Collaborative on Health and the Environment ::

Welcome: Science and Civility at the Winter Solstice
Hold the Date: Next CHE Partnership Call – January 18
CHE Working/Discussion/Regional Group Updates
Tools/Announcements/Resources for CHE Partners
CHE Science News
Welcome to New CHE Partners

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1. Welcome: Science and Civility at the Winter Solstice

Dear CHE Partners and Friends:

Sandra Steingraber is one of the leading poet-scientist laureates of the environmental health community. She published Living Downstream in 1997 and Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood in 2001. In a brilliant review of the progress of research on breast cancer and the environment in Ms. Magazine (Fall 2005), Sandra concludes, "the provocative yet maddeningly contradictory studies I described ten years ago in Living Downstream have been joined by more provocative yet maddeningly contradictory studies."

"And what," Sandra writes, "of the activists who set the scientists walking down this path of inquiry? Bella Abzug is gone, as are Andrea Martin, founder of The Breast Cancer Fund, and Susan Claymon and Elinore Pred, founders of Breast Cancer Action... Breast Cancer Fund now works exclusively on the environment. It is an active partner in the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, which provides the best clearinghouse of information available on environmental links to human disease."

Sandra, too, is an active CHE Partner. During our December CHE Partnership Call, The Neurodevelopmental Impacts of Pesticides, Sandra posed a question from a participant, who had relayed a question to her because he has ALS. His question involved a thoughtful proposal for a case-controlled study of ALS or Parkinson's Disease involving biomonitoring.

As I heard the question, and the thoughtful responses from the scientists, I felt a deep gratitude for the CHE community. Here was Sandra, a cancer survivor, giving voice to a question from someone with ALS about ALS and Parkinson's Disease. I was hearing the question as a DES son myself who lives with heart disease and with a familial tremor that has significant co-morbidity with Parkinson's Disease, and who has spent thirty years working with children with learning and developmental disabilities and people with cancer.

In her article, Sandra wrote of the great loss of the pioneers of the breast cancer movement, women like Andrea Martin, Susan Claymon and Elinore Pred. These are all women whom I knew personally, whose lives I celebrate and whose deaths I grieve. When I hear a Partnership Call that discusses pesticides and Parkinson's Disease, I think not only of my own heightened risk of PD, but of CHE Partner Jackie Hunt Christensen, founder of the CHE PD Working Group, who thinks pesticide exposure may have contributed to her own early-onset PD, and will be going through DBS -- deep brain stimulation surgery -- this month. What I am saying is that all of the health conditions CHE is concerned with have come to feel like close personal losses to me. If I do not have the disease or condition in my own family, someone close to me lives with it.

When these wounds touch us close to home, we may have a deeper sense of the urgency of the need to prevent any unnecessary future suffering from these conditions. That may translate into a greater preference for a precautionary approach to contaminants known to cause damage in wildlife and experimental animals. Likewise, we may have a deeper interest in integrative therapies that may help reduce present suffering than those who prefer not to explore integrative therapies until all the scientific evidence is in.

We enter the new year with nearly 2000 CHE Partners in 47 states and 22 countries. We have active Working Groups on Learning and Developmental Disabilities, Fertility and Early Pregnancy Compromise, Cancer, Asthma, Parkinson's Disease, Electromagnetic Fields, and Science. The first three Working Groups have well over 100 Partners each. Our National Partnership Calls attract well over 100 Partners each month to dialogue with leading scientists, health professionals, patient group representatives and community leaders with a commitment to high quality science and a culture of civility.

When New York Times science writer Gina Kolata wrote an article last week on cancer and the environment, many of the Letters to the Editor circulated first on the CHE Cancer Working Group listserv. The same is true of the other Working Groups -- new science and new developments disseminate across the country and around the world for thoughtful, concise comment. The Working Groups have developed a “CHEtiquette”: (1) Respond to the individual, not the list, unless your comment furthers the dialogue; (2) Use the privilege of the CHE listservs sparingly and skillfully; (3) Respect the wide diversity of the Collaborative, and stay focused on the science and closely related issues.

