1. Imagine:  CHE International and Google Earth
2. CHE Partnership Call, May 24 - Invisible Signals: The Emerging Science of Electromagnetic Radiation
3. CHE Working/Discussion/Regional Group Updates
4. Tools/Announcements/Resources for CHE Partners
5. CHE Science News
6. New CHE Partners
   

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1. Imagine:  CHE International and Google Earth

Dear CHE Partners and Friends:

A warm welcome to all our new CHE Partners.  You have joined an increasingly international community of organizations and individuals devoted to raising the level of public and professional dialogue on the impact of the environment on health with a shared ethic of "science and civility."

Speaking of our international Partners, I have been in Europe and Israel for the past three weeks exploring the strong interest in the Partnership among our colleagues here.  I can report substantial interest in France, the United Kingdom, and Israel.  From here I will continue on to Sweden, Denmark, Holland and Belgium.

We are, at the same time, exploring interest among other colleagues in the Global South, where a growing number of longtime colleagues in environmental health are joining us.  And we are thinking about what kind of structures will make the most sense as we find more international CHE Partners.

International interest in CHE has been growing consistently over the past four years.  Our Partnership, well over 2000 strong, currently includes Partners in 27 countries as well as 48 states.  We have been making technological progress on our CHE Partnership Calls.  We are beginning to stream calls over the internet.  We have created a blog function so call participants can post questions and comments.  We also continue to offer MP3 downloads of our calls.  All these improvements contribute to strengthening our international capacity.

CHE International, as it evolves, is critically important to all of us.  First, most of the environmental health problems that concern us are global in nature.  We cannot solve the problems of chemical contamination, climate change, infectious disease or EMF -- just to name four issues -- in one country alone.  Second, the capacity to see these issues from different scientific and cultural perspectives greatly strengthens our capacities in our own home countries and communities.  Third, we have a great deal to learn from each other.

Imagine CHE International as a global virtual science-based trading system.  Europe, for example, and Sweden in particular, exports experience with precautionary approaches to chemical contaminants and climate change to the rest of the international Partnership.  The United States imports these prevention-oriented policy perspectives and exports some of the most advanced experience with CHE's collaborative engagement among patient, health professional, governmental and environmental health constituencies.  Partners in the Global South export powerful examples of what happens to human health where chemical regulation is less effective, and community-based experiences responding to these problems.  The Southern experience with contaminant-associated "disease clusters" will be of significant interest to Northern Partners concerned with the complex issues of disease clusters.  Meanwhile, all CHE Partners benefit from the daily flow of science information from CHE's science communications partner, EnvironmentalHealthNews.org.

Imagine, if you will, the remarkable work we could do together as an international Partnership.

If you have not done so already, I recommend downloading "Google Earth" to your computer.  Try playing with this amazing new technology.  You type in an address anywhere on earth, and watch the planet revolve below you as if you were in a very high speed spacecraft hovering perhaps ten miles above the earth.  When you reach your destination, your craft descends until you can often even see the building whose address you had entered as your destination.  Then you can maneuver your spacecraft manually, and fly around the neighborhood, or go back up and cruise to another address.  You can enter grids with all kinds of data -- roads, crime rates, facilities of various kinds.  And you can download comments that Google travelers have made from various locations.

Google Earth is, I can attest, a mesmerizing tactile experience of the oneness of our precious planet.  Just as the photograph of earth from outer space was a defining moment in the history of human consciousness, I believe Google Earth, as we collectively develop its capacities further, could make a powerful contribution to international environmental public health.

Imagine for a moment that CHE International figures out how to make Google Earth an integral part of our global Partnership.  Imagine that we work out how all CHE Partners who want to can attach their personal or institutional websites to Google Earth, so as you travel by spacecraft around the earth, you can see where your fellow CHE Partners are and learn what brings them into our community.

Then imagine that we develop the capacity to layer our own data grids onto Google Earth, so we can look at patterns of pesticide use, biomonitoring data, health data, climate data, infectious disease distribution, poverty and income disparities, disease cluster reports, chemical accidents, and more.

