New Health Studies Guide for Community Groups

The Boston University Superfund Research Program (BU SRP)recently made available the first four chapters of a new health studies guide targeted to community groups. The new guidebook, called Is a Health Study the Answer for Your Community? A guide for making informed decisions is available at www.busrp.org/hsg. For many years, environmental health scientists at BU included Dr. David Ozonoff and Dr. Richard Clapp worked with community groups to address health problems in communities. This experience together with input from many experts and organizations including CHEJ was used to develop this Health Studies Guide. The intent is to assist community groups and individuals who think that some form of environmental health investigation or health study may be useful or necessary in their community.

The guide begins by helping readers consider factors that might influence their decision about whether to do a health study. Readers are encouraged to thoughtfully define their goals, to consider whether a health study will be useful in meeting these goals, and, if so, to choose the appropriate kind of study. The guide includes a wide menu of health study types and helps you think through which one might be best to address the questions you are trying to answer. It takes you through the process of choosing and designing a study, but it is not a complete how-to guide. It does not, for example, explain how to do your own epidemiologic study or risk assessment, nor does it describe how to conduct a health survey, though helpful resources are included in the Appendix. One chapter explains how to evaluate the strength of a study’s results and how to think about what the results mean. The guide closes with a glossary to help sort through various technical terms and jargon.

The authors readily acknowledge that a health study may not be the answer to the fundamental questions that you are asking about the health problems in your family or in your community. Instead they offer alternatives to traditional health studies that may help achieve community goals. This guide should be a useful tool not only for those who are contemplating a study, but also for those who are involved in a study or are the subjects of one. It will help you think about your expectations for the study’s findings, costs, and time frame. We couldn’t agree more with this advice “Above all, if you decide on a health study you will want to organize and work with your entire community so that it is meaningful to you.”

Two additional chapters are still being developed and are expected to be completed in the near future. The authors welcome your comments and input.

Our Children’s Schools Matter – When We Fail-They Fail

It is sad that across the country as new youngsters are entering school they are placed in harm’s way. Their emotions are mixed worried about leaving their home, daily environment and routine, while at the same time excited about their new experiences.  But toxic dangers in the air or nearby are not part of their mantra.

Yet in schools across the country parents are concerned that the location of the school building will threaten the health of their children and possible their children’s ability to lean. For example, in Richmond, Virginia there is a petition, asking the Richmond School Board to ensure the preschoolers of Norrell Elementary, near a landfill are being educated in a safe environment.  Although the petition has gained some national attention to an issue, there hasn’t been any resolution to longstanding concerns to Richmond, Virginia residents.  It hasn’t provided the pressure yet to force authorities to answer parents questions.

It has with 27,370 signatures created awareness about schools on landfills across the country and beyond. And, signatures on this petition has provided energy to beleaguered city residents who feel like they’ve been disregarded and disrespected by authorities.  A new round of testing has been committed of the school building grounds near the landfill but there is no evidence of safety.

“Local resident Kim Allen said, these developments have empowered us as we’ve come to know ourselves as people who make a difference in our community.  I, and other private citizens like me, are lending a voice to concern for the safety of children, children like my four-year-old nephew Malachi. We speak on behalf of ourselves and our families. Being a private citizen is a privilege and a powerful place to stand when addressing the safety of the children who attend Norrell Elementary school.

The question I asked myself was, Would I be okay with Malachi being in the Norrell School building for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week?  My answer . . . I don’t know. Given that concern and the urgent nature of the matter, I helped to initiate the petition.”

Despite working for over thirty years at CHEJ I’m still shocked by the blatant disregard for children’s health year after year.  Schools continue to be built on or near dumpsites like Ms. Allen speaks about or the school built in Detroit literally on top of a Superfund site. Most of these schools, not surprisingly, serve low wealth and communities of color.

Further harming everyone in the school family, when the children fail at the standardized testing it is the parents or the teachers fault — not the fault of the chemicals that inhabit their ability to learn or cause them to be sick and absent too often from school to keep up.

In Houston, Texas their recently built high school, which houses 3,500 students, is encircled by a dozen chemical facilities.  So close that if there is an accident or release at any of them, the children are trapped, left only to put wet paper towels along the window sills.  Yet, the releases from these facilities are constant and as children enter, leave or go outdoors for recess or sports they are exposed to air pollution daily.  Like the other schools when these young people fail at meeting the goals of standardized testing their parents and teachers are blamed.

