Collaborative on Health and the Environment

New Resources for Parents and Kids

8/16/10: The Healthy Schools Network has published a new guide titled, "BP Oil Spill: Keeping Kids Safe!" and the Center for Health, Environment and Justice has published "Back to School Guide to PVC-Free School Supplies". Both of these resources are available in CHE's Portal to Science or by searching by title in the search box at the top of this page.
Go to the CHE Portal to Science

CHE-LDDI honored by Autism Society

7/2/10: The Autism Society has announced that CHE's Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative (CHE-LDDI) is one of six recipients of the prestigious "Autism Champion" award to be given at their annual conference, July 9, 2010 in Dallas.

PARTNER SPOTLIGHT

Sarah Howard Sarah Howard Photo

CHE Partner

CHE regularly highlights the work of our Partners here in our Partner Spotlight. Below, Sarah Howard discusses her work addressing environmental health and type 1 diabetes.

What first brought you into environmental health work?

I became interested in environmental health via the environmental justice movement during graduate school in the 1990s. My subsequent job involved working on lead poisoning, pollution prevention, and environmental health projects. After the publication of Our Stolen Future, I became interested in the health effects of endocrine disrupting compounds.

When I became pregnant, the political became personal. I developed gestational diabetes, and soon thereafter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. After my first son was born, he had food allergies and a speech disorder. My second son developed type 1 diabetes at 23 months of age, and also had a speech delay and some food sensitivities. My friends and I were dealing with a gamut of health issues in our children, and it seemed that these were more common than in past years. But why?

Read past interviews.

10 Sep Gas line explosion burns San Bruno neighborhood. With a thunderous roar heard for miles, a natural gas line explosion ripped through a San Bruno neighborhood Thursday evening, sending up a geyser of fire that killed at least one person and injured more than 20 others, and igniting a blaze that destroyed 53 homes, authorities said. San Francisco Chronicle.

10 Sep Environment groups cite Lansing power plant for coal ash pollution. Near one power plant in New Mexico, ranchers have reported losing hundreds of livestock who drank polluted groundwater. In a Montana town, people have been sickened by drinking water contaminated with high levels of sulfate and boron, the same metals discharged into groundwater by a nearby plant. Gannett News Service.

10 Sep Coal-related health problems will lead to 945 premature New York deaths this year, study finds. Pollution in coal-fired power-plant emissions will cause an estimated 13,500 premature deaths nationwide and roughly 945 in New York this year, according to a Clean Air Task Force report released Thursday. Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin.

10 Sep EPA to natural gas companies: Give details on 'fracking' chemicals. The natural-gas production industry has resisted providing information about fracking or hydraulic fracturing chemicals, which some say have fouled drinking-water wells. Christian Science Monitor.

10 Sep Cadmium in Chinese jewelry raises alarms. The cupcake-shaped pendants came in shades of blue and pink, studded with rhinestones. Meant for little girls, they cost as little as $8. And they were potentially deadly, according to consumer advocates. Los Angeles Times.

10 Sep Lawmaker to open new front in case of soldiers exposed to carcinogen in Iraq. National Guardsmen from three states who charge defense contractor KBR Inc. with exposing them to a carcinogenic chemical during the Iraq war scored a win in an Oregon federal court last week -- and more high-profile help for the soldiers' plight could be coming soon on Capitol Hill. Greenwire.

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