Log in - Help - February 3, 2012
CHE logo The Collaborative on Health and the Environment
You are here:  Home » Working Groups » LDDI Working Group
This site WWW
CHE WORKING GROUP EVENTS

LDDI's Core Organizational Partners

AAIDD logo and link to that site

ASA logo and link to that site

LDAA logo and link to that site

NADD logo and link to that site

Learning Disabilities
Environmental Health News

3 Feb High levels of mercury found in Minnesota's North Shore babies. One in 10 babies along Minnesota's North Shore are born with unhealthy levels of mercury in their bodies, according to a new report on contamination around Lake Superior, the first to look for the pollutant in the blood of U.S. infants. Minneapolis Star Tribune.

3 Feb Could an infection cause Tourette's-like symptoms in teenage girls? Over the weekend Erin Brockovich made the news yet again as she and her nonprofit team descended on the village of Le Roy, N.Y., determined to test for environmental toxins that might be giving the town's teenagers symptoms of Tourette's syndrome. Scientific American.

3 Feb Paul Krugman's toxic shock syndrome: Mercury madness. The new EPA mercury regulations appear to be but another Obama administration salvo in an unrelenting war against fossil energy in general, coal in particular, where the largest casualties will be businesses, jobs and household electricity budgets. Forbes.

2 Feb New study calculates years of life lost to extreme temperature. In one Australian city, researchers have calculated how many years of life were lost due to heat waves and cold snaps. Using this information, scientists also projected how a climate change scenario would affect life expectancies. ClimateWire.

2 Feb General anesthesia in infancy linked to higher risk of ADHD. Infants who undergo surgical procedures requiring general anesthesia in their first two years of life may be at increased risk of developing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as they grow older. Health.com.

Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative Working Group (LDDI)

LDDI is an international partnership fostering collaboration among learning and developmental disability organizations, researchers, health professionals and environmental health groups to address concerns about the impact environmental pollutants may have on neurological health. LDDI currently has over 400 organizational and individual participants engaged in educational and policy efforts.

If you are interested in joining this group, please sign on as a CHE Partner, and indicate your interest in your application. If you are already a CHE Partner and would like to join the listserv for this group send an email request to LDDI's listserv.

LDDI WORKING GROUP NEWS

9/13/11: CHE LDDI/ASA Workshops
Two workshops in November 2011 and one in January 2012 will feature national experts from diverse sectors highlighting the latest research on associations between environmental exposures and early neurodevelopment as well as the implications for prevention-based public health policy. Visit the workshops page

5/10/11: PAH Column Published 
A new Practice Prevention column on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has been published in English and Spanish. See our webpage with columns and fact sheets.

3/28/11: Practice Prevention Column Updates and Translations
With the assistance of intern Kelly Quinn, several of LDDI's Practice Prevention columns have been updated and translated into Spanish. 

2/9/11: LDAA Forum
On January 24th, the Learning Disabilities Association of America, with support from the John Merck Fund, Kaiser Family Foundation and the Ceres Foundation, convened a forum to present the state-of-the-science on toxic chemicals and health as well as related policy updates and training. Read more »

11/17/10: AAIDD Environmental Health Initiative Aging, Environmental Health, and IDD Teleconference Series 
The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD)'s Environmental Health Initiative (EHI) organized a distinguished panel of guest speakers to present a groundbreaking series of webinars on aging and environmental health with a focus on disability. This series was sponsored by the John Merck Fund and organized in conjunction with the Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) of Greater Boston, and supported by LDDI and the new Healthy Aging and the Environment Initiative and of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE).

The series included five webinars that approached aging from an ecological health perspective and addressed the food, chemical, built, and psychosocial environments. An audio and visual archive of the seminars is now available. We encourage you to access these free resources on the AAIDD web site, share this information with your colleagues, and disseminate through your networks. For more information, please visit the EHI Teleconference webpage

 

The Collaborative on Health and the Environment
c/o Commonweal, PO Box 316, Bolinas, CA 94924
For questions or comments about the website, email: info@healthandenvironment.org