Arlene Blum

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Arlene Blum
Arlene Blum 1977 003.jpg
Arlene Blum at a 1977 fundraiser in Berkeley, CA, for her 1978 climbing expedition
Born (1945-03-01) March 1, 1945 (age 79)
Davenport, Iowa, US
Education Reed College, BA
University of California, Berkeley, PhD
Occupation(s) Mountaineer, writer,
Environmental health scientist
Known forLeading first American and also all-woman ascent of Annapurna
Environmental health research
Notable workAnnapurna: A Woman's Place
Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life
Children1
Website http://www.arleneblum.com

Arlene Blum (born March 1, 1945 [1] ) is an American mountaineer, writer, and environmental health scientist. She is best known for leading the first successful American ascent of Annapurna (I), a climb that was also an all-woman ascent. She led the first all-woman ascent of Denali ("Denali Damsels" expedition), and was the first American woman to attempt Mount Everest. [2] She is executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute, [3] an organization of scientists who develop and communicate peer-reviewed research to develop innovative solutions to reduce the use of toxic chemicals.

Contents

Early life

Blum was born in Davenport, Iowa, and raised from the age of five on in Chicago by her Orthodox Jewish grandparents and mother. [1] In the early 1960s, she attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Her first climb was in Washington, where she failed to reach the summit of Mount Adams. However, she persevered, climbing throughout her college and graduate school days. She was rejected from an Afghanistan expedition in 1969, with its leader writing to her, "One woman and nine men would seem to me to be unpleasant high on the open ice, not only in excretory situations but in the easy masculine companionship which is so vital a part of the joy of an expedition." [4] However, she had been able to go climbing as part of her research for her senior thesis, which was on the topic of volcanic gases on Oregon's Mount Hood. In her thesis she predicted that one of the Pacific northwest volcanoes would soon erupt with devastating violence, and 14 years later Mt. St. Helens did have a violent eruption. [5] Blum graduated from Reed in 1966 and attended MIT and UC Berkeley, where she earned a PhD in biophysical chemistry in 1971. After graduate school, Blum embarked on what she called the "Endless Winter" – spending more than a year climbing peaks all over the world. [6]

Major climbs

In 1969, she applied to join an expedition to Denali in Alaska, and was told that women were welcome to come only as far as the base camp to "help with the cooking." Blum then organized and co-led the first all-woman team to ascend Denali in 1970. She was deputy leader for the ascent. [7] She participated in a 1976 expedition up Mount Everest as part of the American Bicentennial Everest Expedition, but did not reach the summit. In 1978, she organized a team of eleven women to climb the tenth highest mountain in the world, Annapurna (I) in Nepal which, until then, had been climbed by only eight people (all men). It was called American Women's Himalayan Expeditions – Annapurna. They raised money for the trip in part by selling T-shirts with the slogan "A woman's place is on top". The first summit team, comprising Vera Komarkova and Irene Miller (now Beardsley) and Sherpas Mingma Tsering and Chewang Ringjing, reached the top at 3:30 p.m. on October 15, 1978. The second summit team, Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz and Vera Watson, died during this climb. After the event, Blum wrote a book about her experience on Annapurna, called Annapurna: A Woman's Place. [8]

She led the first expedition to climb Bhrigupanth in the Indian Himalayas, leading a team of Indian and American women. She then attempted what she called the "Great Himalayan Traverse", a two-thousand-mile journey across the treacherous but beautiful peaks of the Himalayas from Bhutan to India. She crossed the Alps from Yugoslavia to France, bearing her baby Annalise on her back in a backpack. [9]

Early scientific work

As a graduate student at UC Berkeley, she predicted the correct three-dimensional structure for transfer RNA, an essential building block in all organisms, by stringing hippie beads for the nine known tRNA sequences in four colors to represent the four nucleic acid bases, pairing the bases, and folding them into a logical structure. [10]

While a post doc in the Stanford biochemistry department, she discovered the first physical evidence for intermediate states in the folding of protein molecules [11] doing "temperature jump NMR," a technique she imagined while watching water melting from a glacier in Central Asia. Her Stanford advisor, Robert Baldwin, stated in his oral history [12] that this work was a first step towards solving the problem of the mechanism of protein folding.

Arlene's research with biochemist Bruce Ames found that the flame retardant called Tris, used at high levels in most children's pajamas in the middle of the 1970s, was a mutagen and likely carcinogen. Three months after their 1977 paper in Science [13] was published, Tris was banned in children's sleepwear which stopped children's exposure to this harmful chemical.

