When I spoke with Jean Marie Kauth, she was preparing to teach a class on global environmental health - one of several courses she has developed since shifting her academic work toward environmental health over the last two decades.
Her new book, Poisoning Our Children, forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press, is already drawing quiet interest in public health circles, particularly among those searching for ways to better understand and address the rising tide of childhood illnesses connected to environmental exposures.
Our conversation drifted between personal narrative, scientific inquiry, and the questions that guide her work today.
An Unexpected Journey Into Environmental Health
Kauth did not anticipate building a career in this field. She began in neurobiology as an undergraduate, then found herself drawn deeply into literature, eventually completing a PhD in Languages and Literature. For many years, she taught British literature at Benedictine University, where she still teaches today, only in a different discipline.
Her shift toward environmental health was prompted by her experience as a mother. When her daughter became ill after pesticide exposure and later tragically passed away in 2002, Kauth found herself asking difficult questions and looking closely at the research. “It changed the direction of my life,” she says. “I needed to understand what had happened, and I needed to do something with that knowledge.”
She began writing about environmental exposures on her Poisoning Our Children blog in 2013, which rapidly gained popularity and eventually moved to Substack. She then became active in the American Public Health Association’ Children’s Environmental Health Committee in 2017, where she remains a prominent member. Over time, she earned an MPH to support her growing involvement in local, regional, and national advocacy.
Pen to Page
Kauth tells me that Poisoning Our Children was a long time in the making, but not for lack of content or drive. Finding a publisher took several years. “I think it was simply a difficult topic,” she reflects. “Maybe the public wasn’t ready to look closely at environmental contributors to children’s health issues.”
That seems to be changing.
“I think many people are beginning to notice that children’s health patterns are shifting,” she says. “There’s more openness now to understanding how environmental factors may play a role.”
Once Johns Hopkins University Press offered her a contract, the writing process moved quickly. Kauth drew on years of interviews from her blog as well as newer conversations, with parents, clinicians, researchers, and experts such as reproductive epidemiologist Shanna Swan.
The result is a book that blends science, lived experience, and cultural analysis to create a broad picture of children’s environmental health today.
A Book Shaped by an Interdisciplinary Life
Kauth’s background in the sciences, public health, and humanities all show up in her approach. Her 2023 academic monograph, Environmental Legacies of the Copernican Universe, explored how Western cultural traditions frame our understanding of environmental risk and responsibility. Those themes thread into her new book as well.
She describes Poisoning Our Children as “an attempt to bring together the science, the stories, and the systems”; a way to make sense of complex issues without losing sight of the people living through them.
“It’s a challenging topic,” she acknowledges. “But I’ve tried to write it in a way that is accessible, humane, and grounded in compassion for families.”
Solutions: Individual Choices, Collective Needs
Although the title of the book suggests a hard critique, Kauth emphasizes that her solutions chapter can provide a way forward.
“There are meaningful things individuals can do to protect their own and their children’s health, like choosing safer household products, reducing unnecessary chemical exposures, and being mindful of air quality,” she says. “And at the same time, many decisions are made at a community or policy level. Families are affected by choices they don’t control.”
She mentions her work on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC), where she contributed to advisory letters on climate change and lead. She has seen firsthand how persistent and thoughtful advocacy can shape public awareness.
“Our voices matter,” she says. “Voting matters. Speaking up matters. But we also need to support one another. None of us can navigate environmental exposures alone, which is why collective action is so important.
Looking Ahead
Even as Poisoning Our Children moves toward publication, Kauth is already thinking about her next project - one centered fully on solutions and emerging models of environmental care. She cites Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer as a work that has inspired her, particularly its emphasis on reciprocity and interconnectedness.
And while her academic work and advocacy are rooted in rigorous inquiry, they remain deeply personal. “My experiences made me ask questions I never expected to ask,” she says. “But they also gave me a sense of purpose.”
Today, she teaches environmental health courses to impassioned students and continues to be a fierce advocate for policy and practice change in protecting children’s health.
Her hope for the book is simple. “If Poisoning Our Children helps people understand what’s happening and gives them tools to protect their loved ones, then it will have done what I hoped it could do.”
Thank you, Jean Marie, for bringing a focus to this field and pushing for change!l
Written by Rebecca Barry