Finally, imagine that we have a data analysis capacity that enables us to look at patterns among these data sets, so that health data can be analyzed in relationship to climate data, chemical data, income disparities and infectious disease vectors.

At this point, what I have described is just one CHE Partner's version of John Lennon's song "Imagine."  But I have talked to computer scientists who are CHE friends, and they tell me that what I am describing does not seem technically infeasible.  Obviously, the last part, a system that would look for patterns among different data sets, would take a great deal of thought.  But even the capacity to layer different data sets and visually inspect relationships would be a very powerful experience.

Are you interested in joining a CHE Discussion Group on CHE International?  Send a note to Frieda Nixdorf, CHE Administrative Specialist, at: Frieda@HealthandEnvironment.org, and we will start thinking about it together.  We welcome your thoughts.  None of us can imagine the best way to do this alone.  We are all inventing CHE together.

Best wishes,

Michael Lerner
CHE Partner



2. CHE Partnership Call, May 24 - Invisible Signals: The Emerging Science of Electromagnetic Radiation

Please join us on Wednesday, May 24 at 9:00 am Pacific / 12:00 noon Eastern time for a discussion about issues of electromagnetic radiation and health. This call will be moderated by Michael Lerner, Ph.D., President, Commonweal.

Featured Presentations:
* Michael Kundi, MD, Ph.D., Professor, Institute of Environmental Health, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna
* Cindy Sage, MA, Principle, Sage Associates Environmental Consultants
* Raymond R. Neutra, MD, Dr.P.H., Chief, Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control, California Department of Health Services, Environmental Health Investigations Branch
* Louis Slesin, Ph.D., Editor, Microwave News

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



3. CHE Working/Discussion/Regional Group Updates

Collaborative on Health and the Environment Washington (CHE-WA) ~ coordinated by Elise Miller, M.Ed., Executive Director, Institute for Children's Environmental Health, emiller@iceh.org, http://washington.chenw.org/

• The CHE-WA quarterly meeting, which was held May 10 in Seattle, featured Ngozi Oleru, Ph.D., Director, Environmental Health Services Division, Seattle-King County Public Health and Amy Bates, MA, AAS, with the Solutions for Humanity, Community, and the Environment, who both spoke on issues of land use, environmental justice and public health. Other topics included the emergence of a new working group on Climate Change and Health and new initiatives on food systems and health. The notes will be available at: http://washington.chenw.org/meetings.html in the next couple weeks.

• The Environmental Justice Working Group held a meeting on May 4 in Seattle during which participants recommended organizing a “listening session” for agencies and NGOs on “Emerging Approaches to Addressing Environmental Justice and Health Disparities.” Notes for this meeting will also be available at: http://washington.chenw.org/meetings.html in the next couple weeks.

• The next Precautionary Principle Working Group conference call is scheduled for May 30 at 11:00 am Pacific Time.

• The Precautionary Principle Workshop: A Debrief from the First National Meeting will be held Friday, June 23, 2:30-4:00 p.m., and the Precaution Academy will be held Friday June 23 (starting that evening) until midday Sunday, June 25. For more information, please see: http://washington.chenw.org/PPgroup.html.
  

Collaborative on Health and the Environment Pennsylvania (CHE-Penn) ~ coordinated by Steffi Domike, che-penn@comcast.net, http://www.che-penn.org/

• CHE-Penn has completed a series of research projects relating to regional environmental health issues. The papers will be uploaded to the website in June and there will be a teleconference on Asthma in Pennsylvania on June 15. Please contact Steffi Domike at: chepenn@comcast.net for more information and to sign up for the teleconference.

• Noted ecologist and environmental health advocate Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., will lecture at 7:00 pm on Thursday, June 8 at the AC-ACLD/Tillotson School in Pittsburgh, PA. This free event is co-sponsored by the Healthy Children Project, the AC-ACLD/Tillotson School and CHE-Penn. Dr. Steingraber will also speak at a community breakfast in Wilkinsburgh, PA, on Friday, June 9, at the Hosanna House. For more information about either event, please contact Kathy Lawson at: klawson@ldaamerica.org.

