Janette Sherman facts for kids
Janette Dexter Sherman (born July 10, 1930 – died November 7, 2019) was an important American doctor, scientist, writer, and activist. She studied how chemicals and radiation affect people's health. Dr. Sherman was a leader in understanding how jobs and the environment can make people sick.
She researched many serious topics, including pesticides, nuclear radiation, birth defects, breast cancer, and illnesses caused by toxins in homes. She often helped in legal cases, sharing her expert knowledge about how dangerous chemicals, polluted water, and toxic pesticides harmed workers.
In the 1970s, while working as a doctor in Detroit, she noticed that many of her patients, especially those in the car industry, had similar health problems. This led her to investigate and prove that their illnesses were linked to their jobs. Her work helped create new rules to protect workers and led to banning certain dangerous chemicals from workplaces. Her detailed medical and legal records are now kept at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, which is a very important collection. She also taught about cancer at Wayne State University.
Early Life and Education
Janette Dexter Miller was born in Buffalo, New York. Her parents, Wilma and Frank Miller, were both pharmacists. After her parents divorced, Janette lived with her mother in Warsaw, New York.
She studied biology and chemistry at Western Michigan College of Education (now Western Michigan University), graduating in 1952. That same year, she married John Bigelow and moved to San Francisco. There, she worked as a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, which is now called the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Janette decided to go to medical school after a boss at the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory encouraged her. She was one of only six women in her medical school class at Wayne State University, where she graduated in 1964.
Important Books and Work
Dr. Sherman wrote several important books. In 1988, she published Chemical Exposure and Disease: Diagnostic and Investigative Techniques. This book helped doctors understand how to diagnose illnesses caused by chemical exposure.
In 2000, she wrote Life’s Delicate Balance: Causes and Prevention of Breast Cancer, focusing on how to prevent breast cancer. She also edited a book called Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment in 2007, which looked at the effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Personal Life and Hobbies
Janette Sherman had two children, Connie Bigelow and Charles Bigelow. She also had two stepchildren, Kevin Nevinger and Donna Kellogg, and five grandchildren.
In 1986, she started playing the cello. She enjoyed it so much that she played with a volunteer symphony orchestra in McLean, Virginia, for several years.
Later Years
Janette Dexter Sherman passed away on November 7, 2019, at the age of 89. She died at an assisted-living center in Alexandria, Virginia.
