pass. So in
a handful of states, your workplacemay require you to use these toxic beauty
(18:48):
products. And even when it's notan official band, I think it's often
considered there's a perception that it's moreprofessional for black women have straight hair in
the workplace. So the marketing kindof plays into those cultural phenomena that they,
you know, black women will besafer or they're more professional looking if
(19:11):
they use these more toxic products toachieve hair that looks more like most white
women's there, right, And alsoyou layer that on top of environmental justice
issues where in many communities of color, they exist in areas that are more
vulnerable to toxic chemicals, whether it'syou know, nearby a toxic waste site
(19:34):
or environmental waste site or a trashrecycling center, or communities of color are
more vulnerable to living in environments andcommunities that are exposed to higher levels of
toxins to start off with. Sothen you layer that on top of having
these potential hair care products and perhapsother types of things. I'm talking it's
(19:56):
maybe not as much prevalent in thiscountry as it is in other countries,
but skin lightners, for instance,contain many chemicals that are banned in Europe
but still exist as legally available productsthat the women can buy. That's absolutely
right. Yeah, skin lightning productsare still really popular throughout Southeast Asia and
(20:18):
in some Southeast Asian communities in theUnited States, and those products also tend
to be more toxic. And youmentioned that this combines with other harmful exposures
for these communities, and research hasshown that black Americans particularly are exposed to
higher levels of air pollution and higherlevels of arcinogens in air pollution than their
(20:42):
white counterparts, regardless of socio economicstatus, and across all fifty states,
in both rural and urban areas,which I think is really surprising. I
think when we think of environmental justicecommunities, we tend to think of low
income communities of color and are pollutingsites there. But as a result of
(21:03):
decades and decades of redlining and gympro laws which pushed Black Americans in particular
into kind of concentrated communities and thencited polluting facilities near those, it turns
out that your socioeconomic status is lessof a determining factor than your race at
this point when it comes to howmuch air pollution you're exposed to. So
(21:27):
there's some really cool work being donein the environmental health research field asking scientists
who traditionally have only looked at thingslike pollution and housing when it comes to
considering harmful exposures in these communities,to also consider things like cosmetic use and
(21:47):
personal care products and hair products,and to really look at the whole picture
of how systemic racism contributes to allof these factors that can raise cancer risk
in these communities. One of theother challenges not only for black women or
women of color, but really justeverybody period. It's the fact that the
regulations are not that stringent. It'sreally easy to put a product on the
(22:11):
market. And then I remember there'sthis big scandal where there was a hair
care product for black women. Ithink it was a hair straightener that caused
tremendous harm to women, and itwas taken off the market. But the
fact is the product was on themarket, and so we're really suffering from
(22:33):
the fact that regulation doesn't exist,and essentially for a lot of the products
that we tend to assume are fine, that's right, And unfortunately, the
United States is behind a lot ofthe rest of the world when it comes
to regulating these type of chemicals inour personal care products. So there are
(22:53):
chemicals and substances in our haircare productsand then our skincare products that are banned
throughout your up because they can potentiallyform our health. So I read about
this a lot in my book.It's not really fair to ask consumers to
memorize ingredient lists and become experts inthis and become meticulous shoppers because we shouldn't
(23:15):
have to do that, right,We should ask our lawmakers to do a
better job of protecting us from thesechemicals in the first place, and we
don't have to reinvent the wheel onthat. Right. There are a lot
of blueprints, particularly in the EuropeanUnion, that we could follow to do
a better job about regulating these chemicals. What about some alternatives to using these
potentially cancer causing chemicals. So thereare some really great tools that can help
(23:41):
you pick less toxic options. There'sa group called the Anti Cancer Lifestyle Program
that has a ton of free resourcesonline that can help pick less toxic personal
care products and cleaning products and food. There's an app I really like that
makes this very simple. It's madeby the Environmental Working Group, which is
(24:03):
a nonprofit that tests products in independentlabs and ranks them based on whether or
not they have these harmful chemicals inthem. The app is called the Healthy
Living App, and I find iteasiest to it'll let you, like see
in barcodes if you're picking up somethingin the store and you want to see
(24:23):
if it's okay. But the wayI've been able to do this that has
felt manageable is instead of throwing awayeverything in my closet and starting fresh.
