Hometown Hero: Lester Breslow (1915- 2012) An Appreciation

SUSAN CLOKE
Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror

You may have seen Dr. Breslow, a man in his 90’s, taking his regular walk on the Boardwalk in Santa Monica.  Lester Breslow, a physician who pioneered the field of public health, was following his own advice for a long life.  

“Do not smoke.  Drink in moderation.  Sleep seven to eight hours.  Exercise at least moderately.  Eat regular meals.  Maintain a moderate weight.  Eat breakfast.”

These rules, Dr. Breslow’s “7 Healthy Habits” became the foundation for many government programs designed to promote good health and longevity.  What may seem common knowledge to us now is, in large part, common knowledge because of Dr. Breslow’s work.

 The “7 Healthy Habits” for longevity were based on data from the Alameda County Study.  The demographics of Alameda County were reflective of national demographics and that made it a good site for the study.

 In 1965 almost 7000 residents of Alameda County CA were randomly selected and asked to participate in a survey regarding their health habits.  Did they smoke?  How much did they drink?  How much exercise did they get?  What did they eat?  When did they eat?  How much did they sleep?

The first survey was used to create a baseline.  Follow up surveys, coded for anonymity, collected data over a 20 year period and were used to correlate health habits with disease incidence and longevity.

The methodology used in the study provided a mathematical proof that life style, good health and longevity are linked.  His work expanded the definition of public health and explored the inter-relationship of the community, the environment and the individual.

Dr. Breslow had intended to practice psychiatry but he was having doubts about his choice and his mentor at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Alex Blumstein, who became a life long friend, encouraged him to go into the field of public health.

Born in Bismarck, North Dakota in 1915, he was the oldest of four children, his father a pharmacist, his mother a schoolteacher. 

The family moved to the Twin Cities in Minnesota in 1927.  The first in his family to go to college, Lester Breslow received four degrees from the University of Minnesota.  His undergraduate degree in science, his medical degree, his master’s degree in public health and then, much later in life, an honorary degree for his contributions to the field of medicine.

World War II interrupted his career, as it did to everyone who lived through those times.  From 1943 to 1945 he served as a Captain under General MacArthur.  With his training in epidemiology he worked as a physician and also developed preventative medicine programs to protect troops in the tropics from getting malaria and Dengue fever.   He was also responsible for the clearing of returning troops for communicable diseases when they returned to port in San Francisco.

Dr. Breslow was discharged in 1945 and reunited with his first wife and three children.  He wanted to continue his work in the field of public health and talked to the CA State Health Department about his ideas for the prevention of chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.

At first, the CA State Health Department sent him to the San Joaquin Valley to study equine encephalitis and to keep it contained.  Dr. Breslow continued to work for the CA State Health Department for 22 years, rose through the ranks and soon became the Head of the Bureau of Chronic Diseases.

In the post war period the CA State Health Department created the CA Tumor Registry was established to track disease incidence, treatment and survival and that was how the rising trend in the incidence of lung cancer in American women was seen.

In 1965 Governor Pat Brown appointed Dr. Breslow to the position of Director of the CA State Health Department.  But the Director is an appointed position and when Governor Brown was no longer governor, Dr. Breslow became a professor at the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA.  It was 1968. By 1972 he became Dean of the School, a position he held until his retirement at age 65.

His idea of retirement was an active one.  He kept on working because it made him happy to do so, doing research, mentoring students and giving lectures and talks.

He loved to be on the go and loved the theater and to discover new restaurants.  He also tended his garden and walked every day.  He followed his own rules – no smoking, ate breakfast, sleep 7-8 hours per night, no snacking, weight to height balance, alcohol in moderation and exercise.

Dr. Breslow received great recognition in his lifetime, he was the advisor to Presidents, the recipient of prestigious medical awards including the Lienhard Award from the Institute of Medicine, the Sedgwick Medal from the American Public Health Association and the University Service Medal.  He died in April of 2012, at the age of 97.  His long life is a testament to his work and we are his beneficiaries.

My thanks to Devra Breslow.  She is a talented, professional woman in her own right and Lester’s wife of 44 years.  Without her help this column could not have been written.

What Say You? Santa Monica College

SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror

Pepper spray?  Used on Santa Monica College students?  How could that be?  It’s not who we are, not as a city, not as a community and not as an institution of higher learning.  But it happened.  According to the SMFD, who were called to the Campus, thirty people suffered the effects of pepper spray.  Most of the injured were treated on campus by the SMFD.  Three people were taken to the hospital to be treated and were released.  The College announced it would pay any medical bills.

I believe I speak for the many, both at the College and in the community, when I say I am sorry.  As a member of the Santa Monica community I apologize to the students who were hurt and to any students who were frightened or were intimidated into being silent by their fear.

The College Police Department will hold an internal investigation of the officer and the incident, as they must.  And the College will hold an independent review.  I think that’s appropriate and I hope one result will be the preparation of policy and protocol documents protecting students, their right to protest, and reaffirming the feeling of safety and belonging for students that has long been the hallmark of the College.

Why were students protesting?  They came, most, but not all, to oppose the concept of “contract classes.”   Simply put, students currently pay $46 per class unit.  Contract classes would be offered to students who couldn’t get into the classes they needed/wanted and would cost $180 per class unit.  Due to the already deep cuts in State funding for community college education students often don’t get the classes they want.