It is time for all Americans to stand up and speak out about putting our children in harm’s way.  It is our tax dollars that are building these schools and we should have laws that compel schools authorities to build places of learning in safe environments.  Enough is enough.  Our children matter and are the future of our country.

Petrochemical America: Picturing Cancer Alley

Last month, when news outlets around the country covered our press event revealing toxic phthalates in children’s Back To School supplies, we were proud of the work we’d done. Tens of thousands of Americans had been educated about how to avoid real risks to their children’s health.

Abandoned trailer, Mississippi River, Near Dow Chemical Plant, Plaquemine, LA, 1998. From Petrochemical America, photographs by Richard Misrach, Ecological Atlas by Kate Orff (Aperture 2012).

But as so often happens, absent from the coverage were the stories of the people who live near the chemical plants that produce the vinyl, whose land, air, and water has been harmed for decades by some of the most profitable companies in the world.

This month, CHEJ is proud to help present those stories in a way they have never been presented before.

Petrochemical America: Picturing Cancer Alley is a groundbreaking new collaboration by photographer Richard Misrach and landscape architect Kate Orff, debuting at Aperture Gallery and Bookstore in NYC tonight. Through haunting photographs and innovative composite images employing ecological and sociological data, gathered over the course of 14 years on the banks of the Mississippi river in Louisiana, the book and gallery exhibition provide a moving and deeply informed portrait of the American “sacrifice zones” upon which our use of plastics, oil, and gas depends. Read more about Plaquemine, LA, pictured above.

For those in New York City, we invite you to attend two free, upcoming gallery events:

• Tuesday, Sept. 25th, at 6:30pm: A panel discussion with our own Mike Schade, joined by Ms. Orff and Wilma Subra of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network.
• Tuesday, Oct. 2nd, at 6:30 pm: A talk and screening of the excellent and darkly comic film Blue Vinyl, with author David Rosner and landscape designer Gena Wirth.

Both events are free and include access to the exhibit. They will take place at Aperture Gallery and Bookstore, 547 West 27th Street, New York, NY.

Human mismanagement is turning lush cypress trees into ghostly poles, jeopardizing Louisiana’s bayou ecologies, local economies, and cultures. Requiem for a Bayou. From Petrochemical America, photographs by Richard Misrach, Ecological Atlas by Kate Orff (Aperture 2012).

For our supporters around the country, we encourage you to explore the content of the book and consider purchasing a copy. Aperture Foundation is nonprofit, and book sales help sustain its exhibitions, books, and magazine.

As we continue to advocate in New York City to get PVC out of new construction, renovation, and school supplies in our public schools, projects like Petrochemical America help us and our supporters keep in mind the full scale of what’s at stake in shifting to a safer, more sane, and more just material economy.

Do Norrell Elementary preschoolers need gas masks more than backpacks?

Norrell Elementary, the school where my four-year-old nephew (in the photo above) would have been assigned to start preschool on Monday, was built on a landfill as a separate school for black children and has been shut down twice for being unsafe. Yet, without any opportunity for public input, the Richmond School Board is continuing a long legacy of racism and environmental pollution associated with Norrell by re-opening the school. Read more sign their petition.

News release: Hidden Toxic Chemicals in Children’s School Supplies

New Report on Toxic Chemicals in Kids’ Products:

Hidden Toxic Chemicals Linked to Asthma and Birth Defects Found in Children’s “Back-to-School” Supplies

Laboratory Tests Reveal Levels Higher Than Deemed Safe in Toys

New Guide to Safer Products Released

(New York, NY) A brand new report reveals that toxic chemicals linked to asthma and birth defects that are banned in toys were found to be widespread in children’s vinyl back-to-school supplies.

Seventy-five percent of children’s school supplies tested in a laboratory had elevated levels of toxic phthalates, including popular Disney, Spiderman, and Dora branded school supplies such as vinyl lunchboxes, backpacks, 3-ring binders, raincoats, and rainboots. Hidden Hazards: Toxic Chemicals Inside Children’s Vinyl Back-to-School Supplies was released in New York City today outside of Kmart, where some of the school supplies were purchased.