I've just waited until I'm about torun out of something. If I'm about
to run out of lipstick, Iuse that as an opportunity to upgrade it
to a non toxic version. Igo into the app, I type in
(24:44):
lipstick. I find one they've giventheir seal of approval as saying, this
is free of these hundred ingredients welook for, so it's safe, and
I pick one based on that.And what are some just name a couple
of chemicals that you should really beaware of when we go out and we
buy some of these products, orwe ask our hair stylists, you know
(25:06):
what they're using. What do wereally need to look out for. Some
of the big ones to avoid ourthallates and carabins. Those are both endocrine
disrupting chemicals, so they can interferewith our bodies natural hormonal processes and cause
all kinds of health problems, andresearch increasingly suggests that they may also play
a role in hormone related cancers likebreast cancer and prostate cancer. And a
(25:32):
couple other ones to avoid include heavymetals, which sometimes show up in makeup,
specifically for malde hyde, pefos orforever chemicals, hydroquinone and poly ethylenelcol.
This can be really tricky because someof these will show up in an
ingredient list, but some of themit might be like part of a much
(25:55):
longer word. You might see parabineand a really long ingredient in hair,
and parabine is kind of somewhere inthe middle or at the end of the
word. Or sometimes things aren't actuallylisted, so that can happen with salads.
For example, you might see avery long ingredient lists and the very
last ingredient can say fragrance, andthat single list listed items. Fragrance can
(26:15):
contain hundreds of chemicals, and fragrancesoften contain salad because it makes them last
longer. It makes a fragrance lingerlonger, stay on your skin, stay
on your hair, and so goingfragrance free. Buying a fragrance free options
a kind of easy quick way toavoid some of those chemicals. Things like
formaldehyde also aren't usually listed in ingredientlists, but there are certain chemicals and
(26:40):
hair products that, when heated,combine to release formaldehyde into the air,
and obviously that's the problem. Ifyou're blow drying or using a curling iron,
so it's really tricky to do justby spot checking ingredient lists. So
I have found it a lot easierto use one of those tools I mentioned
so that someone else in a labto get and tested it and said,
(27:00):
okay, this one is safe.If people want more information about the work
that you're doing and the book NewWar on Cancer, The Unlikely Heroes Revolutionizing
Prevention, how do they find outmore? The website is New War on
Cancer dot com. I'm also onTwitter at Christina right, and that's Christina
is the k k R I St I n A w R I tes
(27:23):
wonderful. Well, thank you somuch for shedding light on a very important
issue, and that is the toxicchemicals and many of the haircare products and
other cosmetics that we use every day. Thank you so much. Award winning
science reporter and author Christina Marrisik,who is the author of New War on
Cancer, The Unlikely Heroes Revolutionizing Prevention, thank you so much. Well,
(27:48):
we're going to close out the showtoday and thanks some of our work ready
students who are with us throughout thesummer. Kyley Minor, Hello, Whistlering
So how was it for you myexperience here being intern at iHeart. I
really enjoyed the experience. I metsome really cool people, and I was
shocked because listening on a radio,you know, it's kind of anonymous,
(28:11):
and to be in person and tomeet these people, I'm like, they're
really cool and it's really a goodexperience. So what was the highlight of
your summer? Getting to know everyonehere? And I'm really just thankful for
the opportunity to come in here tobe at iHeart, Miss Lorraine, like
you made me want to stay here. I loved editing. I loved my
(28:32):
first interview. I was kind ofnervous, but I loved it. Well,
you did a wonderful job and Ireally appreciated all of your help and
hopefully as you continue on in life, maybe you'll be back. Thank you
so much and I'll look forward tocoming back. Fantsast Kylie Minor awesome.
I have to give a special shoutout to MICHAELA. Coleman. She's not
with us right now, she's alreadyat Penn State, but she was another
(28:55):
wonderful intern from the work Ready programover the summer. But not least Lucas
Gonzalez. Lucas, So, howwas it for you being an intern through
the work Ready program the summer.It's been good. I've really enjoyed being
here throughout the summer. I've beenable to develop my skills when it comes
to using programs like Audacity and learningthe more with a technical aspect. I've
(29:19):
been given different tips on how tospeak into a microphone. So it's just
been a lot of learning what waswhat was the best thing for you this
summer. The best thing for methis summer has definitely just been developing my
skills in both audio editing, listeningthrough audio to see what needs to be
(29:40):
cut out or redone, and alsodeveloping my own skills with my own projects.
