environmental health
Posted September 9th, 2010 by Janelle Sorensen
Our children are facing an historically unprecedented rise in chronic disease and illness such as cancer, autism, asthma, birth defects, and learning and developmental disabilities. Credible scientific evidence increasingly points to chemicals used in everyday products, building materials, and furnishings as causing and contributing to many of these diseases. Yet, when it comes to de-toxifying [...]
Posted August 12th, 2010 by Renee Blanchard
I’m starting to feel like a broken record, but I guess that’s what happens when you really care about something. Children are a vulnerable population. They eat more food, breathe more air, and drink more liquids per pound than adults. They are also more curious exploring the world around them in more tactile ways than [...]
Posted August 6th, 2010 by Alice Shabecoff
Part 2 Privatizing profits and socializing costs. Businesses are adept at passing along the true costs of their pollution onto the rest of us. Parents and the health care system pick up a tab of $54.9 billion a year for four childhood disorders: lead poisoning, cancer, asthma, learning and behavioral disorders. Special ed (half the [...]
Posted July 2nd, 2010 by Alice Shabecoff
Part 1 As soon as a teenage girl walks into her pediatrician’s office, he will suggest another vaccination, to be delivered through a series of shots spaced out over six months. This time the vaccine is Gardasil, intended to protect her from being infected by the human papilloma virus, HPV, which might cause cervical cancer [...]
Posted May 12th, 2010 by Mia Davis
If someone were to ask you, “What’s that lovely fragrance you’re wearing?” would you say, “Oh, that’s hormone disruptors, allergens and chemicals that have never been assessed for safety. It’s my signature scent.” Of course you wouldn’t. But there is a good chance that reply would be accurate. Not So Sexy: The health risks of [...]
Posted May 10th, 2010 by Renee Blanchard
Government is here to do the things we can’t do for ourselves, like provide resources and mechanisms to clean up a gigantic oil spill or maintain traffic lights. In order to continue to flourish as a functional society, we need to prevent economic and environmental disasters from occurring in the first place and not simply continue to spend resources and money mitigating the impacts of their aftermath.
Posted May 9th, 2010 by Alice Shabecoff
In our natural instinct to protect our children, we sometimes (often?) get waylaid by products that end up doing more harm than good, but make a nice profit for the manufacturer. A chemical called triclosan is a case in point. It’s supposed to vanquish “germs,” that is, bacteria or microbes. You’ll find it in liquid [...]
Posted May 2nd, 2010 by Renee Blanchard
On Friday April 30, the Governor of West Virginia held a press conference to announce the secured funding of a new elementary school. Located 300 feet from a coal ash silo due to the practice of mountaintop removal, Marsh Fork Elementary has been the center of a controversial school siting fight for more than 6 [...]
Posted April 26th, 2010 by Renee Blanchard
Today is National Healthy Schools Day. A day to learn, discuss, and implement healthier and safer practices in our nation’s school. Eliminating toxic chemicals and taking on more environmentally friendly standards isn’t always simple, but there are several ways to get started. Here are three. (1) Get your children involved: Our kids are pretty damn [...]
Posted April 1st, 2010 by Janelle Sorensen
In a turn of events not even Nostradamus could foresee, Cal Dooley, President and CEO of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), today announced that the millions of dollars the industry trade group has been using to lobby against policies that protect public health will now be used instead to research and develop safer chemicals. “We’ve [...]
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