The Winter Solstice this week marks the beginning of the return of the light. All the great faith traditions celebrate this return. Science teaches that light can be understood both as a flow of particles and as a wave. In our own experience, we know light brings two things to life -- clarity and warmth. The great wisdom traditions converge on what Liebnitz and Aldous Huxley called "the perennial philosophy" which teaches that to be fully human is to seek to grow in clarity and in warmth, which is to say, in wisdom and in compassion.

Science, a modern wisdom tradition, has opened up vast new panoramas of clarity. Civility, an ancient virtue, is an outward expression of the intention truly to listen to each other. Civility reflects a commitment to compassion in the search for truth. Martin Buber once said that truth belongs to none of us and emerges in dialogue. Civility, from the time of Socrates to the present, has been the condition of true dialogue in the quest for the truth.

Sandra is right that the science on breast cancer and the environment remains "provocative yet maddeningly contradictory." The same can be said for the science on most of the diseases, disorders and conditions of concern to the Collaborative. What is new in CHE is that the disease tribes are coming together to ask these questions not in isolated disease-focused silos, but as an extended community. One of the most promising developments in the Collaborative is the number of leaders of patient groups who are saying, as one breast cancer leader put it, "our concerns extend far beyond breast cancer. We are concerned about what these environmental contaminants are doing to all of us." As we begin to codify these broader concerns with the wounds that all of us carry, our strength as a community grows exponentially. When we can stand up together in our communities, in the councils of government, and say, "we are here together because we share concerns that go beyond the specific health challenges we face," we will be infinitely stronger.

The challenge for CHE Partners is how to allow natural communities of shared interest to form while respecting our many differences. Scientists and patient groups often have divergent as well as shared interests and beliefs. Patient groups that cut across red and blue states have different priorities from environmental health activists. Patients with difficult health problems have different perspectives on integrative medicine from many health professionals and scientists. That is why the commitments to both science and civility are so fundamental to CHE. They are the fundaments of our growing community.

Thank you for your commitment to CHE. Together we can make a difference in the new year.

Michael Lerner
CHE Partner

2. Hold the Date: Next CHE Partnership Call – January 18

We hope that you will join us on Wednesday, January 18 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific / 12:00 noon Eastern Time for the next CHE Partnership Call, "Environmental Influences on Thyroid Function: Implications for Human Health."

Confirmed speakers will include:
* Tom Zoeller, Ph.D., Professor, Biology Department, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
* Kevin Crofton, Ph.D., Environmental Protection Agency
* Jim Haddow, M.D., Professor and Division Director, Department of Pathology, Division of Medical Screening Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island
* Gregory A. Brent, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Physiology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Chief, Endocrinology and Diabetes Division, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System

In order to join this call and receive the dial-in information, please RSVP to Julia Varshavsky, CHE Program Associate, at: Julia@HealthandEnvironment.org.

We will be sending more information on speakers, resources and dial-in instructions over the coming weeks. We look forward to your participation.

3. CHE Working/Discussion/Regional Group Updates

* CHE Science Working Group (CHE Science) ~ coordinated by Ted Schettler, M.D., M.P.H., Science Director, Science and Environmental Health Network, tschettler@igc.org

CHE Science will host a teleconference to discuss the concept of ecological medicine and its relationship to integrative medicine, public health practice, and related disciplines, on Thursday, January 26 at 12:00 noon Pacific / 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. To join this call, please RSVP to Frieda Nixdorf at: info @healthandenvironment.org.