You've been a great intern, andyou and Kylie and MICHAELA have been
really have made made my summer.It's been really wonderful having all of you.
Thank you so much for everything you'vedone. You've made my life a
little bit easier with all the helpthat you've provide. So thank you so
much. And good luck. Iknow you're starting temple this fall, right,
(30:03):
yes, okay, well, goodluck for that and thank you again.
Lucas Gonzalez, along with Kylie Minorand MICHAELA. Coleman. They were
my three work ready students over thesummer. They were amazing. You could
listen to all of today's interviews bygoing to our station website and typing in
keyword Community. You can also listenon the iHeartRadio app ye Words Philadelphia Community
(30:26):
Podcast. Follow me on Twitter andInstagram at Lorraine Ballard. I'm Lorraine Ballard
Morrow and I stand for service toour community and media that empowers. What
will you stand for? You've beenlistening to Insight and thank you
Good morning. You're listening to Insight, a show about empowering our community.
I'm Lorraine Ballot Morral. Black womenare more exposed to cancer causing chemicals through
beauty products. We'll tell you whyand what to do about it. We'll
also tell you about a city programto improve lighting in our neighborhoods, and
barbers who Care are offering free cutsand more for kids getting ready for school.
(00:20):
But first joining me right now isRandolph Fisher, President of the Jamaica
Pennsylvania Association and also promoter of theupcoming roots and culture production that is going
to be bringing some reggae to Philadelphia. So Randolph, tell us what's going
to happen on September second. Septembertwo brings the vibrant Jamaican reggae vibe into
(00:41):
the city of Philadelphia for the firsttime. It's first international reggae festival.
Tell us who's going to be performing. We have Richie Spice, Queen I
faka Junior Kelly, we have theWolf, and we have MC Jamaican Dave
and hosts by this pearly grandson everyback but comedian guy from Jamaica. And
(01:02):
we have of course the musical Championof Philadelphia, the Hyperactive sound System.
And where and exactly what time doesall this start? This is going to
be at the tajma All Entertainment Complextwenty six thirteen Huntin Park Avenue at Hunting
Park and Fox Street. There itbegins at nine it's open. Dates open
(01:25):
at six pm. Events start atnine pm. And what's the address twenty
six thirteen Hunting Park Avenue, HuntingPark and Fox Street. All right,
And if people would like tickets,how do they get tickets? People can
go online? Tickets are they cancall one eight hundred two oh three thirteen
sixty two. That's one eight zerozero two zero three one three six two
(01:51):
for all ticket information. I thinkwe are the first two hundred persons that
purchased ticket will get a souvenir ofa lighter a chap Prii T shirt.
And what is the website for moreinformation? The website for more information is
the TajMahal dot com or Defila InternationalReggae Face as a Facebook page. All
(02:14):
information promotions are there. Fantastic RandolphFisher, President of the Jamaica Pennsylvania Association
and promote of the upcoming Roots andCulture production bringing Reggae to Philly on September
second. Thank you so much forjoining us today. Thank you. We're
getting ready for the first day ofschool and we always want to make sure
we've got a sharp cut. Well, Barber's Who Care is offering free cuts
(02:38):
for students and young folks and we'rejoined right now by Kenny Duncan, nationally
known barber, stylist, educator andsalon owner. He has been the barber
for Ceyl Grammy Award winning artists andhas toured the world as the barber for
The Lady Gaga's production team. Sowow, that's pretty spectacular. But you're
also giving back to the community.Tell us more about Barbara's Who Care and
(03:00):
the fourteenth annual Free Haircuts and EducationalResource Fare. Well. Barbara's wit Care
is an organization of Barber's leat bymyself and several other quality, well known,
well respected barbers within the community thatwant to give back. So it's
not about just one barbershop, multiplebarbershop owners and celebrity barbers all coming together
to give out free haircuts to thecommunity. We believe that we can raise
(03:23):
the self esteem of young boys throughhaircuts. My son said to me today
that his badge is raised when hegets a haircut, meaning his skill sets.