Science policy work

As a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, in the late 1970s, Blum's research contributed to the regulation of two cancer-causing chemicals used as flame retardants on children's sleepwear. [14] Blum taught at Stanford University, Wellesley College, and the University of California, Berkeley. [15]

After a 26-year hiatus, Blum returned to science and policy work in 2006—when her daughter started college—and her memoir Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life [16] was published. She discovered that the same Tris her research had helped remove from children's pajamas was back in California couches and baby products. [17]

In 2007 Blum co-founded the Green Science Policy Institute (GSP) [18] with the goal of bringing scientific research results into policy decisions to protect human health and the environment from toxic chemicals. As executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute, [19] Blum and her team have led several successful national and international campaigns against the use of toxic chemicals, particularly halogenated flame retardants. [20]

Blum has published articles about science policy in The New York Times , Science magazine, [21] Los Angeles Times , [22] and The Huffington Post . [23]

GSP projects

Writing and awards

Her first book, Annapurna: A Woman's Place was included in Fortune Magazine's 2005 list of "The 75 Smartest Business Books We Know" and chosen by National Geographic Adventure Magazine as one of the 100 top adventure books of all time. Her award-winning memoir, Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life tells the story of how Blum realized improbable dreams among the world's highest mountains, in the chemistry laboratory, and in public policy. [25] Both books show the hardships faced by women in male-dominated fields. [26] [27]

Blum's awards include a Purpose Prize [28] to those over 60 who are solving society's greatest problems, National Women's History Project selection as one of "100 Women Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet" [29] and a Gold Medal from the Society of Woman Geographers, [30] an honor previously given to only eight other women including Amelia Earhart, Margaret Mead, and Mary Leakey. Breaking Trail received an Honorable Mention from the National Outdoor Book Award in 2005. [31]

Arlene Blum is the founder of the annual Berkeley Himalayan Fair and the Burma Village Assistance Project. She serves on the boards of the Society for the Preservation of Afghan Archeology; ISET, an organization dedicated to solving climate, water and disaster problems in South Asia; and the advisory boards for Project REED which builds libraries in Asia, Environmental Building News, and the Plastic Pollution Coalition. [32]

Blum was the winner of the Sierra Club's Francis P. Farquhar Mountaineering Award for 1982. [33]

On April 7, 2012, the American Alpine Club inducted Blum into its Hall of Mountaineering Excellence at an award ceremony in Golden, Colorado. [34]

Quotes

Personal life

Blum lives and works in Berkeley, California. She has a daughter, Annalise Blum, a 2010 graduate of Stanford University in environmental engineering. In 2017 Annalise earned a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at Tufts University. [37] In March, 2023, Annalise was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science in the U.S. Department of the Interior. [38]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annapurna</span> Eight-thousander and 10th-highest mountain on Earth, located in Nepal

Annapurna is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal. It is the 10th highest mountain in the world at 8,091 metres (26,545 ft) above sea level and is well known for the difficulty and danger involved in its ascent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denali</span> Highest mountain in North America, located in Alaska

Denali is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,310 feet (6,190 m) above sea level. It is the tallest mountain in the world from base-to-peak on land, measuring 18,000 ft (5,500 m), With a topographic prominence of 20,194 feet (6,155 m) and a topographic isolation of 4,621.1 miles (7,436.9 km), Denali is the third most prominent and third-most isolated peak on Earth, after Mount Everest and Aconcagua. Located in the Alaska Range in the interior of the U.S. state of Alaska, Denali is the centerpiece of Denali National Park and Preserve.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Junko Tabei</span> Japanese mountain climber (1939–2016)

Junko Tabei was a Japanese mountaineer, author, and teacher. She was the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest and ascend the Seven Summits, climbing the highest peak on every continent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Organophosphate</span> Organic compounds with the structure O=P(OR)3

In organic chemistry, organophosphates are a class of organophosphorus compounds with the general structure O=P(OR)3, a central phosphate molecule with alkyl or aromatic substituents. They can be considered as esters of phosphoric acid. Organophosphates are best known for their use as pesticides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edurne Pasaban</span> Spanish Basque mountaineer

Edurne Pasaban Lizarribar is a Basque Spanish mountaineer. On May 17, 2010, she became the first woman to climb all 14 of the eight-thousanders – and the 21st person to do so. Her first 8,000 peak had been achieved 9 years earlier, on May 23, 2001, when she reached the summit of Mount Everest. She has also completed the seven summits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fire retardant</span> Substance reducing flammability

A fire retardant is a substance that is used to slow down or stop the spread of fire or reduce its intensity. This is commonly accomplished by chemical reactions that reduce the flammability of fuels or delay their combustion. Fire retardants may also cool the fuel through physical action or endothermic chemical reactions. Fire retardants are available as powder, to be mixed with water, as fire-fighting foams and fire-retardant gels. Fire retardants are also available as coatings or sprays to be applied to an object.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triphenyl phosphate</span> Chemical compound

Triphenyl phosphate (TPhP) is the chemical compound with the formula OP(OC6H5)3. It is the simplest aromatic organophosphate. This colourless solid is the ester (triester) of phosphoric acid and phenol. It is used as a plasticizer and a fire retardant in a wide variety of settings and products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl)phosphate</span> Chemical compound

