- New CHE Resources
- CHE Working and Regional Group Updates
- Tools, Announcements and Resources for CHE Partners
- CHE Science News Headlines
- New CHE Partners
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Dear CHE Partners and Friends:
A warm welcome to the new Partners who have just joined the Collaborative on Health and the Environment. You have joined an increasingly global community of scientists, health professionals, patient group representatives, students, scholars, environmental health advocates and other people who share a commitment to high-quality, civil, science-based dialogue on the impact of the environment on human health.
The level of energy and activity in CHE Working Groups keeps growing. CHE National promises to send you no more than four emails a month, and we have a strong ethic of pertinence and science focus in the working group exchanges as well. Good science posts to working group listservs are always welcome, as is critical comment about them.
CHE's recently formed Integrative Health Working Group focuses on what we can do to protect ourselves and our families through risk reduction and health promotion. If you're interested in joining a discussion about risk reduction strategies and reading posts on new developments in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), we welcome you to join this group.
To join CHE Integrative Health, please contact Frieda Nixdorf, CHE Administrative Specialist, at: Frieda@HealthandEnvironment.org.
Again, thanks for your engagement with the Collaborative.
Michael Lerner, CHE Partner
1. New CHE Resources
Newly Enhanced and Updated CHE Toxicants and Disease Database
We are pleased to announce the newly enhanced and updated CHE Toxicants and Disease Database, a scientifically based, web-interactive database summarizing the evidence of exposure to chemical contaminants and over 180 associated human diseases or conditions. We also have a spreadsheet version available in printed format or as an electronic file. The database can be seen at: http://database.healthandenvironment.org. For more information, please contact Eleni Sotos, CHE National Coordinator, at: Eleni@HealthandEnvironment.org. We hope you find the database useful and welcome your comments and suggestions.
New CHE Brochure
We are also pleased to announce our new CHE brochure. We have limited supplies, but will provide copies to those who need them. Please contact Frieda Nixdorf, CHE Administrative Specialist, at: Frieda@HealthandEnvironment.org if you would like to receive the new CHE brochure.
Last chance to receive copies of the CHE primer, Our Health and the Health of the Environment: How Are They Connected and What Can We Do to Improve Both?
We still have a few remaining boxes of this primer available. The primer provides readers with key elemental principles of environmental health. Through the examples of asthma, learning disabilities and breast cancer, the primer explains what we are learning about the links between chronic illness, toxic chemicals and other environmental contaminants. The primer also gives examples of legislative and corporate policies aimed at improving our health and the health of the environment. To request your free copies of the primer, please contact Frieda Nixdorf, at: Frieda@HealthandEnvironment.org.
2. CHE Working and Regional Group Updates
* CHE Fertility/Early Pregnancy Compromise Working Group (CHE Fertility) ~ coordinated by CHE Partner and Research Fellow Alison Carlson, Alison@HealthandEnvironment.org
1) Announcing CHE's Fertility Online Abstracts Library
CHE’s Fertility/Early Pregnancy Compromise Working Group is proud to announce the launch of a multilayer search-capable Online Abstracts Library and a companion Catalogue of CHE Fertility-Relevant Organizational Reports and News Stories. This Library was developed by CHE Partner Sarah Janssen, MD, PhD, MPH in collaboration with Dr. Pete Myers at Environmental Health Sciences and www.EnvironmentalHealthNews.org; and Dr. Theo Colborn and her colleagues at The Endocrine Disruption Exchange (TEDX, Inc). We expect it will be useful for editors, reporters, researchers, students and the public. Please visit the CHE website at: www.HealthandEnvironment.org for information on RSS feeds and library links.
2) SAVE THE DATE: UCSF – CHE Summit on Environmental Challenges to Reproductive Health and Fertility - January 28 - 30, 2007 at Mission Bay Conference Center, UCSF, San Francisco, CA
Preeminent researchers will present overviews of the science on environmental contaminant impacts on reproductive health and fertility, developmental health, fetal origins of adult disorders, and peri-conception as a critical window. The Summit will also explore: translation of this research to clinical care, medical training, and public health policy; federal government environmental reproductive health priorities; patient advocate and community health/health disparity concerns.
This conference will be relevant to those who are concerned with reproductive health, child developmental health, and peri-conceptional/fetal exposure origins of adult reproductive disorders: clinical researchers and clinicians; scientists; policy makers; funders; leaders of patient advocacy, women's health, community health and environmental justice organizations. It is being organized by Linda C. Giudice, MD, Ph.D., M.Sc., Professor and Chair, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences; Founding Director, Program in Reproductive Health and the Environment, University of California, San Francisco; and Alison Carlson, Facilitator, Fertility/Early Pregnancy Compromise Working Group, Collaborative on Health and the Environment; and Co-Chair: Philip R. Lee, MD, Founding Chairman, Collaborative on Health and the Environment; Chancellor and Professor (of Social Medicine) Emeritus, UCSF; Former US Assistant Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.