“Our investigation found elevated levels of toxic phthalates widespread in children’s school supplies, including Disney and Spider-Man lunchboxes and backpacks.  These dangerous chemicals manufactured by Exxon Mobil have no place in our children’s school supplies.  Unfortunately, while phthalates have been banned in children’s toys, similar safeguards don’t yet exist to keep them out of lunchboxes, backpacks and other children’s school supplies.  It’s time for Congress to move forward and pass the Safe Chemicals Act to protect our children from toxic exposure,” says Mike Schade from the Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ), author of the new report, Hidden Hazards: Toxic Chemicals Inside Children’s Vinyl Back-to-School Supplies. CHEJ collaborated on the report with the Empire State Consumer Project.

“It is disturbing that millions of young children are being exposed to these toxic chemicals with no enforcement to protect them,” said Judy Braiman of the Empire State Consumer Project, co-publisher of the report.

The Honorable Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) was at the new report’s release event, and says, “School supplies are supposed to help our children with their education, they shouldn’t be harming their health. We don’t allow high levels of these toxic chemicals in children’s toys and we certainly shouldn’t allow them in back-to-school products. When kids take their lunch to school this fall, they shouldn’t be carrying it in a lunchbox laden with anything other than a nutritious meal, packed by mom.”  Senator Schumer is a co-sponsor of the Safe Chemicals Act, new legislation that would reform our nation’s broken chemical safety system.   Senator Schumer also sent a letter to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) today urging the agency to complete their review of EPA’s proposal to classify phthalates as “chemicals that present or may present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment.”

“The report released by the Center for Health, Environment & Justice informs us, as parents, teachers, family members of schoolchildren, of the hazardous chemicals that are found in various back-to-school supplies.   Children’s school supplies should be free of chemicals , such as phthalates, that are dangerous to their health and have been linked to cause chronic diseases such as asthma, obesity, cancer and more.  We cannot afford to put the lives of the children at risk and must urge the City to pass laws that prevent these toxics to be part of the everyday lives of our children,” said Council Member Robert Jackson, Chair of the Education Committee.

“The New York State Parent Teacher Association has adopted resolutions calling for the reduction of toxic materials in schools and is pleased to support the release of this information to the public and urges everyone to reduce their families’ exposure to phthalates by choosing phthalate-free products. The Back-to-School Guide to PVC-Free School Supplies released by CHEJ is one source to find those products,” says Sue Rau, New York State Parent Teacher Association.

“Phthalates are chemicals that have been linked to asthma, ADHD, and other chronic health problems in children. This new report has now shown that many common products specifically intended for children have high levels of phthalates. It is imperative that parents are educated about how to protect their children by buying safer PVC-free school supplies, and that our lawmakers pass legislation to protect children from the long-term health effects of phthalate toxicity,” said pediatric neurologist Dr Maya Shetreat-Klein, Assistant Clinical Professor of Neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

“Toxic chemicals, like phthalates, are hidden in the school supplies that we buy for our kids and that is a real problem. Toxic chemicals and kids shouldn’t mix! WE ACT for Environmental Justice has partnered with the Columbia Children’s Environmental Health Center on studies that show how phthalates exposure on women and children in Harlem, Washington Heights and the South Bronx can cause developmental delays and heighten our children’s risk of diabetes, obesity and asthma,” comments Dr. Jalonne L. White-Newsome, Environmental Justice Federal Policy Analyst, WE Act for Environmental Justice.

“As a mom, I am horrified to know that Spider-Man and Dora could be associated with highly toxic chemicals,” said Penelope Jagessar Chaffer, Director of the film Toxic Baby. “As a filmmaker who has worked on this issue for years, I know what the effects of these toxic chemicals are on the bodies of children.  As more and more American moms become aware of this issue, it’s clear that we are going to be using our considerable clout as consumers to buy products that are safe for kids.  These products are not.”

“This report highlights the fact that parent’s can’t assume that a product is safe for their kids simply because it is on a store shelf. Nothing could be further from the truth,” said Kathy Curtis, Executive Director at Clean and Healthy New York. “We need comprehensive laws that make sure chemicals are safe. But until that day, advocates will continue to test products and inform the public about how to protect themselves and their families.”

The 2012 Back-to-School Guide to PVC-free School Supplies, a guide to safer school supplies in over 40 product categories was announced along with the Hidden Hazards Report.  The new guide shows shoppers how to choose safer school supplies.