Tris(1,3-dichloroisopropyl)phosphate (TDCPP) is a chlorinated organophosphate. Organophosphate chemicals have a wide variety of applications and are used as flame retardants, pesticides, plasticizers, and nerve gases. TDCPP is structurally similar to several other organophosphate flame retardants, such as tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP) and tris(chloropropyl)phosphate (TCPP). TDCPP and these other chlorinated organophosphate flame retardants are all sometimes referred to as "chlorinated tris".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tris(2,3-dibromopropyl) phosphate</span> Chemical compound

Tris(2,3-dibromopropyl) phosphate ("tris") is a chemical once widely used as a flame retardant in plastics and textiles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vera Komarkova</span> Czechoslovak mountain climber

Vera Komarkova was a prominent Czech-American mountaineer and botanist. Credited as a pioneer of women's mountaineering, she was the first woman to summit Annapurna and Cho Oyu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Shaw (conservationist)</span> American scientist, explorer, conservationist, author (1943–2022)

Susan D. Shaw was an American environmental health scientist, marine toxicologist, explorer, ocean conservationist, and author. A Doctor of Public Health, she was a professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the School of Public Health at the State University of New York at Albany, and Founder/President of the Shaw Institute, a nonprofit scientific institution with a mission to improve human and ecological health through innovative science and strategic partnerships. Shaw is globally recognized for pioneering high-impact environmental research on ocean pollution, climate change, oil spills, and plastics that has fueled public policy over three decades. In 1983, with landscape photographer Ansel Adams, she published Overexposure, the first book to document the health hazards of photographic chemicals. Shaw is credited as the first scientist to show that brominated flame retardant chemicals used in consumer products have contaminated marine mammals and commercially important fish stocks in the northwest Atlantic Ocean. She became the first scientist to dive into the Gulf of Mexico oil slick following the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion to investigate the impacts of chemical dispersants used in response to the spill.

Silent Spring Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to studying and reporting primarily on breast cancer prevention, although its research covers other health-related topics as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Women's Himalayan Expedition</span> 1978 expedition to Annapurna

The American Women's Himalayan Expedition was a 1978 expedition to Annapurna which placed the first two women, and first Americans, on its summit. The expedition was led by Arlene Blum and consisted of thirteen women, and six sherpas. On October 15, the first summit team, composed of Vera Komarkova, Irene Beardsley, Mingma Tshering Sherpa and Chewang Ringjin Sherpa summitted Annapurna via the Dutch Route. The second summit team, Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz and Vera Watson, died during the climb.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz</span> English mountaineer and painter

Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz was a British mountaineer, painter, and lithography lecturer. She made the first ascent of Gasherbrum III, at the time the highest unclimbed mountain in the world. Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz died along with her climbing partner, Vera Watson, during an attempt on Annapurna I Central.

The Shaw Institute, formerly the Marine & Environmental Research Institute, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit scientific research organization based in Blue Hill, Maine and New York City. The institute conducts research into ocean pollution, flame retardants, microplastics and plastic pollution, sentinel species and climate change.

Irene Beardsley is an American mountaineer, and along with Vera Komarkova, the first woman to climb Annapurna, the tenth highest mountain in the world.

Vera Watson was an American computer programmer, mountaineer and rock climber who made the first woman's solo climb of Acongagua, the highest mountain in the Americas. She also made several first ascents in the Kenai Mountains in Alaska. She was a member of the successful first all-women team to climb Annapurna, but was killed along with her partner Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz while preparing to attempt the unclimbed central summit of the mountain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marija Frantar</span> Slovenian alpinist

Marija "Mariča" Sabolek Frantar (1956-1991), was a Slovenian alpinist who was one of Slovenia's most successful mountaineers, and the second Slovene woman to summit an eight-thousander. In 1990, she received the Stanko Bloudek award, Slovenia's highest state award for sport for her achievements in mountaineering.

Ingrid M. Baeyens is a Belgian mountaineer and physical therapist. She became the first woman to summit the South Face of Annapurna in 1991, and the first Belgian woman to summit Mount Everest in 1992.