So when you look good, youfeel good, you do good,
you perform well. And that's whatwe want to transfer to a lot of
individuals who may not have an opportunityto get a haircut as often or has
a hair cut at all, becausea lot of people don't always have the
(03:44):
means to be able to do so. So our thumb print own a community
is free haircuts. So we're givenout book bags, school supplies and free
sneakers and free clothes and some othergoodies we want to give away on that
particular day, September third. Well, that is fantastic. Tell us more,
it's Sunday, September third, giveus all the detail else the time
in the location. The location isa West Philadelphia YMCA and it's going from
nine am to four pm. Andit wouldn't be possible without our partners of
(04:06):
a Change our Future, United Healthcareand all the barbers at a sacrifice in
their town to make sure that wehave a great event and a great space
in the YMCA to give all somefree haircuts and free supplies for the community.
Fantastic. If people want more,information where do they go? They
can tap in with Barbers who Caredot org or follow us on Instagram at
Barbers who Care. I NC fantasticKenny Duncan, who is a nationally known
(04:29):
barber, stylist, educator, andsalon owner. Also someone who's giving back
to the community through Barbers who Care. Thank you so much, Thank you
so much for having it, andI appreciate you. Good street lighting plays
a vital role in creating safe,accessible, and inviting public spaces that benefit
the well being, safety, andoverall quality of life for residents of Philadelphia
(04:54):
and visitors alike. Led street lightingalso offers comprehensive package of benefits it including
energy and cost savings, improved safety, environmental friendliness, and enhanced control capabilities
that can contribute to a more sustainableand efficient urban environment. Join us to
tell us more about what the cityis doing along these lines is Katie Bartelotta,
(05:15):
who is Vice by Dident of Policyand Strategic Partnerships for the Philadelphia Energy
Authority. Before we get into thewhole street lighting thing, tell us who
you are, sure and thanks forhaving me today, Lorraine. My name's
Katie Bartelotta. I'm vice president ofPolicy and strategic partnerships with the Philadelphia Energy
Authority. We are an independent municipalauthority dedicated to building and a robust and
(05:38):
equitable clean energy economy for Philadelphia,and what that means in practice is that
we support the city and holding longterm energy contracts and issuing bonds for those
and other types of financing for thoseprojects, like we did in the instance
of the street lighting project that we'llbe talking about today. But we also
run consumer facing programs that help folksaccess clean energy at their homes, at
(06:00):
their schools, and help folks jointhe clean energy workforce as well. Well.
We know that good street lighting hasa lot of benefits, and the
benefits include better safety, also justincreases the quality of life. But in
addition to that, you're replacing streetlighting with LED lights. So tell us
a little bit more about the programand how it's going to roll out and
(06:21):
when we can see the benefits.Sure, so, after a year of
planning that was really heavy on designand on auditing each and every street light
in the city to make sure weknow where they are, what their status
is, if there are a highpressure sodium bulb that will be changing over,
(06:43):
or if they were already converted toLEDs, as the city has been
doing that in a piecemeal fashion whenevercapital budget is available to do so we
went through that whole process that includedcommunity engagement. We had folks come out
and just see what LEDs look likerelated to the high pressure sodium bulbs that
they had on their block, togive us an indication of between the two
(07:04):
choices, which color temperature they like, Do they like a cooler or warmer
fixture, And ultimately folks wanted awarmer fixture, but some neighborhoods. Another
question that we asked was do youwant more light? Do you feel like
the lighting that you have right nowis adequate? You know, do you
think it would help with your perceptionof safety in the evening, your ability
(07:24):
to see whether you're a pedestrian,a bicyclist, a motorist. What would
really be the right kind of levelfor how you live and navigate your neighborhood.
So we did all of that,folded that into a citywide design with
the intent of for all of thenon LED lights will be changing those over
within the next two years. Sowe have a very tight twenty four month
(07:46):
construction schedule that's very much informed bythat auditing that we did, so we
know where every lad is, whattheir status is, so we can be
really efficient in that process. Butreally what we were getting to is how
can we do this project in abig way, in an efficient way to
provide this benefit to the city ofenergy efficient, really nice looking and very
(08:09):
reliable light for folks who are youknow now calling three one one and saying,
hey, our lights are out,we need these six, we need
them changed. And it's just away to really do a citywide, very
efficient process to get us to morereliable, safer, better presenting light citywide.
