
A Young Life, Polluted
Clip: Season 9 Episode 903 | 2m 7sVideo has Closed Captions
A young woman’s life is impacted by pollution from her hometown in rural Appalachia.
A young woman hosts an outdoor potluck and describes how her life has been impacted by thyroid disease caused by pollution in her hometown in rural Appalachia.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Support for Reel South is made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Center for Asian American Media and by SouthArts.

A Young Life, Polluted
Clip: Season 9 Episode 903 | 2m 7sVideo has Closed Captions
A young woman hosts an outdoor potluck and describes how her life has been impacted by thyroid disease caused by pollution in her hometown in rural Appalachia.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- I'm gonna situate it in between these so it doesn't fly away.
[gasps] This one needs a cover.
- [Interviewer] Nice, a tent, a little tent?
- Awesome, well, thank you guys, everyone, for coming.
I'm really excited that these have been able to keep happening, and I'm excited 'cause we're gonna keep doing them, so.
[laughs] I've got some rotisserie chicken and like salad stuff and then Trisha's awesome salad, and then there's all kinds of other food.
So bone apple teeth.
[laughs] As I like to say.
[group chattering softly] My whole life, my goal was to be able to help people the way that I was helped when I was younger, and I was very excited to start my career in youth services, working in the same library that I grew up in.
- [Participant] And one of the staff picks with these- - [Alyssa] I started to feel very fatigued, and I just lost my energy, and I started feeling unwell a good portion of the time.
I chalked it up to, "This is just the way that life is.
This is just what happens when you start a full-time job and you really put your heart and soul into it.
It's, you know, maybe this is just the way that it goes."
I was connected to a primary care physician after not having one for a while.
My thyroid was so diseased and so swollen, the only thing to do would be to have the thyroid removed because at this point, there's no way to really save it.
It just needs to come out.
The longer you leave it, the more likely it is to turn cancerous.
[eerie music] [ambient music]
Video has Closed Captions
Preview: S9 Ep903 | 9s | Members of a rural Virginia town are exposed to contamination from a nearby Army plant. (9s)
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipSupport for PBS provided by:
Support for Reel South is made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Center for Asian American Media and by SouthArts.