References

  1. 1 2 Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life, page 344 Chapter 24
  2. 1 2 Blum, Arlene. Personal Interview. December 5, 2009.
  3. ↑ "Our People - Green Science Policy Institute". greensciencepolicy.org. Retrieved October 8, 2024.
  4. ↑ "Climb Every Mountain".
  5. ↑ Porter, Roger (2011). Thinking Reed, Centennial Essays By Graduates of Reed College. Portland Oregon: Reed College. ISBN   978-0-9824240-6-3.
  6. ↑ Blum, Arlene. "Endless Winter". Arlene Blum. Retrieved April 26, 2024.
  7. ↑ Osius, Alison (June 27, 2022). "Arlene Blum: What I've Learned". Climbing. Retrieved July 29, 2024.
  8. ↑ Blum, Arlene, Annapurna: A Woman's Place (Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1980) ISBN   0-87156-236-7
  9. ↑ "Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life". Arlene Blum. Retrieved April 26, 2024.
  10. ↑ Blum, Arlene D.; Uhlenbeck, Olke C.; Tinoco, I. (August 1972). "Circular dichroism study of nine species of transfer ribonucleic acid". Biochemistry. 11 (17): 3248–3256. doi:10.1021/bi00767a019. ISSN   0006-2960. PMID   4558706.
  11. ↑ Blum, Arlene D.; Smallcombe, Stephen H.; Baldwin, Robert L. (January 25, 1978). "Nuclear magnetic resonance evidence for a structural intermediate at an early stage in the refolding of ribonuclease A". Journal of Molecular Biology. 118 (3): 305–316. doi:10.1016/0022-2836(78)90230-9. ISSN   0022-2836. PMID   633362.
  12. ↑ Baldwin, Robert Lesh; Marine-Street, Natalie J. (July 11, 2018). Robert Lesh Baldwin: An Oral History. Stanford University Historical Society Collections. pp. 63–66.
  13. ↑ Blum, Arlene; Ames, Bruce N. (January 7, 1977). "Flame-Retardant Additives as Possible Cancer Hazards: The main flame retardant in children's pajamas is a mutagen and should not be used". Science. 195 (4273): 17–23. doi:10.1126/science.831254. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   831254.
  14. ↑ CPSC Bans TRIS-Treated Children's Garments Archived March 20, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  15. ↑ "Arlene Blum". California Museum. May 6, 2024. Retrieved July 13, 2024.
  16. ↑ Blum, Arlene (October 4, 2005). Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life. Scribner. p. 336. ISBN   978-0743258463.
  17. ↑ The New York Times: Chemical Suspected in Cancer Is in Baby Products
  18. ↑ Green Science Policy Institute (GSP)
  19. ↑ "Dr. Arlene Blum, Founder & Executive Director, Green Science Policy Institute". North Carolina State University Toxicology Program. November 27, 2023. Retrieved July 29, 2024.
  20. ↑ "Arlene Blum". Harvard School of Public Health: Hoffman Program on Chemicals and Health. July 13, 2015. Retrieved July 29, 2024.
  21. ↑ Blum, Arlene (November 19, 2006). "Chemical Burns". The New York Times. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
  22. ↑ Blum, Arlene (October 17, 2008). "Midnight's legacy". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
  23. ↑ Blum, Arlene (August 16, 2007). "Killer Couch Chemicals". HuffPost. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
  24. ↑ Blum, Arlene. "Our Mission and Goals." Archived April 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine Green Science Policy Institute. December 8, 2010
  25. ↑ Blum, Arlene; foreword by Maurice Herzog (1998). Annapurna, a woman's place (20th anniversary ed.). San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN   1-57805-022-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  26. ↑ Morris, Holly (October 2, 2005). "'Breaking Trail': Cliff Notes". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved July 13, 2024.
  27. ↑ Cortén, Dick (June 17, 2007). "Out of the lab to the top of the world; Berkeley biophysicist relishes first ascents". Berkeley Graduate Division. Retrieved July 13, 2024.
  28. ↑ Purpose Prize
  29. ↑ "Honorees: 2010 National Women's History Month". Women's History Month. National Women's History Project. 2010. Archived from the original on June 24, 2011. Retrieved November 14, 2011.
  30. ↑ Society of Woman Geographers
  31. ↑ Watters, Ron. "2005 Winners of the National Outdoor Book Awards". National Outdoor Book Awards. Retrieved July 13, 2024.
  32. ↑ Blum, Arlene. "About Arlene Blum." Arlene Blum. December 8, 2010
  33. ↑ Sierra Club Awards – List by Award
  34. ↑ Osius, Alison (April 11, 2012). "Beautiful minds: Blum, Reichardt, Kendall, Molenaar in Mountaineering Hall of Fame". Rock and Ice. Archived from the original on April 12, 2012. Retrieved April 11, 2012.
  35. 1 2 "Winners and Fellows: Arlene Blum." Encore Careers: The Purpose Prize. December 8, 2010
  36. ↑ Cole, Bryan Gunnar; Whelan, Jon J. (2015). Stink! (documentary). USA: Net Return Entertainment. 30:00 minutes in. Retrieved July 29, 2024.
  37. ↑ "PDF | Characterizing streamflow variability: distributions, trends, and ecological impacts | ID: 7m01bz11n | Tufts Digital Library". dl.tufts.edu. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  38. ↑ "Interior Department Welcomes New Biden-Harris Appointees". www.doi.gov. March 13, 2023. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
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