Issue 58 • SEPTEMBER 12, 2023
PRESENTED BY THE KAUFFMAN FOUNDATION
👋 Good morning, and welcome back to The Yappie’s AAPI politics briefing — your guide to the policy news and activism affecting Asian Americans + Pacific Islanders. S
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— Edited by Shawna Chen
THE BIG STORY
Sample bottles for PFAS testing as seen on Aug. 9, 2018. Photo courtesy of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy via Flickr
Asian Americans have higher levels of cancer-linked “forever chemicals,” new study finds
👉
Asian Americans have an 88% higher rate of dangerous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (also known as PFAS, or, “forever chemicals”) in their bodies compared to non-Hispanic white people, according to the study published in the Environmental Science & Technology journal.
📃 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
PFAS are notoriously difficult for the environment and the human body to break down, and can sometimes remain in people’s systems for years.
They’re typically used to make household products resistant to water, heat, and stains.
In other words: They’re not natural chemicals.
Most people in the U.S. have “measurable amounts of PFAS” in their bodies due to their frequent use in commercial and industry products, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. While a blood test can tell you your PFAS levels at the time your blood was drawn, it can’t definitively conclude whether your overall PFAS levels are considered safe or not.
Exposure usually happens through the air, water, and food people consume.
The chemicals have been linked to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and kidney, testicular, prostate, breast, liver, and ovarian cancers.
On our radar: New methods have allowed researchers to understand PFAS exposure based on race/ethnicity, which isn’t a distinction typically made in the field.
They used mixture item response theory to conduct their analysis, which examined PFAS biomonitoring 2013-2018 data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
It’s unclear why Asian Americans are exposed to higher levels of PFAS, but the study’s authors hypothesize that exposure could be related to the consumption of freshwater fish—which is commonly linked to PFAS contamination—and higher levels of immigration from countries that may have different standards for regulating PFAS, NBC News’ Kimmy Yam reports.
Of note: Rates of exposure were also higher for lower-income Asian Americans compared to those of higher socioeconomic backgrounds, The Guardian’s Tom Perkins writes.
The caveat: The study doesn’t account for potential differences among Asian ethnic subgroups, as all Asian Americans are grouped into the “Non-Hispanic Asian” category. It also failed to specify data for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders outside the “Other Race, including Multi-Racial” category.Yes, but: Breaking down health data by race to better understand PFAS’ impacts is a crucial first step to uncovering “disparities in PFAS burden among race/ethnicity as a proxy for racism/structural inequity,” the study stresses.
— By
Katrina Pham
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AAPI NATION
🔎 IN FOCUS
Native Hawaiians are renewing their calls for sovereignty in the aftermath of the devastating wildfires in Maui, which razed the Hawaiian Kingdom’s capital. To many in the community, it’s the only way to ensure their children will still have a homeland and a tangible connection to their roots.
“When we talk about sovereignty, it’s about literally, physically and spiritually taking up space that we were forcibly removed from,” Noelani Ahia, an Indigenous activist and healer in Lahaina, told The Guardian’s Claire Wang.
“The people in this movement have been fighting for our community, our land, our ocean for decades. It’s woven into the fabric of who we are and who we stand for.”
Don’t forget: Americans forcibly overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893 to claim the islands, which were annexed by the U.S. five years later.
The Native Hawaiian community, which has long suffered cultural erasure and disparate health impacts due to militarization, is the only Indigenous group in the U.S. without self-governance rights, The Guardian notes.
The movement for independence has remained alive despite centuries of exploitation and marginalization targeting Native Hawaiians—and the wildfires may just have given Indigenous advocates all the more reason to double down.
CATCH UP
👉 Here’s what else is happening across America…
🪧 Hundreds of Asian and Pacific Islander labor organizers attended the Service Employees International Union’s (SEIU) API Caucus Summit in Las Vegas this past weekend. The summit—which centers AAPI issues including social and economic justice, housing, working conditions, and climate—is one of the nation’s largest AAPI convenings.
In their words: “[W]e are facing the same devastating impacts of inequity that’s been justified by the harmful Model Minority myth,” Grace Vergara, executive director of SEIU 1107, said in a statement. SEIU 1107 alone represents over 20,000 workers in Nevada.
📜 California lawmakers approved the nation’s first bill to ban caste discrimination last Wednesday, CalMatters’ Sameea Kamal reports. The bill now awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) signature.
The legislation is designed “to protect all people against caste discrimination, regardless of caste: upper caste, lower caste, it does not matter,” state Sen. Aisha Wahab (D) reportedly said on the floor ahead of the vote.
On the other side: Opponents including the Hinduism American Foundation argue it will lead to racial profiling of South Asians.
⛑️ Filipinos in Lahaina are speaking out about the lack of support they’ve received following the Maui wildfires, citing challenges such as language barriers and limited accessibility to aid, NBC News’ Sakshi Venkatraman and Kimmy Yam report. Filipinos are the largest undocumented community in Hawai‘i.🔍 A recent shooting at UNC-Chapel Hill has sparked fear and anxiety, dredging up the U.S.’s long history of violence against Asian Americans, WUNC’s Eli Chen writes.
Worth noting: “[These events] highlight a culture that’s prone to gun violence and the vulnerability of Asian immigrants in America,” Eileen Chengyin Chow, an Asian and Middle Eastern studies professor at Duke University, told WUNC.
📖 Anaheim Union High School District in Orange County, California will offer a course focused on the history and experiences of Korean Americans for the first time this fall, NBC News’ Brahmjot Kaur reports. The course aims to highlight historical figures and promote student advocacy through civic engagement.
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— By
Rachel Lee
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Preston Lieu
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