For some students, such as students enrolled in State Universities who are coming to SMC to take summer classes that will transfer to the 4-year schools, these classes would be a bargain.  For most Santa Monica College students it would be unaffordable.

The issue of contract classes surfaced at the March 6 meeting of the Santa Monica College Board of Trustees. The Trustees had been looking for ways to keep the doors open for students and teachers, to provide options for students who needed classes.  They saw contract classes as a practical alternative made necessary in response to the devastating decline in education funding from the State, which has caused a tragic number of students to be turned away from community colleges.

The Trustees approved a summer, contract class pilot program. Approximately ten students leaders who attended the meeting expressed their opposition.

By the Trustee meeting of April 3 the students, who had been at the March 6 meeting, were joined by approximately 100 students, mostly coming to voice their opposition to the concept of contract classes, saying they saw it as eroding the mission of the community college as a place where education was available to all.

It was at the April 3 meeting, when more students showed up than the meeting room could accommodate, that students waiting to get in were pepper sprayed.  An overflow room, with an audio feed, had been set up and some students went into that room but many students wanted to be in the same room as the Trustees, saying it was important the Trustees see their faces during the discussion and vote.

The details are in dispute.  Some are saying students were too loud, pushed too hard and rushed the door.   Others are saying there was no threatening action on the part of the students that could justify the use of pepper spray by the Santa Monica College police officer.  A video, on the LA Times website, shows students standing in the doorway and hallway and chanting, “Let us in.”   Next the video shows students running and crying and people calling out for help.  Some students are chanting, “Shame.”  It is a chaotic scene.

The Pepper Spray Incident, as it has come to be known, startled students, the local community and made the national news.  It led to a week of campus protests, press conferences and action.  It focused attention on the contract class proposal.

On Friday, April 6, right before Spring Break and with students and faculty preparing to go home for Easter and Passover, the Trustees held a special meeting.  This time the meeting was held at the Main Stage on Campus, an auditorium that accommodates several hundred people.  It was full.  No one was turned away.

The meeting began with College President Chui Tsang speaking movingly of his own start at a community college.  An immigrant, he became fluent in English, went on to a university, earned his doctorate and is now President of the College.  He said, “I want all students to have the opportunities I had.”

President Tsang presented the Trustees with a recommendation that they cancel the proposed, summer pilot program and postpone implementing any self-funded classes pending a campus-wide dialogue.

Board Chair Dr. Margaret Quiñones-Perez then opened the public hearing and for over two hours students from Santa Monica College, from Community College Associations and faculty members spoke.

Most students spoke of their opposition to the concept of contract classes saying, “providing special access to education to those who can pay extra fees hands the politicians in Sacramento a way to further decrease public funding for the community colleges.  What you hope would be a short-term action to fill a gap is a funding mechanism they will seize and make permanent.”

 “You are not creating a system of options, you are creating a system of entitlements.  Sacramento should be looking at closing the corporate loophole in Prop 13, not at further cutting funding for education.  We should be looking for community and college partnerships.”

Students told trustees they shouldn’t try to solve problems for Sacramento, but should instead stand together, trustees, faculty and students and that together they would have a strong voice.

Students repeatedly asked to be included in the decisions that affect them and thanked the trustees for holding the special meeting.  Jasmine Delgado, the Vice-President of the Students Association said, “I am here to talk about the future.  Through shared governance we can create innovative, local solutions.  We can do this.”

There were also students, although fewer in numbers, who supported the idea of contract classes.  One student, here on a visa, said he was required to be enrolled in a certain number of classes or he would lose his visa and be deported and he was willing to pay extra for the contract classes.  Another student said that they too were willing to pay more so they could get, in a timely way, the classes they needed to transfer to a four-year college.

Faculty speakers were divided on the issue of contract classes, with more of the faculty speakers in favor.  But faculty and student speakers spoke in one voice of the need for dialogue and for working together. 

Speakers also spoke to the pepper spray incident.  One faculty member said to the Trustees, “It was well know in advance of the April 3 meeting that a large number of students wanted to speak why the heck didn’t you hold your meeting in a larger venue?”

Student comments ranged from,  “I attempted to attend the April 3 meeting.  I want you to know that we didn’t rush the police officer at the door, we didn’t provoke his actions and we were completely unprepared for the pepper spray   Thank you for hearing us today.”  To the opposite extreme of a student saying he “knew the students had been deliberately provocative.”

At the end of the meeting it was clear that the Trustees, had gotten out ahead of the students on this issue, but were now listening.  In the words of one student,  “let us step back and re-imagine the future.”  

It was a rocky week at the college.  With good people all around, with educators wanting to teach and students wanting an education the College succeeded in coming to a solution that recognized the democratic principle of the consent of the governed.   The Trustees voted unanimously to cancel the summer pilot program and to postpone offering any contract classes pending a full, campus-wide discussion of the issue.

I say we can help by adding our voices to those of the students, faculty and staff at the college.  We can urge Sacramento legislators, as was suggested in the meeting, to look at the corporate loopholes in Proposition13.  We can support the tax measure Governor Brown has proposed, which will raise funding for higher education.  We can let our elected officials know we support higher education.

What Say You?