February 26, 2025
Interview by Julia Schaletzky, PhD, Executive Director, Molecular Therapeutics Initiative, Adj. Professor of Molecular Therapeutics
Mountaineer, scientist, and environmental health advocate Arlene Blum has followed her instincts and curiosity to scale multiple summits
When Arlene Blum was a junior at Reed College in the mid 1960s, she met a cute guy in a class whose passion was mountaineering. When he invited her to join him on a climb of Washington’s Mt. Adams, she jumped at the opportunity, although to that point she had barely climbed anything higher than a staircase.
“I had no idea what I was getting into,” says Blum, Ph.D. '71, Chemistry,and the founder and Executive Director of the environmental health nonprofit Green Science Policy Institute. “We started at three in the morning, and I was gasping out loud by the time we had even left the parking lot. But I was determined. We were on the glacier when the sun rose, and it was this magical world of blue and green, the most beautiful place I've ever been.”
That ascent is a prime example of how Blum, 80, has led her life — jump at opportunities, take risks, and trust that her belief in herself would win out.
“All my life I would get curious, dream up something that I think should happen, and then I get very determined, and make it happen,” says Blum from her home high in the Berkley Hills.
Blum has parlayed that go-for-the gusto, can-do attitude into a remarkable life and career. She is a trailblazing world-class mountaineer, scientist, and influential nonprofit leader. As a climber, she co-led the first all-women expedition to successfully scale Mt. Denali in Alaska. She led the first American — and first all-female — ascent of Annapurna 1 in Nepal, at 26,545 feet, often considered the most dangerous of the world's highest peaks,while simultaneously earning her PhD from Berkeley and conducting research that led to the banning of carcinogens in everyday items.
Her accomplishments have earned Blum the highest honors in both mountaineering and chemistry. She is a recipient of the Sierra Club’s prestigious Francis P. Farquhar Mountaineering Award as well as the Society of Woman Geographers’ Gold Award (other recipients include Margaret Meade, Amelia Earhart, and Jane Goodall). For her science and advocacy work, she has earned numerous accolades including honorary doctorates, induction into the California Hall of Fame, and the City of Berkeley’s Benjamin Ide Wheeler Award, bestowed annually on Berkeley’s “most useful citizen.”
A coiled spring
Blum grew up in an overprotective, religious family in Iowa and Chicago. She was raised in a culture that considered women largely support teams for men and children, not as their own actors.
When she was in religious school in 5th grade, she badly wanted the teacher to call on her to read the morning prayer. But there was a problem — only boys were permitted to do so and the teacher kept ignoring her waving hand. Blum was incensed. Her grandfather had taught her the prayers and she knew them as well, probably even better than, any of the boys. Disillusioned, she asked her grandfather if she could quit the school, and he said yes.
“That was very empowering,” she says. “It was one of my earliest memories of sexism and injustice and made a deep impression.”
That moment gave her the confidence to forge her own path. In 1962 she took the train across the country to attend Reed College in Oregon. At Reed, Blum was one of only four women chemistry majors and met her first woman mentor, her chemistry professor with a PhD from MIT. Blum decided she wanted to pursue a doctorate in chemistry too. She also launched her climbing career, traversing peaks in the Pacific Northwest and Mexico.
“When I left for college, I was like a coiled spring, full of energy and curiosity,” she says. “I got to college and the spring burst open, and I realized I could do whatever I wanted to do.”
After Reed, Blum entered MIT but found the rampant sexism discouraging and transferred to UC Berkeley, where she bonded with other women graduate students in the sciences and earned her PhD in biophysical chemistry in 1971. She also thrived outdoors, jumping in a car every Friday night to head to the Sierra Nevada’s to climb, getting home Monday morning just in time for her first class.
In 1976, Blum began working in the lab of legendary UC Berkeley biochemist Bruce Ames, who pioneered tests for carcinogens in cancer-causing substances. He was beginning to study Tris, a chemical used as a flame retardant in children’s pajamas and invited Blum to work with him.
“I quickly learned that some of the strongest mutagens ever tested were in the pajamas,” she says. “Little girls across America wore a pair to bed and the next day it would be in their urine. It was shocking.”
At the same time, Blum joined an expedition to become the first American woman to summit Mt. Everest (she made it to 24,700 feet, setting an altitude record for American women). She co-wrote a paper on Tris for Science and then promptly flew to Nepal. One day at a high camp staging area, a package arrived for her — it was the proof of her article. She marked it up and sent it winging back to America. A couple months later she was appearing on The Today Show and Good Morning America. Shortly thereafter the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the flame retardant from children’s sleepwear.
Taking on toxins
In 1980 Blum was feeling burned out and discouraged by the Reagan administration’s attacks on research and science, and she took a break that lasted 26 years. She spent a year walking across the Himalayas, raised her daughter Annalise, now an environmental engineer, and conducted leadership training for engineers and scientists in Silicon Valley, using stories and metaphors from her many mountain ascents.
In 2007, when Blum’s cat Midnight developed feline hyperthyroidism, she wondered whether chemicals in Midnight’s favorite couches and cushions may be a contributing factor. She discovered that both Tris and new toxic flame retardants were lurking in the upholstery foam of much of the furniture and cushions sold in America, as well as many children’s toys and products. She promptly threw out all her furniture. “My daughter wouldn’t bring friends home because there was nowhere to sit!”
Per her MO, curious and energized, Blum decided to scale a new peak by reducing the unnecessary use of flame retardants and other toxics prevalent in common household items. Despite the fact she had no experience leading a nonprofit, Blum raised the funding and formed the Green Science Policy Institute, with the mission of facilitating the responsible use of chemicals, disseminating unbiased fact-based data, building partnerships among scientists, policymakers, businesses and other public interest groups, and serve as a watchdog for the reduction of harmful classes of chemicals in everyday products. In 2014, in part as a result of the Institute’s work, California revised its standards for children’s products and furniture so flame retardants were no longer needed.
A woman’s place is on top
Today, Blum is still going full speed ahead, running the Institute (it is currently attempting to update the 54-year old law leading to toxic chemicals in the upholstery in all 22 brands of automobiles tested), cross-country skiing, hiking five to six miles a day in Tilden Park, and lecturing. She has also launched a new passion project, in honor of her recent 80th birthday: an environmental health “action tank” comprised of the top echelon of experienced leaders in science with the goal of changing government policy, business manufacturing and purchasing processes to eliminate carcinogens from our products. She enjoys sharing her insights culled from her personal journey with aspiring women scientists and environmental health leaders.
“To believe in oneself and realizing what we are capable of is the first step,” Blum says. “I tell young women if you feel empowered inside, you can largely ignore sexism. I always thought if somebody told me I couldn't do something, it was their problem, not mine.
“Like climbing a mountain, doing anything challenging requires taking one small step at a time. If you know where the summit is, and you start going in that direction, believe in yourself and not be swayed by the storms and the avalanches and the yetis, you will achieve your goals.”
Schaletzky interviewing Blum, photo credit Julia Schaletzky
Denali Ascent
Blum on the summit of Denali in 1970, where she co-led the first-ever women's expedition to the top, photo courtsey of Arlene Blum
Schaletzky interviewing Blum, photo credit Sophia Schaletzky
Mt. Everest
Blum in 1976 on her attempt to be the first American woman to summit Mt. Everest, photo courtsey of Arlene Blum
Schaletzky interviewing Blum, photo credit Shophia Schaletzky
A woman’s place is on top
Blum helped fund the all-women Annapurna expedition by selling T-shirts, photo credit Julia Schaletzky