* CHE Fertility/Early Pregnancy Compromise Working Group (CHE Fertility) ~ coordinated by Alison Carlson, Fellow, Commonweal Health & Environment Program, Alison@HealthandEnvironment.org

CHE Fertility held its eighth quarterly teleconference on December 8, featuring updates on recent science related to our subject; an overview of the science pertaining to environmental contaminants and spontaneous miscarriage; and a presentation on a recent study out of Yale University showing that in mice a common pesticide (methoxychlor) causes permanent developmental suppression of a gene that is important in reproductive tract development and function, and specifically uterine cell response that is necessary for embryo implantation. A transcript of this call will be available soon and announced over the CHE Fertility listserv. Others who are interested in receiving the transcript can contact Alison Carlson at: Alison@HealthandEnvironment.org.

CHE Fertility is partnering with Dr. Linda C. Giudice, Professor and Chair, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) to organize a national Summit on Environmental Challenges to Reproductive Health and Fertility during the week of January 18 to 24, 2007. The exact dates will be announced soon. This summit meeting will be the first major effort of a new program Dr. Giudice is establishing at UCSF, called the Program in Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE), which will include research, education, community liaison and policy components.

CHE Fertility participant Mary Wade has been busy on several fronts this Fall. She accepted the Coordinator position for the CHE-UCSF Summit described above – and wrapped up her editorship of a November 2005 issue devoted to environmental health for the journal Zero to Three, a publication of the National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families – which is devoted to promoting healthy development of children from the prenatal period on. Seven CHE Partners contributed to the issue – which focuses on environmental risks to infants, toddlers and their families – including Philip Landrigan, Lynn Goldman, Elise Miller, Barbara Sattler, Sharyle Patton, Charlotte Brody and Swati Prakash. Barbara Sattler authored an article titled “The Risky Business of Reproduction: Environmental Exposures and Associated Risks to Fertility and Healthy Babies.” As a result of the issue, Zero to Three invited Sattler and Lynn Goldman to present their work at its annual National Training Institute, in early December in Washington, DC. The Institute, traditionally devoted to research, attracts 1800 participants including early childhood educators, social workers, clinical psychologists, Early Head Start staff, allied health professionals, and others. Audience reviews were apparently outstanding. To view the journal, please visit: http://www.zerotothree.org/.

* Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative Working Group (LDDI) ~ coordinated by Elise Miller, M.Ed., Executive Director, Institute for Children’s Environmental Health (ICEH), emiller@iceh.org

LDDI will be hosting a regional meeting in Minneapolis, MN on January 21, 2006. Keynote speakers will include:
* Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP, Assistant Professor, Community & Preventive Medicine and Pediatrics at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City and Assistant Director for The Mount Sinai Center for Children's Health and the Environment. Dr. Trasande recently authored “Public Health and Economic Consequences of Methyl Mercury Toxicity to the Developing Brain,” (Environmental Health Perspectives May, 2005).
* Ted Schettler, MD, MPH, Science Director, Science and Environmental Health Network. Dr. Schettler is co-author of Generations at Risk: Reproductive Health and the Environment and co-author of In Harm's Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development. Dr. Schettler leads CHE’s Science Working Group.

This meeting is sponsored by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, The Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment and co-sponsored by Arc Hennepin-Carver, Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota, Learning Disabilities Association of Minnesota, Minneapolis Interagency Early Intervention Committee, Minnesota Public Health Association, Universal Health Care Action Network – Minnesota, University of Minnesota Environmental Health Program, University of Minnesota Maternal and Child Health Program, Women's Environmental Institute

To register go to http://www.iatp.org/foodandhealth/ and click on “Preventing Harm to Growing Brains.” For More Information, contact Kathleen Schuler, 612-870-3468 or kschuler@iatp.org.

LDDI’s December 9th call featured Ted Schettler, MD, MPH, Science Director, Science and Environmental Health Network, who is conducting research on nutrition and its interaction with neurotoxicants, and a discussion on LDDI’s goals for 2006. Participants decided that LDDI, in the early part of the New Year, will develop a fact sheet regarding environmental toxicants and mental health as well as a clearinghouse for national and state legislative initiatives related to neurotoxicants. LDDI will also start holding calls on a quarterly rather than a monthly basis and the next LDDI call is now planned for Thursday, March 23rd at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.

