Sonya Schuh in Inside Climate News: 'The Environmental Injustice of Beauty'

_{ABOVE: Yakini Horn, owner of Yaya’s Natural Hair Boutique in Atlanta, rolled sections of Akeyla Peele-Tembong’s hair in her hands during a styling visit on Feb. 20, 2023. Horn was creating “starter locs,” the early stage of a natural hairstyle that will take months to root. Photo by Victoria St. Martin}

Saint Mary's Professor of Biology Sonya Schuh, PhD is featured as an expert voice in a recent Inside Climate News piece titled "The ‘Environmental Injustice of Beauty’: The Role That Pressure to Conform Plays In Use of Harmful Hair, Skin Products Among Women of Color."

The story explores the public health ramifications of the ways in which race-based depictions of beauty drive the use of hazardous products. 

Schuh, whose research on toxins in personal care products has been featured in an HBO documentary and is set to be featured in additional upcoming documentary projects, puts the impact of these products into a broader context. From the story:

“When you talk about climate change and you talk about the planet and the oceans and the devastating effects that plastics and microplastics are having, people are concerned and go, ‘Oh, that’s so terrible,’ but they kind of feel helpless,” said Schuh. 

“But as soon as I start to say, ‘Well, guess what? Those plastic chemicals and things that you’re exposed to in all your plastics and all your products, this is what they are doing to your health and your potential fertility or your potential unborn baby,’” she said. “As soon as I frame it in that way, then people are much more concerned.”

“As soon as I start to say, ‘Well, guess what? Those plastic chemicals and things that you’re exposed to in all your plastics and all your products, this is what they are doing to your health and your potential fertility or your potential unborn baby,’” Sonya Schuh said. “As soon as I frame it in that way, then people are much more concerned.”

Saint Mary's students have also worked alongside Schuh in her research and served as co-authors and lead authors on papers connected to this work.

Read the full story from Inside Climate News.

Learn more about research by Sonya Schuh and Saint Mary's students.