And it's really it's every corner ofthe city, which is another really
(08:33):
exciting benefit. Well, I knowthat when the city had replaced the lighting
with this sort of high intensity sodiumlighting, there's something about them that you
know, it causes kind of thepink glow over a city. And I
know that LED lights will present differentlyand perhaps will kind of impact that kind
of pervasive pink light from a distancethat kind of blots out the stars and
(08:58):
all that sort of thing. Doesthat a difference that is a big difference
of how this light presents. SoLED lights are much more controllable in the
spread of lights. So with ahigh pressure sodium bulb, you've got a
bulb that kind of distributes light withouta ton of control of where it falls
or how it falls. This isreally part of the design process and the
ability of an LED to really putthe light where it needs to be,
(09:20):
you know, not in your bedroomwindow, but on the street where you
actually need to be able to moveand navigate safely at night. So backliding
concern, the uplighting concern of notbeing able to control the glow, that
is something that is much improved withLEDs. And then also to just that
same kind of that color feature ofit, we selected a warm color temperature
(09:41):
just because we had lots of conversationswith folks about their preferences. There wasn't
a strong preference in either direction whenwe did some of our neighborhood feedback on
the warm versus the cool, Butwe know that warm color temperatures are you
know, just generally a little bitbetter in terms of any sort of potential
concerns with human health or safety.So we went in that direction, but
(10:05):
again just made sure that the lightwas at the level that communities wanted but
generally the lights kind of look verydifferent. And again, we have been
working with designers who are making surethat all of our cobra heads, which
is those the kind of roadway lightsthat we're traditionally accustomed to, will not
have uplighting and are going to bedark Skies compliant. That is a group
(10:26):
that makes sure that for human health, for the health and safety of animals,
and just again kind of making surethat light is controlled and serving its
purpose and not doing more than thathas been incorporated into the project as well.
So let's light pollution as it were, Yes, less light pollution with
(10:48):
this project, and again was areally thoughtful process from community engagement and our
designers to get to what the maximumoutcome could be for communities. I think
the other thing about this particular programis that it's going to give you more
options to monitor where lighting is happeningand if lighting needs to be replaced.
There's sort of like a more centralability to kind of monitor where lighting needs
(11:11):
to be fixed or controlled or adjusted. Right, So this is one of
my favorite features of the project.So I think folks understand you put in
new lights, they're more reliable,they're more energy efficient, that's going to
save us money. But when yousay lighting management system, it doesn't sound
necessarily exciting on its space, butthis is really going to change the ability
(11:33):
for the city and for residents tohave an understanding of how our lighting system
is functioning. So right now,if we need to replace a light a
street light in the city of Philadelphia, someone needs to see it and report
it. So that is just areally very labor intensive system on both the
(11:54):
city side of having crews that areout looking for lights that are out,
on the residents side of having toreport a light every time it's out for
three one one. This is reallyjust eliminating that part of the process of
when a light is out, weknow it instantaneously, and that's going to
be such a big change in howthe city can actually operate and maintain this
(12:18):
lighting system because that lag time ofa light is out and we need to
report it is now taken out ofthe equation thanks to the lighting management system.
And I think it's just one ofthose really kind of simple things that
you know, the technology is there. It's not something that's super flashy,
but it's going to save so muchtime on the side of the city and
(12:39):
on the side of residence and leadto a much more reliable product. Yeah,
I think people are going to appreciatethe fact that the turnaround for replacing
a broken light will be much faster. Now. One of the other aspects
of it which I'm curious about,because I understand that this provides a communication
network for future smart city applications.What are smart city applications and what does
(13:03):
that mean for us? Sure,So we worked really closely with the Office
of Innovation and Technology in this citywhen we were considering that lighting management system,
which serves a really kind of basicpurpose and function under this project,
to understand how that could be leveragedin the future for other applications that the
city is interested in. The cityalready uses something that I think would fall
(13:24):
under a smart city application of videocameras throughout the city, So, for
example, how does that work togetherwith our lighting management system? Is there
any way to leverage that? Butthere are plenty of other types of sensors
that can be affixed to a lightingmanagement system to check on things from air
quality to noise pollution to anything inbetween. So there's a really vast world
(13:46):
of smart city applications out there.Our scope of this project was pretty narrow
just because of the contracting the vehiclethat we used, but we wanted to
make sure that anything that we selectedthrough this project could be maximally leverage for
any smart city applications in the future, and I think we did a pretty
thorough job at evaluating that for anypotential future uses outside of the slope of
(14:09):
this project. Well, we knowthe good lighting plays a vital role in
creating safe, accessible, and invitingpublic spaces, and the City of Philadelphia
is actually doing something about that byproviding the Philly street Light Improvement project.
