FtC
magazine
The Sizeable Health Benefits of Nature’s Tiny World
A Microbial Exploration with Dr. Rodney Dietert
By Ainsley Schoppel Excerpts from Interview by Sasha Frate Rodney Dietert, Ph.D. is an internationally known author, lecturer, scientist, media personality, and educator with peer-reviewed papers published in more than seventy scientific journals ranging from environmental health and pediatric medicine publications to nutrition, metabolism, immune, neurological, and reproductive journals. Currently Professor Emeritus in the Cornell University Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Rodney has more than three-hundred publications including two-hundred
90
FACE the CURRENT MAGAZINE
papers and book chapters, with most addressing environmental risk factors, developmental immunotoxicity, and programming of later-life noncommunicable diseases. With a specifically focused career in the microbial sciences, Dietert is perhaps one of the foremost experts in the world on the microscopic world around—and inside—us, and the myriad ways that we can adjust our lives to let it serve us better. In fact, we’ve heard time and again
that whether we live in an urban or rural area, spending time “in nature” is beneficial to our health. However, not all green spaces are created equal. When it comes to parks and green spaces in cities, it pays to know about the dirt beneath your feet. “You may not be aware,” informs Dietert, “but to meet EPA standards on heavy metals like lead, [planners] will mix very, very low heavy-metal contaminated soil with highly contaminated soil.” In doing so, planners and builders offload their contaminated fill and will test just