The next teleconference call sponsored by the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) will be held on February 22 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. This call will feature Theodore A. Slotkin, Ph.D., “How Exposure to Common Pesticides Can Damage the Developing Brain: Lessons Learned from Chlorpyrifos and the Organophosphates.” Please contact Michele Gagnon at: mgagnon@aamr.org for more information.

* Oregon State Regional CHE (CHE-OR) ~ coordinated by Sarah Doll, Program Director, Oregon Environmental Council, sarahd@oeconline.org

The next Health Care Provider Education Workgroup meeting will be Wednesday January 18 from 3-4:30pm at Oregon Environmental Council offices at: 222 NW Davis, Suite 309, in Portland. Everyone is welcome. For more information, contact Sarah Doll at: sarahd@oeconline.org.

* CHE-Northwest (CHE-NW) and CHE-Washington (CHE-WA) ~ coordinated by Elise Miller, M.Ed., Executive Director, Institute for Children’s Environmental Health (ICEH), emiller@iceh.org

The next CHE-WA quarterly meeting is scheduled for Thursday, January 5, 2006, from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at Antioch University. This meeting will include a science update as well as presentations/discussions on a take-back pharmaceuticals initiative, Washington legislative activities and opportunities in 2006, a new rule related to environmental health in schools. The meeting agenda is now posted under the "Upcoming Meetings" section at: http://washington.chenw.org/meetings.html.

Notes and other meeting documents from the December 8th Precautionary Principle Working Group meeting are now posted at: http://washington.chenw.org/PPgroup.html.

Members of the Environmental Justice (EJ) Working Group are in the process of deciding the date for the CHE-WA Health Disparities conference. There is some discussion about postponing it until June or September in order to have more time to digest the emerging data on the nexus between health disparities and environmental justice in Washington State. The notes from the November 8th meeting are posted at: http://washington.chenw.org/EJgroup.html.

Sponsored by the Seattle Biotech Legacy Foundation (SBLF) and organized by the Institute for Children's Environmental Health, the Environmental Health Lecture Series strives to educate Puget Sound residents about the latest science on environmental health issues and what we can do personally and professionally to protect and sustain human and ecological health in this region. The 2006 series, which is part of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment-Washington (CHE-WA) activities, includes the following lectures:
* "Urban Lifestyles and the Built Environment: Healthier by Design" – January 25, 2006, with Lawrence Frank, Ph.D.
* "Plastic Promises: Better Living or Bodily Harm?" – February 15, 2006, with Frederick vom Saal, Ph.D.
* "Climate Change: Is Our Health at Stake?" – March 9, 2006, presented by Jonathan Patz, M.D., M.P.H.

All lectures begin at 7:00 p.m. at Seattle's Town Hall. For more information and registration, please visit: http://washington.chenw.org/lectures.html.

4. Tools/Announcements/Resources for CHE Partners

New Submission Category for Endocrine Disruption
The 2006 Endocrine Society (ES) meeting has a new abstract submission category. The ES has modified its abstract submission site to include endocrine disruption. The abstract deadline is January 17, 2006. The annual meeting will take place June 24-27 in Boston, MA.

New Primer and Pamphlet from the Canadian Partnership for Children's Health and the Environment (CPCHE)
The Canadian Partnership for Children's Health and the Environment (CPCHE) has recently announced a Primer and Pamphlet on Children's Health and the Environment. Primers can be ordered online at: http://www.healthyenvironmentforkids.ca/english/, or by contacting Nancy Bradshaw at: nancy.bradshaw@sw.ca.

Press Release: 13 December 2005 -- Compilation Finds Increased Identification of Hazardous Pesticides
Pesticide Action Network UK has updated and fully revised its popular 'List of Lists' briefing. This unique publication provides a single reference point for information on pesticides associated with particularly harmful health or environmental impacts. It includes the pesticides covered by international conventions and identifies the pesticides now banned in Europe. It lists pesticides identified as endocrine disruptors, cancer suspects, those that are extremely or highly acutely toxic, and other risk categories. The List of Lists - A catalogue of lists of pesticides identifying those associated with particularly harmful health or environmental impacts, can be downloaded free from the PAN UK website at: http://www.pan-uk.org/briefing/list%20of%20lists%202005.pdf.