• In collaboration with the Center for Environmental Oncology of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, CHE-Penn coordinated an environmental health booth at the Pittsburgh Race for the Cure on Mothers Day, May 14. Almost 40,000 people participated in the race and many stopped by the booth for information. The website, ReducingRisk.org, was launched that day with links to a broad range of information on environmental risk factors for breast cancer and organizations addressing these concerns.
  

CHE's Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative (LDDI) Working Group ~ coordinated by Elise Miller, M.Ed., Executive Director, Institute for Children's Environmental Health, emiller@iceh.org, http://www.iceh.org/LDDI.html

• Legislative Database: Minnesota has been added to the LDDI web-based legislative database. Pending legislation on neurotoxic chemicals as well as specific groups working on those policies are now listed for California, Maine, Michigan and Minnesota as well as nationally. Please visit: http://www.iceh.org/LDDIlegislation.html. Please let Elise Miller (emiller@iceh.org) know whether you find this information useful and how we might enhance this database to help in your work as we continue to add states.

• Exceptional Parent Magazine: The American Association for Mental Retardation’s (AAMR’s) Environmental Health Initiative is featured along with other LDDI members--the Learning Disabilities Association’s Healthy Children Program, Birth Defects Research for Children and the Institute for Children’s Environmental Health--in this month’s Exceptional Parent magazine which provides information and support for the special needs community. See http://www.EParent.com.

• Practice Prevention Columns: Larry Silver, MD, former president of the Learning Disabilities Association has agreed to serve as the “Medical Advisor” for LDDI’s Practice Prevention columns. The next column featuring chemicals in plastics will be published later this month.

• XXIII International Neurotoxicology Conference: Several LDDI members will be featured in a poster session at this conference to be held in Little Rock, AK in September 2006.

• Autism Society of America (ASA): The ASA has formed a new advisory group to develop its new environmental health initiative, which has met by conference call twice already and has developed subcommittees to work on specific areas. Plans include a panel on environmental health issues at the ASA’s annual conference in Boston in July, publishing an issue of ASA’s The Advocate featuring articles on environmental health, web-based highlights on environmental health, among other educational outreach and policy objectives.

• LDDI Partner Call: The next national LDDI partner call, which will feature the three new state-based initiatives, is scheduled for June 20 at 2:00 pm Eastern Time. Notes from the last call can be found at: www.iceh.org/LDDImeetings.html.

• LDDI National Conference: The conference planning committee is now working on developing a session or track related to LDDI priorities at the National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry's conference to be held in December 2006 in Atlanta. In addition, LDDI still plans to sponsor a separate national conference that will now be held in May 2007 in Atlanta at Morehouse College. The dates and goals for LDDI's national meeting will be posted as soon as we confirm them.
  

CHE's Fertility/Early Pregnancy Compromise Working Group (CHE Fertility) ~ coordinated by Alison Carlson, Alison@HealthandEnvironment.org, http://www.healthandenvironment.org/working_groups/fertility

Save the Dates for the January 2007 UCSF - CHE Summit on Environmental Challenges to Reproductive Health and Fertility
When:  January 28 - 30, 2007
Where: Mission Bay Conference Center, UCSF, San Francisco, CA

The UCSF-CHE Summit will provide overviews by leading researchers of the science on environmental contaminant impacts on reproductive health and fertility, and will also explore: translation of this research to clinical care and medical training; federal regulatory agency/research institute environmental reproductive health priorities; reproductive health patient advocate and community health concerns, including the needs of underserved communities; and the formation of partnerships for effective collaborative agendas and action.
 
Who Should Attend: Reproductive health clinical researchers and clinicians/professionals (in practice or in training); scientists; patient advocacy, women's health, community health, and environmental justice leaders; policy makers; funders.
 
Organizers:  Linda C. Guidice, MD, Ph.D., M.Sc., Professor and Chair, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco; and Alison Carlson, Facilitator, Fertility/Pregnancy Compromise Working Group, Collaborative on Health and the Environment.
 
For more information contact Mary Wade, Summit and UCSF Program in Reproductive Health and the Environment Manager, at: wadem@obgyn.ucsf.edu, 415-476-2563.



