Collaborative on Health and the Environment

UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment Announces Visionary Leadership Awards

5/20/13: The UCSF PRHE program has announced Teresa Woodruff, President-elect of The Endocrine Society, Linda Giudice, President of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, and Jeanne Conry, President of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists will be awarded PRHE’s Visionary Leadership Award on June 14th at the start of The Endocrine Society Meeting in San Francisco. The award is given to visionary leaders working to improve reproductive health by preventing harmful environmental exposures. For more information on the awards reception see the invitation to attend the event.

CHE Quarterly Top 10 List

4/30/13: For our third quarterly Top 10 list, we again selected from several dozen candidate news articles, journal articles, policy decisions and reports that have had a significant impact or are likely to have a significant impact on thinking and action in the field of environmental health. We consider these selections to be the biggest contributors toward new insights, toward changing the conversation or expanding the scope of the conversation on a topic to a new audience or awareness, or toward defining a new trend. Comments are welcome.
See the list

PARTNER SPOTLIGHT

CHE regularly highlights the work of our Partners here in our Partner Spotlight.

The Rise of the US Environmental Health Movement: An Interview with CHE Partner Kate Davies, MA, DPhil

Kate Davies is in on the core faculty at the Center for Creative Change, Antioch University Seattle, and is a clinical associate professor at the School of Public Health, University of Washington. She is also the author of The Rise of the US Environmental Health Movement, the first book to offer a comprehensive examination of the environmental health movement with a focus on the ways toxic chemicals and other hazardous agents in the environment effect human health and well-being (Rowman & Littlefield, April 2013).

What first brought you into environmental health work?

In 1965, when I was 8 years old, my mother was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer. She was given less than a year to live. By some miracle she survived, only to be diagnosed with breast cancer some

20 years later. She survived this too, but in 1995 she developed a rare T cell lymphoma. She died in 2007, after fighting three different types of cancer for over forty years.

My mother’s illnesses influenced me profoundly. As a child, I wanted to become a doctor so I could make her better, but as the physicians failed to cure her, I became more interested in how cancer could be prevented. To find out more, I decided to study biochemistry. After completing a bachelor’s degree in 1978, I went on to earn a doctorate at Oxford University. During this time, I became convinced that toxic chemicals and radiation played a role in this terrible disease - a realization that led me to join the environmental health movement.

23 May Whey too much: Greek yogurt?s dark side. Greek yogurt is a booming $2 billion a year industry ? and it's producing millions of pounds of waste that industry insiders are scrambling to figure out what to do with. Modern Farmer.

23 May House passes another bill authorizing Keystone XL. The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation Wednesday that would speed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline - a largely symbolic measure with probably no chance of clearing the Democratic Senate and overcoming a presidential veto. Houston Chronicle.

23 May Plastic food packaging could cause high blood pressure in children. Chemicals found in common plastics could cause high blood pressure in children, according to a new study. Flooring, plastic cups, beach balls and plastic packaging contain phthalates that are causing a rise in cases of juvenile high blood pressure, the scientists claim. London Daily Mail.

23 May Interactive: Chemical that sparked deadly Texas explosion found across US. A new map shows ammonium nitrate facilities in 29 states according to federally required reports intended to help residents and first responders understand chemical risks in their communities. Reuters.

23 May Overhaul of chemical safety law gets bipartisan support in Senate. In a rare display of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, a group of key senators unveiled legislation Wednesday that would require chemical companies to provide more health and safety information about their products and give regulators more power to force harmful compounds off the market. Chicago Tribune.

23 May Research on microbes points to new tools for conservation. Improvements in DNA technology now make it possible for biologists to identify every living organism in and around a species. Scientists say this could have profound implications for everything from protecting amphibians from a deadly fungus to reintroducing species into the wild. Yale Environment 360.

23 May Frog, toad and salamander populations plummeting, US survey finds. Frogs, toads and salamanders continue to vanish from the American landscape at an alarming pace, with seven species facing 50 percent drops in their numbers within seven years if the current rate of decline continues, according to new government research. Washington Post.

23 May Did my faulty breast implants kill my darling daughter? As experts warn leaking implants may harm babies, mothers are terrified they have paid a terrible price for their vanity. London Daily Mail.

23 May Montreal's boil-water warning inflames an already simmering city. In an extraordinary warning, 1.3 million residents in and around Montreal were told their tap water was unsafe to drink, further eroding the public?s trust in the stewardship of a city mired in infrastructure woes and corruption scandals. Globe and Mail.

23 May How two college pals are growing a solution to our reliance on plastic. Six years ago, Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre were college friends with a bright idea: using mushrooms and agricultural byproducts to create an alternative to plastic. Now, they?re growing a business that could change almost everything about how we live. Fast Company.

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