Omaha By Design: Omaha, Only Better

by Ken Mayer

When I was a kid, my dad would often set me straight with the words “use your head.” I reckon that if I had a quarter for every time he yelled that at me, I would have been retired at 19.

It was his way of telling me I hadn’t thought through what I was doing or was about to do. I hadn’t calculated the consequences. Modern neuroscience has found that the adolescent brain continues to develop until the age of about 25. At that point we have both enough experience and mature brain function to gauge the consequences.

Even though I haven’t been 25 for some time, I still need a little help. For example, what are the consequences of greening up my house?

I figured it’s all good. But then, the energy auditor pointed out that sealing up a house will trap stuff that I didn’t necessarily want to have in there with me. Radon, for example, or volatile organic chemicals. I’m testing for that stuff now and, if necessary, I’ll have to install an energy recovery ventilator to prevent my brain from becoming any more addled than it already is.

Unintended consequences are nothing new. During Community Development Week recently, five organizations were honored for addressing lead hazards in the city. This substantial effort included the Lead Safe Omaha Coalition, UNL Douglas/Sarpy Extension Office, Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance, Douglas County Health Department and NeighborWorks Omaha, plus the Environmental Protection Agency and the Community Development Block Grant program.

The fact that this had to be done at all means a lot of folks long ago weren’t using their heads or simply didn’t care. American doctors first diagnosed childhood lead poisoning in 1887. By 1904, lead poisoning in kids was linked to lead-based paints.

Seems to me, it’s still going on. I’m worried that some of the energy I use or products I buy may have been made with coal purchased from companies that can’t use their heads well enough to keep people from getting killed mining the stuff.

As the City of Omaha and Omaha by Design kick off Environment Omaha’s final content area of community health, I think it’s important to start thinking seriously about consequences. Taking care of one another when it comes to our collective health seems to have become a pretty contentious business of late. We need to at least be sure – in our effort to be more energy efficient and less burdensome to Mother Nature – that we don’t forget to care for one another.

It won’t do us much good to weatherize our homes if we simply trade reduced utility bills for cancer inducing radioactive gas. More walking and biking won’t help much if we get run over by a distracted motorist on unsafe streets. Healthy diets don’t count for much if those vegetables are full of pesticides.

I encourage you to help us out in whatever way you can as we go forward with Environment Omaha’s Community Health component. Let’s also be caring and smart about it. Please, use your head – and your heart.