“We are proud to co-release this guide with CHEJ.  We strongly support efforts to protect children’s health and this guide is an important tool to do just that,” said Kathleen Donahue, Vice President of the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT).

“Nothing is more precious to us than our children,” said Karen Miller, President of the Huntington Breast Cancer Action Coalition (HBCAC).  “We would go to the ends of the Earth to keep them out of harm’s way.  Yet common products we purchase are putting our kids at risk for toxic overload.  Back to school season has offered some businesses another opportunity to further expose our children to harmful chemicals. It’s outrageous!   We can do something about it. Today, the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ) released lab results showing which common back-to-school vinyl products contain phthalates.  With this important information, we can take necessary steps to protect our families from harmful chemicals.  The more we know, the smarter choices we can make.  The toxic chemicals we are exposed to early in life affect us during a lifetime.  Huntington Breast Cancer Action Coalition (HBCAC) appreciates Senator Schumer for shining a light on this important health issue.”

“A manufacturer’s use of PVC plastic in children’s school supplies interferes with our basic right to protect our kids from harm.  PVC’s many toxic non-binding chemicals have a great potential to be ingested by small children.  Now, with so many safe alternatives available, how much longer will our government allow these products to be purchased by unsuspecting consumers?” says Patti Wood, Executive Director of Grassroots Environmental Education.

“Children are under assault on all fronts from toxic chemicals and this report shows that they’re bringing toxics with them to school in their backpacks, lunch boxes and school supplies,” said New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) Legislative Counsel Russ Haven.  ”Even Spider Man and the intrepid Dora the Explorer can’t defend against invisible toxic chemicals that are released from every-day products and absorbed through the skin, inhaled with every breath, or get into food or on fingers and ingested orally.”

“On behalf of 11,000 NYC members of the Sierra Club we are happy to Join Senator Schumer and the Center for Health, Environment & Justice as they release the Back to School Guide to PVC free School Supplies,” said Irene Van Slyke, Vice Chair, NYC Executive Committee of the Sierra Club. “Anyone shopping for school supplies for children should take the Guide with them to buy items that are as safe as they can be for children. The Guide is easy to use and provides specific recommendations for safer products.  More importantly, the Sierra Club urges the City to purchase PVC free supplies for our schools. There are plenty of cost effective alternatives to PVC and they are manufactured in the US! It would be the right move for New Yorkers’ health and the environment. Prevention of disease makes more sense than having to pay for health care costs associated with chemical exposure.”

Available for Interviews

Mike Schade, Center for Health, Environment & Justice, New York. 718 .873.3505 (cell), mike@chej.org. Mike Schade is the author of the new Hidden Hazards report and can summarize the report findings.  He can address the health hazards of phthalates in children’s school supplies and provide tips on how parents can buy safer school supplies.

The Honorable Senator Charles Schumer, contact: Mike Morey, Mike_Morey@schumer.senate.gov, 202.380.5990  Senator Schumer spoke at today’s news conference and is the co-sponsor of federal legislation to regulate chemicals in children’s products.

Judy Braiman, Empire State Consumer Project, co-publisher of the report. 585-383-1317 judybraiman@frontiernet.net Judy can discuss the importance of getting toxic chemicals out of children’s consumer products.

Kathleen A. Curtis, LPN, A Clean & Healthy New York, 518.708.3922. Albany, New York. clean.kathy@gmail.com. Kathy can address the need for federal chemical policy reform to prevent toxic chemicals from making it to the marketplace.

Dr. Jalonne L. White-Newsome, Environmental Justice Federal Policy Analyst, WE ACT for Environmental Justice 202.495.3036 cell 202.577.4246, jalonne.weact@gmail.com. Dr. White-Newsome has a background in chemical management and can address the disproportionate impact of chemicals exposure on people of color.

Maya  Shetreat-Klein, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.  brainmending@gmail.com

R. Thomas Zoeller, Professor, Biology Department, Morrill Science Center
University of Massachusetts, expert on chemical exposure research, 413-545-2088, tzoeller@bio.umass.edu, Zoeller Lab Website: http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/zoeller/.

