The For Your Health News Podcast explores the issues shaping health and healthcare in communities across the United States. Through conversations with experts, advocates, researchers, policymakers, and community leaders, the podcast breaks down complex health topics, examines barriers to health access, and shares evidence-based insights and solutions that put people first.
In this episode of the For Your Health News Podcast, Letitia Plummer, who was serving as Houston City Council Member At-Large Position 4 at the time of the interview, discusses environmental issues and quality-of-life concerns affecting Houston’s Fifth Ward.
The conversation examines concerns facing residents in the Fifth Ward and the initiatives being pursued to support the community.
Plummer discusses environmental injustice, community needs, and the importance of addressing conditions that can affect residents’ quality of life.
She also reflects on her journey in public office and her experience working on issues affecting communities across Houston.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn: • About quality-of-life concerns affecting Houston’s Fifth Ward • What initiatives have been pursued to support the community • How environmental issues can affect communities and residents • Why community engagement matters when addressing local concerns • About Letitia Plummer’s journey in public office
Learn more about the National Minority Quality Forum: nmqf.org
Read more health news: fyh.news
SPEAKER_02
Welcome to the For Your Health News podcast. We have a phenomenal powerhouse in the building. We have Councilwoman Plummer from Houston. And we're so excited that Houston was represented in this conversation. It's the home of the wonderful Beyonce, of course. Number one, we got to get that out of the way. But number two, your work is so critical to this conversation. So why was it important for Houston to be here in DC having representation here?
SPEAKER_01
No, thank you so much for having me. This is exciting. Anytime I can express the needs of our community, it's important. So Fifth Ward is a historic community in the city of Houston. And in the 1940s, early 1950s, there was they were using creosote to preserve the wood in our real yards. And now, years, decades later, we find that that creosote into the groundwater created a plume underground, and those vapors have created an issue, a carcinogenic issue in that particular community. And so we exceed, in fifth award, we exceed all of the carcinogenic um levels basically in terms of community, upwards of 51% of the particular um of the particular community. And so as a council member that um is at large in the city of Houston, so I get to play in all areas. Um and having a health background, I really just wanted to focus on quality of life concerns within our city. And the cancer cluster has been something that I've been watching for years. My dad actually went to high school in the area. Wow. So I've known about it for a while. Um just didn't know how to help.
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
And so I've really just tried to bring a lot of attention and really support the community work that's already happened.
SPEAKER_02
Yeah. And I I like that number one, you have a personal connection to this community. So this work feels very, very important to you. What are some of the initiatives that you're you are working on to make sure that folks in this community have access to quality care and not just that that particular part of Houston, but just across the city of Houston as well?
SPEAKER_01
No, of course. I've done multiple things, but I'm gonna specifically talk about the fifth war area. Um, when I first heard about what was going on there, I very quickly realized that you can't really point blame on someone unless you prove correlation. And so I immediately looked to scientists, our epidemiologists, um, and I engaged with Morehouse School of Medicine for many reasons. I'm a Spellman graduate.
SPEAKER_02
So there's a little bit of love there.
SPEAKER_01
Um but more importantly, I felt like we should find a medical school that had people that looked like us that were taking care of us. Uh, because, you know, as we all know in the healthcare space, having someone that understands and knows who you are from a genetic perspective is really important just in terms of understanding. And so Morehouse got on board, they agreed to come on board. Um, Dr. Miles Richardson's been amazing. And uh they looked at all of the reports and they just um realized that it's gonna be challenging to create the correlation between the creosote and the cancer because the initial event happened so long ago. And so my job now is either to look at this from an environmental justice perspective and get reparations for the community, or find out ways in which the city of Houston can assist financially, which we did. We put in a $5 million relocation plan in place, um, but then also working closely with our local EPA agents and our local um the Texas um TCEQ, which is um the Texas Um Department of Quality, Environmental Quality, to see how we all can play a part in making sure that the that the residents are are protected. And so it's really a team approach. Yeah. Um, I'm just bringing a and shining a light on it. I've been I was really fortunate to have a three-day cancer cluster collaborative summit um last year that really brought all the researchers, science, community, and really put everybody in one room for three days and had some deep conversations about what the community wants. Um we're looking at a community benefits agreement to see because oftentimes, right, as ad um as activists, we typically don't um tell people what we want.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
And so my job is to kind of pare that down and see what's reasonable and then who I should go to to ask for that support.
SPEAKER_02
That's so important. And I think what I appreciate about what you're saying is that you tap different parts of different types of people to be part of the solution, right? And it shows the community that this is a multifaceted approach and this is a very collaborative approach to solving this issue. And I'm sure for folks there, it's also you are the top of our minds, right? And that's very important. You mentioned a something called environmental injustice, right? What if someone doesn't understand what that means, what does it mean?
SPEAKER_01
No, absolutely. So, and this is beautiful because in Houston we see more of it, um, you know, I don't know how many states or cities have these issues, but um so anything that happens within the environment that um negatively affects the health equity of a community um is injustice, environmental injustice. But when it's cumulative, that's when it's really an injustice. And so let me give you an example. Um, the city of Houston doesn't have the authority to give permits to a cement batch plant or a metal um or a cement crushing facility um or a metal work facility. We don't have we don't have that. That comes from the state.
SPEAKER_02
Got it.
SPEAKER_01
And so, as you would think, a city would protect its communities because we have a reason to do so. Oftentimes the state is so far removed that they can't make um good judgment and reasonable decisions for a specific community. And black and brown communities, the land typically is inexpensive. We don't have the resources to fight, um, and and we're taking care of really basic needs in our lives. I call Maslow hierarchy of needs like food, shelter, you know, it's really our the basics. Yeah, and so because of that, we often find that they'll put these facilities in our communities, and there's not much we can do. And so it is my job to make sure that there's environmental justice at all times in the city of Houston because I'm an at-large member. And so I write letters of support to see, you know, two, you know, for communities to TECQ and really mandate them to make different decisions. And so that's really probably my largest job in this space is to bring awareness.
SPEAKER_02
And this is just a point of personal privilege here as the podcast host, but I'm always I always love seeing women in public office. So I just want to ask, what made you get into public office in the first place? And how has your journey been so far?
SPEAKER_01
So it's um a little bit of a weird story. I'm a dentist by trade, and so um, you know, that was always my space. I had no intention on getting in public office. Unfortunately, a tragedy happened to me in my life um with um a surrogacy situation with my son, getting a little personal here. Um, and uh I lost cut I lost legal custody of my son in a surrogate in a surrogacy fight. And um, you know, women, we're mama bears. You mess with our kids, it's on. And good luck to you, right? And so unfortunately, I do I did lose custody of Alex, but I wrote the legislation in the state of Texas to change it.
SPEAKER_02
Wow.
SPEAKER_01
And so that was my first my first dabble into politics. I rewrote the legislation and I got through the House and Senate unanimously. Wow. So now when families want to create their you know, one when families want to create or extend their families in in ways of surrogacy, they're now protected in if there's a divorce.
SPEAKER_02
I love that. And this is why we called you the powerhouse in the beginning. It's a very well-earned title. Well, thank you so much for being such an advocate for Houston's fifth ward. Um, thank you for just being who you are, and I think for having a public official as part of this conversation is a very important thing. So thank you for making the time and the trip to DC.
SPEAKER_01
Thank you so much for having me. It's been it's been an honor. Oh, of course.