Call for Papers for New Peer-reviewed Journal on Community-based Participatory Research
The Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute in conjunction with the WK Kellogg Foundation has announced the launch of a national peer-reviewed journal dedicated to community health partnerships. Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action addresses topics focusing on the growing field of community-based participatory research (CBPR) while promoting further collaboration and elevating the visibility and stature of CBPR as a means toward eliminating health disparities. The first issue is expected in Spring/Summer 2006. For more information, including how to subscribe and how to submit papers, visit the Journal's website at: http://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/progress_in_community_health_partnerships/.

First National Conference on Precaution: June 9 - 11, 2006 in Baltimore, MD
Join with groups across America who are applying the precautionary approach to environmental hazards by shifting the focus to "how can we prevent harm?" instead of asking, "what level of harm is acceptable?" This national event will bring together people working on conservation, disease prevention, environmental justice, environmental health, green purchasing, precautionary business practices, toxic and nuclear pollution prevention, worker safety and more to build a stronger movement to protect our health and environment. For more information or to get involved, please contact Anne Rabe at: annerabe@msn.com or visit: http://www.besafenet.com/.

National Library of Medicine's (NLM) Household Products Database
The National Library of Medicine's (NLM) Household Products Database has been updated and now includes 6000 brand name products. The Household Products Database is a consumer guide that provides information on the potential health effects of chemicals contained in more than 6,000 common household products used inside and around the home. This resource helps scientists and consumers learn about ingredients in brand-name products. To see the database, go to: http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/.

CDC Health Protection Research Guide -- Public Comment Draft Available
From 2001 through 2004, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) convened three workgroups to make recommendations on how to develop the CDC's first ever agency-wide research agenda. In January 2005, the CDC embarked on the monumental task of implementing these recommendations to develop the CDC Health Protection Research Guide, 2006-2015. The public comment draft of the Research Guide was recently announced and the public comment period is still open through January 15, 2006. The Research Guide will serve as a blueprint for research areas that should be addressed during the next decade by CDC and its partners in response to current and future needs and events. CDC is now seeking additional review and comment through the formal public comment period. The Research Guide can be found online at: http://www.rsvpbook.com/custom_pages/50942/index.php. Comments can be sent to: researchguide@cdc.gov or: Office of Pubic Health Research, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, N.E., Mail Stop D-72, Atlanta, GA 30333.

5. CHE Science News
~ some selected recent news reports, mostly from Environmental Health News.

Public Data Shows Chemicals in Tap Water
Associated Press, 20 December 2005, John Heilprin
A national survey of drinking water found 260 different contaminants, including 141 unregulated chemicals. The data came from water utilities serving 231 million people.

REACHing Across the Atlantic
ScientificAmerican.com, 16 December 2005
On Wednesday the European Union's Council of Ministers finally agreed on a new regulatory framework for registering and testing potentially hazardous chemicals. Known as REACH the system will affect some 30,000 chemicals, an estimated 90% of which are merrily sprinkled all over the place without any evidence that they are safe. Originally, REACH would have required chemicals found to be dangerous to be phased out within five years unless their continued use had some strong social or economic justification, but the ministers seem to have watered down this provision.

Soiled Genes
Orion Magazine, November/December 2005, Leslie A. Pray
Ever wonder whether exposure to toxins, like, say, pesticides in food, mercury in water, chemical plant emissions, car exhaust, might cause changes in your basic makeup that can be inherited by your children? It may be time you found out.

European Union Backs Landmark Chemicals Law
BBC News, 13 December 2005
European Union ministers have approved a landmark law to control the use of chemicals, after two years of discussion and intense lobbying.

