Collaborative on Health and the Environment

New Resources for Parents and Kids

8/16/10: The Healthy Schools Network has published a new guide titled, "BP Oil Spill: Keeping Kids Safe!" and the Center for Health, Environment and Justice has published "Back to School Guide to PVC-Free School Supplies". Both of these resources are available in CHE's Portal to Science or by searching by title in the search box at the top of this page.
Go to the CHE Portal to Science

CHE-LDDI honored by Autism Society

7/2/10: The Autism Society has announced that CHE's Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative (CHE-LDDI) is one of six recipients of the prestigious "Autism Champion" award to be given at their annual conference, July 9, 2010 in Dallas.

PARTNER SPOTLIGHT

Sarah Howard Sarah Howard Photo

CHE Partner

CHE regularly highlights the work of our Partners here in our Partner Spotlight. Below, Sarah Howard discusses her work addressing environmental health and type 1 diabetes.

What first brought you into environmental health work?

I became interested in environmental health via the environmental justice movement during graduate school in the 1990s. My subsequent job involved working on lead poisoning, pollution prevention, and environmental health projects. After the publication of Our Stolen Future, I became interested in the health effects of endocrine disrupting compounds.

When I became pregnant, the political became personal. I developed gestational diabetes, and soon thereafter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. After my first son was born, he had food allergies and a speech disorder. My second son developed type 1 diabetes at 23 months of age, and also had a speech delay and some food sensitivities. My friends and I were dealing with a gamut of health issues in our children, and it seemed that these were more common than in past years. But why?

Read past interviews.

4 Sep From blue to bleak: northern Albertans at edge of oilsands face an uncertain water future. Cookie Simpson was born in a tent near the shores of Lake Athabasca. Her access to clean drinking water was as good as any city kid's, but it didn't involve a tap. Instead, she scooped water right from the lake with a cup. "Now it's just grey and dirty and you can see the oil floating on top. You can't drink it anymore." Edmonton Journal.

4 Sep The Barnett Shale search for facts on fracking. Tarrant County Commissioner J.D. Johnson recalls precisely when the 260-foot-deep water well at his rural home became polluted in August 2005. "It occurred when they fractured the wells," he said, referring to two Barnett Shale natural gas wells drilled on his 15 acres in northwest Tarrant County. Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

4 Sep Lawyers, landowners in fracking mineral rights 'force majeure' battle. When Charles and Helen Lampman signed away the mineral rights to their 60.9 acres of land in 1999, they had no idea it would end in a court battle. Gannett News Service.

4 Sep Accumulating contaminants kick off concerns. Levels of certain quaternary ammonium compounds in marine sediments around New York City have grown dramatically in the past decade. Chemical & Engineering News.

4 Sep Nine years later: Health effects in World Trade Center. As many as 70,000 volunteers and rescue workers responded to the 9/11 attacks, many toiling for months to clear mountains of debris containing a range of toxic compounds. Health effects have persisted for years. Environmental Health Perspectives.

4 Sep All consuming. With population and per-capita consumption both on the rise, it's hard to believe humanity's impact on the Earth is sustainable. But what would happen if we ate less meat? Or gave women better education and more power? Seed Magazine.

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