And if people would like more informationon this project, how do they find
out more? Yes, you cango to Philly street Light Improvement dot com.
(14:31):
We have a robust website with alist of faqes for folks who want
to learn a little bit more aboutthe process and about what they can expect
over the next couple of years ofconstruction. And we also have an installation
map that is being updated in realtime on the website so that folks can
see where our crews are currently,where they've completed work, and where they're
(14:54):
off to next in the next twoweeks, so they can have an understanding
of when cruise maybe in the ourneighborhoods. Fantastic Katie Bartelotta, who is
rice President of Policy and Strategic Partnershipsfor the Philadelphia Energy Authority, Thank you
so much. Vary is evidence tosuggest that black women may be more vulnerable
to higher levels of beauty product relatedenvironmental chemicals compared to other demographic groups.
(15:20):
Joining us as Award winning journalist atEnvironmental Health Sciences and author Christina Marusik,
who's written New War on Cancer,The Unlikely Heroes Revolutionizing Prevention. She sheds
light on the fact that women ofcolor are at higher risk of getting cancer
through beauty products. Well, let'stalk about, first of all, what
(15:41):
are some of the factors that arerelated to this higher usage of potentially toxic
material. Certainly cultural and societal factorsmake a difference, and marketing, right,
A lot of the marketing has todo with the products that perhaps are
the most potentially carson genic tell usmore. Yeah, you're absolutely right.
(16:03):
So products that are marketed toward womenof color, and particularly black women in
the United States tend to have higherlevels of toxic chemicals than products that are
marketed to white women. And wealso know, you know, studies have
shown that women that black women spendeighty percent more on cosmetics and twice as
(16:27):
much as in care than their whitecounterparts, and they also have a higher
risk of developing cancer and reproductive healthissues compared to white women. So scientists
that study environmental health are are kindof at the beginning stages of considering these
things as risk factors. So they'rejust starting to dig into the research indicating
(16:49):
that these toxic chemicals in some ofthese hair products, specifically relaxers and hair
straighteners, and then also some ofthe chemicals that are found in synthetic hair,
like braiding hair, maybe contributing tothose higher races and higher risk for
cancer and other diseases. Right,And we also talk about the marketing of
(17:11):
products, because there is a certainbeauty standard that's promoted through marketing and that
in turn encourages women to meet thatstandard by buying some of these products.
Is that right, Yeah, that'strue. So this kind of cultural drive
for black women to have straight hairand to live up to these you know,
(17:36):
very particular beauty standards started out asa survival adaptation so long long ago
white colonizers and white enslavers used realor perceived racial differences like ging cone and
hair texture as reasons to treat Blackwomen as less than human, and so
(17:56):
it became a survival technique to drivefor lighter skin and straighter hair. And
obviously things have changed a lot sincethen, but some of these cultural norms
have persisted in these communities for thoseyou know, very early, very formful
reasons. So actually today in somestates, it's still legal for workplaces to
(18:23):
have bands on traditional hairstyles for blackwomen. There was a bill that was
up for consideration at the federal levellast year called the Crown Act that would
have made it illegal to discriminate onthe basis of hair texture at the workplace,
and it did not go through.It failed to pass. So in
a handful of states, your workplacemay require you to use these toxic beauty
(18:48):
products. And even when it's notan official band, I think it's often
considered there's a perception that it's moreprofessional for black women have straight hair in
the workplace. So the marketing kindof plays into those cultural phenomena that they,
you know, black women will besafer or they're more professional looking if
(19:11):
they use these more toxic products toachieve hair that looks more like most white
women's there, right, And alsoyou layer that on top of environmental justice
issues where in many communities of color, they exist in areas that are more
vulnerable to toxic chemicals, whether it'syou know, nearby a toxic waste site
(19:34):
or environmental waste site or a trashrecycling center, or communities of color are
more vulnerable to living in environments andcommunities that are exposed to higher levels of
toxins to start off with. Sothen you layer that on top of having
these potential hair care products and perhapsother types of things. I'm talking it's
(19:56):
maybe not as much prevalent in thiscountry as it is in other countries,
but skin lightners, for instance,contain many chemicals that are banned in Europe
but still exist as legally available productsthat the women can buy. That's absolutely
