Contents
    •    CHE Partnership Calls
    •    President's Cancer Panel 2008
    •    Working and Regional Group Updates
    •    July Science News

Dear CHE Partners:

A special welcome to new CHE Partners who are joining our international community of over 3000 individuals and organizations. What we all share is a dedication to raising the level of dialogue about the impact of the environment on human health. Our motto is "Science and Civility" -- believing as we do that we can exchange views on the revolutionary developments in environmental health science best when our communications stay focused on the science and when our tone is respectful to others who may hold different views.

You will notice that CHE Working Groups listservs have their own "cultures" that have developed according to the needs and interests of the 150 to 250 Partners in each group. Some listservs provide exclusively, or predominantly, one-way summaries of the science from a group facilitator. Others are highly interactive, with a continuous flow of posts from many Partners. On the interactive lists, we encourage Partners to post sparingly so that Partners are not overwhelmed by the emails they receive. We are considering developing a science summary service for those on the more interactve lists who want to see the science once a week or once a month but prefer not to participate in the interactive dialogue.

We think continuously about how best to improve CHE's core services for Partners -- our working group listservs, the monthly CHE Partnership calls, the monthly CHE newsletter, and the opportunities that develop in different working groups for more intensive forms of collaboration.

We welcome your thoughts and suggestions! Please keep them coming.

Thanks for participating in this unique international community.

Michael Lerner
Founding CHE Partner

CHE Partnership and Working Group Calls

Stay tuned for details of an early September CHE Partnership Call...
The September call will concern the President's Cancer Panel (details in the block below). This year, the Panel is focusing on cancer and the environment.

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Resources from Recent CHE Partnership Calls
If you missed any of the following CHE Partnership Calls, you may listen to MP3 recordings and find supporting materials at the following links: 

July 15, 2008 - "Table Matters: How Industrial Animal Production Impacts Health and the Environment"
July 1, 2008 - "Self Defense: Environmental Impacts on Autoimmune Diseases"
May 7, 2008 - "Sick Plastic, Sick People? The Science and Policy of Bisphenol A"

And of course, you can always explore our archived resources from past Partnership calls. 

Save the Dates! Join Other CHE Partners in Creating a Cancer Prevention Agenda for the next President
Starting in September, the U.S. National Cancer Institute will hold four public meetings of the President's Cancer Panel. This year the Panel's focus is "Cancer and the Environment". These meetings offer a unique opportunity for interested CHE Partners to tell the panel and the American people what we have learned about the environmental causes of cancer. Each meeting will explore a different set of environmental contributors to cancer causation.

September 16, 2008
New Brunswick, New Jersey
Industrial and Manufacturing Exposures

October 21, 2008
Indianapolis, Indiana
Agricultural Exposures

December 4, 2008
Charleston, South Carolina
Indoor/Outdoor Air Pollution and Water Contamination

January 27, 2009
Phoenix, Arizona
Nuclear Fallout, Electromagnetic Fields, and Radiation Exposure

The agenda for each meeting includes official testimony by 12 invited experts and 15-20 minutes of open public comment. The list of invited experts for the first two panels includes many CHE partners and friends, including Jeanne Rizzo, Dr. Dick Clapp, Dr. Devra Davis, and Dr. Phil Landrigan.

We hope to show a strong presence of CHE Partners at the meetings. If you think you may be interested in attending any of the four meetings, please contact CHE Administrative Coordinator Shelby Gonzalez at shelby@healthandenvironment.org.

Preventing the Preventable Causes of Cancer: CHE's Action Plan
A number of CHE Cancer Working Group Partners have been brainstorming the most useful next steps in order to influence the report of the President's Cancer Panel and to build momentum for broader collective action for cancer prevention. Based on these discussions, the following activities are being prepared.

1.  With coordination from CHE Organizational Partner the Breast Cancer Fund, a new consensus statement on cancer and the environment is being drafted and will be disseminated for review to interested CHE Partners. This statement will provide a research and policy agenda to prevent the preventable causes of cancer.

2.  With coordination by the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, four fact sheets on the Panel meeting issue areas will be produced.

3.  CHE will host a series of Partnership Calls based on the different focus areas. A call will take place two to four weeks in advance of each meeting. There may also be follow-up calls hosted by the CHE Cancer working group after each meeting.

4.  CHE will host receptions after each of the President's Cancer Panel meetings. These gatherings will provide a space for CHE Partners to meet one other, discuss how we can work together, and how we can further our collective work on cancer prevention.

We welcome your thoughts on the above plan. In addition, if you've participated in past President's Cancer Panels, please share your experience.

CHE Working and Regional Group Updates

HEAL (Health & Environment Alliance)
~ coordinated by Lisette van Vliet, Toxics Policy Advisor, HEAL and Health Care Without Harm, lisette@env-health.org

Health & Environment Alliance (HEAL) recommendations on the role of health professionals and local health authorities in addressing the public health impacts of climate change and our high-carbon lifestyles have been summarized in a newly published brochure entitled "Public Health and Climate Change". According to the Health & Environment Alliance, those in the health care sector represent an influential group well placed to exert pressure on governments and health care establishments to implement ambitious greenhouse gas emission cuts.

Highlighted in the brochure are ways in which local health authorities can make a difference.

Download the "Public Health and Climate Change" brochure [PDF]

July Science News

Obesity 'hikes' pancreatic risk
BBC, UK, July 16, 2008
Obese women, who carry most of their excess weight around the stomach, are 70% more likely to develop pancreatic cancer, research suggests.
Read more...

Neighborhood may affect high blood pressure risk
Reuters Health, July 16, 2008
A new study suggests that building better neighborhoods might improve residents' cardiovascular health.
Read more...

Women exposed to pollutants in domestic products less likely to have boys
Asian News International, South Asia, July 16, 2008
Women exposed to higher levels of environmental pollutants present in domestic products are less likely to give birth to male children, according to a new study.
Read more...

Warming may cause increase in kidney stone cases, say US scientists
London Guardian, England, July 16, 2008
The list of climate change's destructive costs is long, but US scientists today proposed adding one more: millions of new kidney stone cases.
Read more...

Six new genes linked to autism; some lack 'on-off' switch
Associated Press, July 15, 2008
Harvard researchers have discovered half a dozen new genes involved in autism that suggest the disorder strikes in a brain that can't properly form new connections.
Read more...

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

Thank you for taking the time to read the latest about CHE. As always, we welcome your questions and suggestions. Please direct comments to Eleni Sotos, CHE Program Director, at Eleni@HealthandEnvironment.org.

Best wishes,

Eleni Sotos, MA, Program Director
Shelby Gonzalez, Administrative Coordinator
Julia Varshavsky, Program Associate
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