4. Tools/Announcements/Resources for CHE Partners

Chicago Precaution Academy: Practical Training for Precautionary Action, May 19-21, Chicago, IL
Join others for an intensive weekend of training to prepare you to apply precautionary thinking to a wide range of issues in your community and workplaces such as public health, poverty, injustice, education, housing, urban sprawl and toxic chemicals. For more information, visit: http://www.healthandenvironment.org/articles/partner_events/388.


Taking Precautionary Action: Roadmap for Success - The First National Conference on Precaution, June 9-11, Baltimore, MD
Join with groups to share successful precautionary strategies, tools, policies and programs. Help build the movement for precautionary action to prevent harm and environmental hazards. For more information, visit: http://www.healthandenvironment.org/articles/che-events/453.



5. CHE Science News - Many of these articles can be found at: www.EnvironmentalHealthNews.org.

Unity Is Urged on Chemical Policy in State
Los Angeles Times, Marla Cone, 11 May 2006
Industry leaders and others weigh how best to respond to calls for lawmakers to give the public more protection from toxic compounds. Leaders of California's chemical companies gathered Wednesday in Los Angeles to discuss how best to respond to growing pressure to develop a new state policy that would provide the public more protection from toxic compounds in consumer products and the environment.

Don't Dump Old Medicine in Toilet: Sewage Plants' Operators Ask Public to Change Habit
San Francisco Chronicle, 11 May 2006, Jane Kay
The Tylenol, antibiotics, ibuprofen and Prozac that people toss into the toilet or down the drain may be flowing straight to the bay and contaminating fish, warn local sewage treatment officials who want to stop it.

Harmless Levels of Chemicals Prove Toxic Together
Scientific American, 10 May 2006, David Biello
One chemical alone may do no harm in low doses, but in conjunction with a few of its peers, even in doses that are individually safe, it can inflict serious harm. New research in frogs shows that a mixture of nine chemicals found in a seed-corn field in York County, Nebraska, killed a third of exposed tadpoles and lengthened time to metamorphosis by more than two weeks for the survivors.

Threat Seen from Antibacterial Soap Chemicals
Los Angeles Times, Marla Cone, 10 May 2006
Tons of chemicals in antibacterial soaps are being released into the environment, yet no government agency is monitoring or regulating them in water supplies or food.

UCSC Grad Poised to Green the Chemical Industry
Santa Cruz Sentinel, 1 May 2006, Roger Sideman
Unknown hazardous chemicals in everyday products are accumulating in human tissue and persisting in the environment without breaking down. That's the gloomy picture emerging from a report authored by Michael Wilson, a UC Santa Cruz graduate and Berkeley research scientist whose work has caught the attention of state legislatures.

Perchlorate Found in Produce from Around the World
Environmental Science Technology, 26 April 2006, Rebecca Renner
Just one serving of some fruits can contain enough perchlorate to exceed the National Academy of Sciences safe daily dose by more than 25%, and wines and beers pack a bigger perchlorate punch than waters.

Acrylamide: The Food Scare the World Forgot
New Scientist, 22 April 2006, Andy Coghlan
An unprecedented research effort is under way to learn more about acrylamide. Is it responsible for an epidemic of cancer and other illnesses? How can it be eliminated as far as possible from our food.

A Toxic Life
The Toronto Star, 21 April 2006, Nancy White
We're polluted from head to toe and though scientists can now measure minute amounts of chemicals in our bodies, no one knows the long-term health effects.

'Green' Movement Born Again?
San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 April 2006, Mike Lee
While there's no official barometer of just how cozy environmentalists and religious groups have become, the broad relationship is developing in often novel ways as both sides realize they share certain goals.

EU on Atrazine
Living on Earth, 21 April 2006
The European Union has banned the herbicide Atrazine, effective next year, after finding it contaminated drinking water supplies. The weed killer first came under scrutiny for its effects on frogs, and more recently has been linked to adverse effects on human health.



6. New CHE Partners

Welcome to the new CHE Partners who have joined since the last newsletter. To see the New CHE Partners and the growing list of all CHE Partners, please visit: http://www.healthandenvironment.org/base/partners-recent.



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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