Penelope Jagessar Chaffer, mother of two, director of “Toxic Baby,” a film about ubiquitous chemicals exposure. Clips available, www.toxicbaby.com. 347.406. 0731, penelope@toxicbaby.com

Resources

New Hidden Hazards Report:

http://www.chej.org/2012/08/backtoschool2012

Photos of school supplies tested for phthalates: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chej/sets/72157631210703538/detail/

2012 Back To School Guide to Safer Products

http://www.chej.org/publications/PVCGuide/PVCfree2012_1.pdf

2012 Wallet Guide to Safer Products
http://www.chej.org/publications/PVCGuide/PVCwallet2012_1.pdf

Web Ad: What’s Banned in Children’s Toys But Allowed in School Supplies? http://www.chej.org/publications/PVCGuide/bts_fb.jpg

Data Excerpts from: Hidden Hazards: Toxic Chemicals Inside Children’s Vinyl Back-to-School Supplies

• 80% (16/20) of children’s back to school supplies sampled contained phthalates.
• Since the phthalates are not chemically bound to the vinyl, they can migrate from within the products to the surface. Children may be exposed to elevated levels of these toxic substances by using these school supplies.
• The phthalates DEHP, DnOP, DMP, and DBP were detected in children’s back-to-school supplies.
• 75% (15/20) of children’s back-to-school supplies contained levels of phthalates that would be in violation of the federal ban for toys, if these products were considered toys.
• 65% (13/20) of children’s back to school supplies sampled contained measurable levels of DEHP.
• 55% (11/20) of children’s back to school supplies sampled contained more than one phthalate, indicating children are exposed to multiple phthalates from vinyl back to school supplies.
• None of the products sampled contained labels indicating the products contained phthalates.

New Report: Hidden Toxic Chemicals Found in Children’s “Back-to-School” Supplies

Did you know toxic phthalates may be in your children’s back-to-school supplies?  Our brand new report, Hidden Hazards: Toxic Chemicals Inside Children’s Vinyl Back-to-School Supplies found toxic chemicals linked to asthma and birth defects widespread in children’s vinyl back-to-school supplies.

Seventy-five percent of children’s “back-to-school” supplies tested in a laboratory had elevated levels of toxic phthalates, including popular Disney, Spiderman, and Dora branded school supplies, such as vinyl lunchboxes, backpacks, 3-ring binders, raincoats, and rainboots.

The levels of phthalates found in children’s school supplies would be illegal if these products were toys. Just like toys, school supplies are used by young children that are uniquely vulnerable to chemical exposure.

Key resources for Hidden Hazards report:

• National News Release
• Hidden Hazards: Toxic Chemicals Inside Children’s Vinyl Back-to-School Supplies
• Executive Summary of the Report
• Photos of Children’s School Supplies Tested for Phthalates
• Downloadable web graphic announcing the report.

Find safer products for your children this back-to-school season!

The good news is there are plenty of safer alternatives available.  The 2012 Back-to-School Guide to PVC-free School Supplies, a guide to safer school supplies in over 40 product categories, was also released today to empower parents to find safer children’s back-to-school supplies:

• 2012 Back-to-School Guide to PVC-free School Supplies
• 2012 Back-to-School Wallet Guide
• We’ve created these downloadable web graphics promoting the Back-to-School Guide, which is great for posting on websites, blogs, and Facebook:
  • Graphic one
  • Graphic two
  • Graphic three
  • Graphic four

To download these web banners, first open them up by clicking on the links below, then, in your web browser, “right click” on the image and choose “save image as” or “save picture as”.  When you post them on your site, we recommend they link to http://bit.ly/nopvc12

Rhode Island Passes School Siting Law

As you know CHEJ and our network partners have been working on school siting for many years. USEPA finally passed their school siting guidelines in October 2011. Rhode Island is the first state to pass a law that reflects those protective school siting guidelines. Steve Fischbach and the local environmental justice communities that have been fighting for a decade– deserve a huge thank you for all their work to make this possible. Below are the details. On June 6th, Governor Lincoln Chafee signed into law the school siting legislation that has been working on for at least 3 years. This new law is probably the strongest law in the nation when it comes to addressing the problem of the siting of schools on contaminated sites. You can download the new law– click here

Victory Rhode Island School Siting Law Passed

As you know CHEJ and our network partners have been working on school siting for many years. USEPA finally passed their school siting guidelines in October 2011. Rhode Island is the first state to pass a law that reflects those protective school siting guidelines. Steve Fischbach and the local environmental justice communities that have been fighting for a decade– deserve a huge thank you for all their work to make this possible. Below are the details.