right. Yeah, skin lightning productsare still really popular throughout Southeast Asia and
(20:18):
in some Southeast Asian communities in theUnited States, and those products also tend
to be more toxic. And youmentioned that this combines with other harmful exposures
for these communities, and research hasshown that black Americans particularly are exposed to
higher levels of air pollution and higherlevels of arcinogens in air pollution than their
(20:42):
white counterparts, regardless of socio economicstatus, and across all fifty states,
in both rural and urban areas,which I think is really surprising. I
think when we think of environmental justicecommunities, we tend to think of low
income communities of color and are pollutingsites there. But as a result of
(21:03):
decades and decades of redlining and gympro laws which pushed Black Americans in particular
into kind of concentrated communities and thencited polluting facilities near those, it turns
out that your socioeconomic status is lessof a determining factor than your race at
this point when it comes to howmuch air pollution you're exposed to. So
(21:27):
there's some really cool work being donein the environmental health research field asking scientists
who traditionally have only looked at thingslike pollution and housing when it comes to
considering harmful exposures in these communities,to also consider things like cosmetic use and
(21:47):
personal care products and hair products,and to really look at the whole picture
of how systemic racism contributes to allof these factors that can raise cancer risk
in these communities. One of theother challenges not only for black women or
women of color, but really justeverybody period. It's the fact that the
regulations are not that stringent. It'sreally easy to put a product on the
(22:11):
market. And then I remember there'sthis big scandal where there was a hair
care product for black women. Ithink it was a hair straightener that caused
tremendous harm to women, and itwas taken off the market. But the
fact is the product was on themarket, and so we're really suffering from
(22:33):
the fact that regulation doesn't exist,and essentially for a lot of the products
that we tend to assume are fine, that's right, And unfortunately, the
United States is behind a lot ofthe rest of the world when it comes
to regulating these type of chemicals inour personal care products. So there are
(22:53):
chemicals and substances in our haircare productsand then our skincare products that are banned
throughout your up because they can potentiallyform our health. So I read about
this a lot in my book.It's not really fair to ask consumers to
memorize ingredient lists and become experts inthis and become meticulous shoppers because we shouldn't
(23:15):
have to do that, right,We should ask our lawmakers to do a
better job of protecting us from thesechemicals in the first place, and we
don't have to reinvent the wheel onthat. Right. There are a lot
of blueprints, particularly in the EuropeanUnion, that we could follow to do
a better job about regulating these chemicals. What about some alternatives to using these
potentially cancer causing chemicals. So thereare some really great tools that can help
(23:41):
you pick less toxic options. There'sa group called the Anti Cancer Lifestyle Program
that has a ton of free resourcesonline that can help pick less toxic personal
care products and cleaning products and food. There's an app I really like that
makes this very simple. It's madeby the Environmental Working Group, which is
(24:03):
a nonprofit that tests products in independentlabs and ranks them based on whether or
not they have these harmful chemicals inthem. The app is called the Healthy
Living App, and I find iteasiest to it'll let you, like see
in barcodes if you're picking up somethingin the store and you want to see
(24:23):
if it's okay. But the wayI've been able to do this that has
felt manageable is instead of throwing awayeverything in my closet and starting fresh.
I've just waited until I'm about torun out of something. If I'm about
to run out of lipstick, Iuse that as an opportunity to upgrade it
to a non toxic version. Igo into the app, I type in
(24:44):
lipstick. I find one they've giventheir seal of approval as saying, this
is free of these hundred ingredients welook for, so it's safe, and
I pick one based on that.And what are some just name a couple
of chemicals that you should really beaware of when we go out and we
buy some of these products, orwe ask our hair stylists, you know
(25:06):
what they're using. What do wereally need to look out for. Some
of the big ones to avoid ourthallates and carabins. Those are both endocrine
disrupting chemicals, so they can interferewith our bodies natural hormonal processes and cause
all kinds of health problems, andresearch increasingly suggests that they may also play
a role in hormone related cancers likebreast cancer and prostate cancer. And a
(25:32):
couple other ones to avoid include heavymetals, which sometimes show up in makeup,
specifically for malde hyde, pefos orforever chemicals, hydroquinone and poly ethylenelcol.