For further information, please visit: http://www.obgyn.ucsf.edu/, or contact Mary Wade, Manager, Summit and UCSF Program in Reproductive Health and the Environment at: wadem@obgyn.ucsf.edu or 415-476-2563, or Alison Carlson at: Alison@HealthandEnvironment.org.
* Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative (LDDI) Working Group ~ coordinated by Elise Miller, Executive Director, Institute for Children's Environmental Health, emiller@iceh.org
1) LDDI and CHE's Working Group on Parkinson's Disease and the Environment (CHE-PD) will hold a first joint conference call on Monday, September 11, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern, highlighting the research on links between pesticides and Parkinson’s undertaken by Gary Miller, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Rollins School Public Health at Emory University. Because many environmental toxics, such as pesticides, may contribute to both neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative health problems, CHE is beginning to heighten communication and potential collaboration between LDDI and PD. Though each Working Group will remain distinct given the needs of their respective constituencies, we hope to raise greater awareness of the emerging science that suggests exposures to certain neurotoxicants may manifest as different health endpoints across the lifespan.
2) SAVE THE DATE: LDDI’s second National Conference will be held May 10-11, 2007 at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA. Dr. David Satcher, former Surgeon General is our invited keynote speaker, and many other leading researchers, health professionals and advocates will be presenting their cutting-edge work on environmental factors and neurological development. In addition, the Marcus Foundation is underwriting our reception at the stunning new Atlanta Aquarium, where various environmental health organizations and institutions will also be able to display and discuss their programs. Please mark your calendars!
* CHE's Washington State Regional Group (CHE-WA) ~ coordinated by Elise Miller, Executive Director, Institute for Children's Environmental Health, emiller@iceh.org
1) Puget Sound Partnership: The Governor’s Office has invited CHE-WA to help organize a core group of environmental health leaders to help prioritize human health in the Governor’s Puget Sound Partnership initiative, which currently is almost exclusively focused on ecological health. Initial recommendations are due in early September.
3. Tools, Announcements and Resources for CHE Partners
* New Website: www.cleancarsforkids.org
Environmental Working Group announces a new website that ranks 10,000 vehicles based on their contribution to local smog and makes the link to children's health and asthma. The report can be seen at www.cleancarsforkids.org.
* Conflicts of Interest on Government Science Panels: Do They Matter? Should They Be Banned? Monday, July 24, National Press Club, Holeman Lounge, 13th Floor, 529 14th Street, Washington, DC
The House of Representatives recently passed legislation that would prohibit the Food and Drug Administration from appointing scientists with ties to drug manufacturers to its science advisory panels. The Environmental Protection Agency routinely appoints such scientists to its committees. Public interest groups are raising similar concerns about the National Academy of Sciences.
* Two US EPA Environmental Justice grant opportunities
The Environmental Protection Agency, through the Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ), has released two Requests for Applications (RFA) for the Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Cooperative Agreement (EJ CPS) and the Environmental Justice Small Grants (EJSG) Programs. The application period for these RFAs will close on midnight, October 23, 2006. Under the EJ CPS Program, OEJ will provide $100,000 assistance awards to eligible organizations that plan to utilize the collaborative problem-solving model and partner with other stakeholders to address their affected community's environmental and/or public health issues. The EJ SG Program will provide $50,000 in financial assistance to eligible organizations working on local solutions to local environmental and/or public health issues. For more information, contact Karen Henry at: 415-972-3844 or henry.karen@epa.gov. To sign up for a conference call about the grants, please contact Rosa Moore at: moore.rosa@epa.gov or 800-962-6215. The dates are July 11 and 25, August 15 and 29, September 12 and 26, and October 12.
* Travel Scholarship Application Available for Brownfields 2006 Conference
International City/County Management Association (ICMA) is pleased to sponsor a limited number of travel scholarships for community-based stakeholders involved in the cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields. To be eligible, you must be affiliated with, or a representative of, a local government, state or Tribal government, community group, environmental justice organization, or nonprofit. The scholarship program will ensure diverse brownfields stakeholder groups’ participation in the conference. For more information visit: http://www.brownfields2006.org/en/Article.28.aspx.
4. CHE Science News Headlines
Most of these articles can be found at: EnvironmentalHealthNews.org.
More News...
5. New CHE Partners
We welcome the many 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
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