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.

25 May You need phosphorus to live ? and we're running out. Who cares about phosphorus? For starters, every living thing on Earth ? including humans ? since all the crops we eat depend on it to produce healthy cells. Industrial farming has played a part in sucking this critical element out of our soil. Mother Jones.

25 May Global majority faces water shortages 'within two generations.' The majority of the 9 billion people on Earth will live with severe pressure on fresh water within the space of two generations as climate change, pollution and over-use of resources take their toll, 500 scientists have warned. The Guardian.

25 May Antibiotic resistance: Drugs used on animals put humans at risk. Concern has been intensifying in recent years over the use of antibiotics in agriculture, which world health authorities agree contributes to the development of drug-resistant bacteria. These so-called superbugs infect hundreds of thousands and kill tens of thousands of Americans each year. Chicago Tribune.

25 May Drug residues in meat draw federal regulators' concern. Although much of the alarm over the use of antibiotics on livestock focuses on its contribution to bacterial resistance, the presence of drug residues and other chemicals in U.S. meat is also causing concern. Chicago Tribune.

25 May Spain replants after centuries of deforestation. Centuries of deforestation have turned Spain's lush forests into barren scrublands, making them vulnerable to erosion. But volunteers are working to revive the landscape and protect local water sources. Deutsche Welle.

25 May Chile's Indians take on world's largest gold miner. Chile's newly empowered environmental regulator on Friday confirmed nearly two dozen violations of Barrick's environmental impact agreement, blocking construction on the $8.5 billion project until the Canadian company keeps its promises to prevent water contamination. Associated Press.

25 May On the front lines of food safety. With piles of fresh strawberries beckoning consumers at markets and stores this season, an alliance of a major retailer, fruit growers and farm workers has begun a program to promote healthy produce and improve working conditions. New York Times.

25 May Chile's fish supply decline 'catastrophic' after years of overfishing. After decades of unchecked plunder, nearly all commercial fisheries in Chile are in a state of precipitous decline, especially the once-plentiful jack mackerel. Although the plight of the jack mackerel has captured headlines, its troubled story is by no means unique. Pulitzer Center.

25 May Bushwick's struggles with asthma: What's poverty's role? Jennifer Mora lives with her 4-year-old son Devin in an apartment with one window. For most people, the lack of natural light would be an inconvenience, but for Devin, it's potentially life-threatening: poor ventilation can trigger his asthma. Brooklyn Bureau.

25 May DOE looks for orphan wells. The federal government is pushing new efforts to deal with an old problem ? abandoned oil and gas wells. In Pennsylvania, there may be as many as 100,000 orphan wells. If the wells were not sealed properly, they could explode. Living On Earth.

More news...