How Safe is Tuna?
Chicago Tribune, Sam Roe and Michael Hawthorne, 13 December 2005
The tuna industry has failed to adequately warn consumers about the risks of eating canned tuna, while federal regulators have been reluctant to include the fish in their mercury advisories--at times amid heavy lobbying by industry.

Environment and Cancer: The Links are Elusive
New York Times, 13 December 2005, Gina Kolata
Pinning cancer on trace levels of poisons in the environment or even in the workplace is turning out to be a vexing task.

A Body's Burden
Oakland Tribune, 12 December 2005, Douglas Fischer and Nick Lammers
We're all subjects in an experiment on the unknown effects of synthetic chemicals in our bodies. For a class of common flame-retardants, our children may be the most contaminated of all.

US Slow to React to Possible Toxic Compounds as Europeans are Setting the Pace for Reforms
Oakland Tribune, 12 December 2005, Douglas Fischer
Like many new Berkeley parents, Michele Hammond and Jeremiah Holland try to live as green a life as they can, making as informed a choice on synthetic chemicals as possible.

A Fight Over Easing Rules for Reporting Toxic Emissions
Christian Science Monitor, 6 December 2005, Mark Clayton
Gracie Lewis is on a crusade to save the Toxics Release Inventory, a trove of federal pollution data vital to helping her - and activists nationwide - win community battles for cleaner air and water.

Doctors Debate Level at which Lead Becomes Harmful
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5 December 2005, Kawanza Newson
No one disputes that lead is unsafe. The discussion is over where to set the bar: At what level do the harmful effects of lead poisoning begin?

Report Accuses EPA of Slanting Analysis
Washington Post, 3 December 2005, Juliet Eilperin
The Bush administration skewed its analysis of pending legislation on air pollution to favor its 'Clear Skies' bill over two competing proposals, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service.

Politics as Usual, and Then Some
New York Times, 20 November 2005, David Rosenbaum
Critics have complained that the Bush administration is pursuing its political and ideological goals even when they are in conflict with agency data, professional analysis and legal procedures.

Top Court Backs Pesticide Ban
Toronto Star, 18 November 2005
Environmentalists are hailing a Supreme Court decision that upholds Toronto's ban on pesticides.

6. Welcome to New CHE Partners

Welcome to the new CHE Partners who have joined since the last newsletter. To see the full list of CHE Partners, please see the CHE Partner Directory.

Organizations:

A Different Choice, Vero Beach, FL
Center for Healthy Environments and Communities (CHEC), Pittsburgh, PA
Markstein Cancer Education Center, Oakland, CA
Parents for a Safer Environment, Moraga, CA
Pennsylvania Resources Council, Pittsburgh, PA

Individuals:

Stanley Alpert, New York, NY
Jeffry Anderson, M.D., San Rafael, CA
Shivani Arjuna, Life Energies, Belgium, WI
Elizabeth Arndorfer, Palo Alto, CA
Paul Ashwood, M.I.N.D. Institute, University of California at Davis, Sacramento, CA
Elizabeth Benham, BSN, Brookline, MA
Richard Bernhardt, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Alaska, Eagle River, AK
Monica Billger, RN, MPP, Washington, DC
Mark F. Blaxill, SafeMinds, Cranford, NJ
Melissa Blue Sky, LLM, Environmental Health Program Director, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Portland, OR
Jennifer Borden, Occupational & Environmental Health Nurse Practitioner and Student, Berkeley, CA
Rev. Michael Carney, M.Div., Priest, St. George's Episcopal Church, Antioch, CA
Christine Carpenter, Ed.S., President, Iowa Breast Cancer Edu-action, Cedar Falls, IA
Yolanda Castillo, M.A., AHP, SSMM, Barrow, AK
Virginia Cress, Graduate Student, University of Alaska, Anchorage, AK
Marcus C. Deede, M.D., Family Practitioner, Peninsula Medical Center / Central Peninsula Health Center, Soldotna, AK
Ed Democracy, Treasurer, Portland Tenants Union, Portland, ME
Alison Eisinger, MSW, Epidemiologist, Communities Count / PHSKC, Seattle, WA
Michael J. Ellenburg, ND, MPH, Mac, Anchorage, AK
Michelle Ferreira, MPH, Lung Health Program Coordinator, American Lung Association of Alaska, Anchorage, AK
Eli Fleischer, Anchorage, AK
Dawn Flynn, ND, Lac, Naturopathic Doctor, Acupuncturist, Seattle, WA
Christy Garrett, Research Associate, University of Alaska, Anchorage, Health Sciences Library, Arctic Health Website, Anchorage, AK
Christopher Gavigan, M.S., Chief Executive Officer / Executive Director, Children's Health Environmental Coalition (CHEC), Los Angeles, CA
Ranjodh S. Gill, BSN, Clinical Nurse, Nurse Corp, United States Air Force, Elmendorf AFB, AK
Anna Godduhn, M.A., Ph.D. Student, University of Alaska Fairbanks, AK
Anne Greenlee, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Oregon Health & Science University, La Grande, OR
Adam Grove, M.A., N.D., Naturopathic Physician, Natural Health Center, LLC, Anchorage, AK
Janet Hall, MSPH, Health Manager, Rural CAP, Anchorage, AK
Martha Herriott, Ph.D., ANP, Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Anchorage, AK
Robert Hood, Ph.D., Assistant Director, Office of Public Health Research, Florida Department of Health, Tallahassee, FL
Martha Kendrick, M.Ed., Research Associate, University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies, Windham, ME
Jefferson Ketchel, Health & Environmental Investigator III, Public Health-Seattle & King County, Seattle, WA
Michele Kreutz, Saint George, UT
Heather Loukmas, Executive Director, Learning Disabilities Association of New York, Latham, NY
Tom Macchia, BSM, PAC, Physician Assistant, Green Party / Alaskans for Peace and Justice, Anchorage, AK
Jill Madenberg, Lake Success, NY
Varsha Mathrani, MPH, Environmental Health Coordinator, Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT), Anchorage, AK
Brian McKay, R.N., VAA, Anchorage, AK
Jerry Nasenbeny, M.D., SCF-PEDS, Anchorage, AK
Ann Novogradec, BAS, MES, Ph.D. Candidate, Ph.D. Student, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Mark Peterson, M.D., Staff Physician, SE Alaska Regional Health Consortium, Juneau, AK
Delia-Laura Popescu, M.S., Carngie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Margaret Shield, Ph.D., Coalition Coordinator, Toxic-Free Legacy Coalition, Seattle, WA
Thomas Sims, Dallas, TX
Lynne Sopchak, Ph.D., Faculty / Lecturer, San Francisco State University / University of California at Santa Cruz -extension / CCA, Palo Alto, CA
Linda Stein, Shoreline, WA
Linda Stewart, Assistant Project Coordinator, Michigan Department of Community Health, Lansing, MI
Nancy Stockford, Program Officer, John Merck Fund, Boston, MA
Hugh Taylor, M.D., Associate Professor, Yale University, New Haven, CT
Carol Totten, Advocate, Victims for Justice, Anchorage, AK
Caroline Van Hemert, M.A., Wildlife Biologist, Alaska Science Center, Anchorage, AK
Aristo Vojdani, Ph.D., M.T., Immunosciences Lab., Inc., Beverly Hills, CA
Orla Wallace, M.Ed., Educational Therapist, Outremont, Quebec, Canada
Courtney Wisinski, Lansing, MI

___________________________________________

Thank you for taking the time to read the latest about CHE. As always, we welcome your feedback, suggestions or questions. Please direct them to Eleni Sotos, CHE National Coordinator, at: Eleni@HealthandEnvironment.org.

Best wishes,

Eleni Sotos, National Coordinator
and
Frieda Nixdorf, Administrative Specialist