Author Archives: Boyd Jackson

Blood Ban: Defense or Discrimination

On June 12, 2016, the LGBTQ+ community was targeted by a gunman, leaving 50 people dead and 53 people injured. Doctors treating the injured pleaded for people in the Orlando community to donate blood to save lives, but the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prohibited the very people who were targeted in the attack […]

Leading Lead Removal Research

Over the past few weeks, we have analyzed the harmful effects of lead exposure on young people, explored the extent to which lead exposure still impacts us, and discussed some of the efforts underway to eliminate the troublesome element. Millions of dollars have been poured into efforts to safely remove lead from our homes, pipes, […]

Come on—Get the Lead Out!

The previous two articles in our lead series paint a pretty dire picture when it comes to lead. What we have covered is that lead is all around us, it comes from myriad sources, and if it gets into the blood, it has health, mental and criminal impacts. What, then, is being done to protect […]

Lead Still Weighs Us Down

At the first mention of lead in the United States, almost every mind immediately turns to the ongoing crisis in Flint, Michigan. It is important to remember, though, that it is the cause of the disaster that makes Flint so unique, not the troubles with lead. Flint is facing a crisis because government officials switched […]

The Molecule Made Me Do It

Several weeks have passed since the Michigan Primaries, and as the cameras and political spotlight left the state, the country that was once so outraged by the lead levels of Flint’s water has largely turned its attention to other issues. Meanwhile, the residents of Flint continue to work to improve their water quality, and they […]

Facing Football’s Failures Head-On

Growing up in small-town Alabama has made me intimately familiar with the importance our country assigns to football. Between the NCAA and NFL, football dominates over half of the nights of the week. Given this level of fanaticism, it should be clear that my ideas expressed herein are not popular, but the evidence of the […]