On June 6th, Governor Lincoln Chafee signed into law the school siting legislation that has been working on for at least 3 years. This new law is probably the strongest law in the nation when it comes to addressing the problem of the siting of schools on contaminated sites. You can download the new law at: http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText12/SenateText12/S2277Aaa.pdf

1. Bans the construction of schools (including expanding an existing building and leasing of buildings for school purposes) on “any portion of a parcel of property for which, upon occupancy, there exists an ongoing potential for hazardous materials and/or petroleum to migrate as vapors or gases into the building from the subsurface of the parcel of property, including any potential failure of engineered remedies to address said vapors or gases.”

2. Bans the construction of schools (as explained above) on any portion of a parcel of property formerly used for industrial, manufacturing or landfill purposes that is contaminated by hazardous materials (other than an vapor intrusion site) unless the sponsor of the school project prepares a report for public comment that a.) outlines the projected cost of acquiring and cleaning up and monitoring the site in accordance with RI’s Contaminated Site Regulations, b.) projects the time required to clean up the site and c.) discusses the rationale for selecting a contaminated property for use as school purposes and an explains any alternatives to selecting said property considered by the project sponsor. This report must be put out for public comment, the project sponsor must respond to public comments, and the sponsor must consider the findings of the report when making a final selection of a site.

There are so many people to thank for this historic development, including the lead sponsors of the legislation: Senator Juan Pichardo (who way back in the day spoke out against using the Providence City Dump as a site for the schools that were the subject of the lawsuit filed back 1999) and Representative Tom Slater (whose district includes the school built on a vapor intrusion site); Nicole Poepping, the state environmental agency’s (DEM) legislative liaison and former board member of the EJ League of RI; and the members of the EJ Stakeholder Group set up by DEM as a result of that lawsuit, who worked to draft the bill.

Autism and Environmental Chemicals

CHEJ has been talking about the dangers of PCB’s in school lighting fixtures and how the chemical can affect children’s health. Last month, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that autism spectrum disorder now affects 1 of every 88 American children — a 23% increase from 2006 and a 78% increase from 2002. CDC also reported that ADHD now affects 14% of American children.

As these disorders continue to affect more children across the U.S., researchers are asking what is causing these dramatic increases. Some of the explanation is greater awareness and more accurate diagnosis. But clearly, there is more to the story than simply genetics, as the increases are far too rapid to be of purely genetic origin.

The National Academy of Sciences reports that 3% of all neurobehavioral disorders in children are caused by toxic exposures in the environment and that another 25% are caused by interactions between environmental factors and genetics. But the precise environmental causes are not yet known.

To guide a research strategy to discover potentially preventable environmental causes, a list of ten chemicals found in consumer products that are suspected to contribute to autism and learning disabilities.

This list was published today in Environmental Health Perspectives in an editorial written by Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, director of the CEHC, Dr. Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and Dr. Luca Lambertini, also of the CEHC.

The top ten chemicals are:
1. Lead
2. Methylmercury
3. PCBs
4. Organophosphate pesticides
5. Organochlorine pesticides
6. Endocrine disruptors
7. Automotive exhaust
8. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
9. Brominated flame retardants
10. Perfluorinated compounds

The editorial was published alongside four other papers — each suggesting a link between toxic chemicals and autism.

There are things we can do as parents as concerned taxpayer and citizens. First, is to remove chemicals in areas that children frequent. As you may know CHEJ’s Children Environmental Health Program has been working on identifying and the removal PCBs in school lighting fixtures as well as removing other environmental chemicals from children environment such as emissions near schools.

As a humane society we cannot allow this devastating neurological problem to continue to rise in our children. It is time to speak up and out about environmental chemicals and children’s health. It is time to ask our health authorities to explore where children may be being exposed and eliminate that source of exposure. This is especially true in the case of PCBs and school lighting(schools built before 1980 and had no retrofitting) since this is a win win situation. The school district can remove exposure and save money on the energy efficiency of new lighting fixture.

Our children are our future. Let’s protect them . . . our future depends on their leadership.

NYC’s Schools Plan to go Green in the Great Indoors

The city recently released 25 pages of proposed regulations that would impact construction, renovation and maintenance practices in hundreds of city-owned and -leased buildings and other spaces. The new rules require materials, supplies and equipment to be more environmentally friendly — either less toxic, more energy-efficient or more recycled. Read more.