This can be really tricky because someof these will show up in an
ingredient list, but some of themit might be like part of a much
(25:55):
longer word. You might see parabineand a really long ingredient in hair,
and parabine is kind of somewhere inthe middle or at the end of the
word. Or sometimes things aren't actuallylisted, so that can happen with salads.
For example, you might see avery long ingredient lists and the very
last ingredient can say fragrance, andthat single list listed items. Fragrance can
(26:15):
contain hundreds of chemicals, and fragrancesoften contain salad because it makes them last
longer. It makes a fragrance lingerlonger, stay on your skin, stay
on your hair, and so goingfragrance free. Buying a fragrance free options
a kind of easy quick way toavoid some of those chemicals. Things like
formaldehyde also aren't usually listed in ingredientlists, but there are certain chemicals and
(26:40):
hair products that, when heated,combine to release formaldehyde into the air,
and obviously that's the problem. Ifyou're blow drying or using a curling iron,
so it's really tricky to do justby spot checking ingredient lists. So
I have found it a lot easierto use one of those tools I mentioned
so that someone else in a labto get and tested it and said,
(27:00):
okay, this one is safe.If people want more information about the work
that you're doing and the book NewWar on Cancer, The Unlikely Heroes Revolutionizing
Prevention, how do they find outmore? The website is New War on
Cancer dot com. I'm also onTwitter at Christina right, and that's Christina
is the k k R I St I n A w R I tes
(27:23):
wonderful. Well, thank you somuch for shedding light on a very important
issue, and that is the toxicchemicals and many of the haircare products and
other cosmetics that we use every day. Thank you so much. Award winning
science reporter and author Christina Marrisik,who is the author of New War on
Cancer, The Unlikely Heroes Revolutionizing Prevention, thank you so much. Well,
(27:48):
we're going to close out the showtoday and thanks some of our work ready
students who are with us throughout thesummer. Kyley Minor, Hello, Whistlering
So how was it for you myexperience here being intern at iHeart. I
really enjoyed the experience. I metsome really cool people, and I was
shocked because listening on a radio,you know, it's kind of anonymous,
(28:11):
and to be in person and tomeet these people, I'm like, they're
really cool and it's really a goodexperience. So what was the highlight of
your summer? Getting to know everyonehere? And I'm really just thankful for
the opportunity to come in here tobe at iHeart, Miss Lorraine, like
you made me want to stay here. I loved editing. I loved my
(28:32):
first interview. I was kind ofnervous, but I loved it. Well,
you did a wonderful job and Ireally appreciated all of your help and
hopefully as you continue on in life, maybe you'll be back. Thank you
so much and I'll look forward tocoming back. Fantsast Kylie Minor awesome.
I have to give a special shoutout to MICHAELA. Coleman. She's not
with us right now, she's alreadyat Penn State, but she was another
(28:55):
wonderful intern from the work Ready programover the summer. But not least Lucas
Gonzalez. Lucas, So, howwas it for you being an intern through
the work Ready program the summer.It's been good. I've really enjoyed being
here throughout the summer. I've beenable to develop my skills when it comes
to using programs like Audacity and learningthe more with a technical aspect. I've
(29:19):
been given different tips on how tospeak into a microphone. So it's just
been a lot of learning what waswhat was the best thing for you this
summer. The best thing for methis summer has definitely just been developing my
skills in both audio editing, listeningthrough audio to see what needs to be
(29:40):
cut out or redone, and alsodeveloping my own skills with my own projects.
You've been a great intern, andyou and Kylie and MICHAELA have been
really have made made my summer.It's been really wonderful having all of you.
Thank you so much for everything you'vedone. You've made my life a
little bit easier with all the helpthat you've provide. So thank you so
much. And good luck. Iknow you're starting temple this fall, right,
(30:03):
yes, okay, well, goodluck for that and thank you again.
Lucas Gonzalez, along with Kylie Minorand MICHAELA. Coleman. They were
my three work ready students over thesummer. They were amazing. You could
listen to all of today's interviews bygoing to our station website and typing in
keyword Community. You can also listenon the iHeartRadio app ye Words Philadelphia Community
(30:26):
Podcast. Follow me on Twitter andInstagram at Lorraine Ballard. I'm Lorraine Ballard
Morrow and I stand for service toour community and media that empowers. What
will you stand for? You've beenlistening to Insight and thank you
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