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February
2003 | Volume 1, Number 5
Promoting
the Environmental Justice
& Health Union mission, Catalyst identifies training,
research, policies, events, and funding opportunities that
foster partnerships to eliminate environmental disease in
poor minority communities within the United States. To do
that, Catalyst depends on information submitted by an advisory
board of environmental health professionals and environmental
justice activists as well as our readers.
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TOOLBOX
Free computers and websites for community groups
Free
computers and other donated
hardware are readily available. Hundreds of
technology centers
offering assistance are in communities nationwide. In addition website
designers will provide free help for community groups
trying to create websites. These and other resources
may be found near you by entering your zipcode in the Digital
Divide Network website. More Tech
Tips are available from EJHU.
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OTHER MATERIALS
The Institute of Medicine has published "Speaking
of Health: Assessing health communication strategies
for diverse populations".
The Public Health Foundation is distributing the videotape
"Enhancing
environmental health practice in the 21st Century" while
supplies last.
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ADVISORY
BOARD
Lynn Battle
Executive Director, Citizen's
Lead Education & Poisoning Prevention (Birmingham, AL)
Michael
Green
Executive Director, Center
for Environmental Health (Oakland, CA)
Swati
Prakash
Environmental Health Director, West
Harlem Environmental Action (New York, NY)
Alejandra
Tres
Executive Director, Association
of Environmental Health Academic Programs (Portland,
OR)
The Environmental Justice and Health Union is an independent project of the
Center for Environmental Health
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The
Next Step...
Three reports highlighting the human impact of the toxics
production and exposure were recently released. The US Public
Interest Research Group released "Toxic
releases and health", a review of industry reports of
billions of pounds of toxic releases (including more than
2.5 billion pounds of toxins that affect the nervous and
respiratory systems) to air and water each year. The impact
of such releases remain poorly understood. The grand scale
of this experiment is reflected in "Body
burden". A collaborative study of the Mount Sinai School
of Medicine, Commonweal, and the Environmental Working Group,
"Body burden" tested nine volunteers who, like most people
in the US, do not work with toxic chemicals or live near
industrial plants reporting industrial releases. The blood
and urine of the volunteers was tested for 210 chemicals.
On average, the volunteers had accumulated 91 chemicals
with a total of 167 chemicals found in the group.
A broader
overview is provided by "Human
Exposure to Environmental Chemicals". This Centers for
Disease Control report provides the levels of 116 chemicals
in 2,500 people across the US. It establishes - for the first time -
the quantity of more than 70 chemicals
that people in the United States take into their bodies and helps identify
subpopulations that may be at higher risk for being exposed to such chemicals.
The report represents the most comprehensive assessment of chemical accumulation in the US population to date.
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PARTNERSHIPS
Collaborative on Health and the Environment
The Collaborative
on Health and the Environment invites health professionals,
scientists and environmental groups to come together to
create a diverse and inclusive collaboration focused on
reducing public exposure to toxics and developing preventive
strategies. Through working groups and initiatives members
are able create national coalitions focused on specific
issues related to health and the environment. Membership
in the collaborative is free.
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ENVIRONMENTAL
HEALTH
Daily asthma risk
Air Now is an on-line
system that provides daily air quality data for more than
165 cities. The data can help those with asthma and other
respiratory ailments identify periods of high risk.
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ENVIRONMENTAL
JUSTICE
 Negotiation
EPA is funding efforts to research the advantages
of collaboration and negotiation (in contrast to litigation)
to resolve environmental justice conflicts through training
and dispute resolution for standard setting and local decision-making.
The final
product will be a series of workshops and reports about
how to structure effective collaborations.
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SUBSCRIBE and PROVIDE
The
Catalyst
is an online newsletter sent monthly to Environmental
Justice & Health Union members.
Groups with annual budgets of less than $200,000 receive
free EJHU membership. The EJHU website (www.ejhu.org) includes
information for activists and professionals about training, research, and policies, EJHU membership, and past
issues of Catalyst. If you want to provide information to be considered for inclusion in Catalyst, include a contact name, website, and e-mail address. Please forward the information to ejhu@ejhu.org
or the following address:
Max Weintraub - Director
Environmental Justice and Health Union
528 61st Street, Suite
A
Oakland, CA 94609
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CLOSING DATES
February 1
Community-partnered
interventions to reduce health disparities
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
February 7
Asthma scholarship
for nurses
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February 28
Community
toolbox for children's environmental health
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March 1
Funding
exchange
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March 1
Occupational
safety and health
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March 15
Foundation
for Change - San Diego
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March 17
San
Francisco Foundation
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EVENTS CALENDAR
February 4, Harrisburg PA
State
of PA environmental justice advisory board
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February 10 - 11, Bethesda MD
National
Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council
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February 10 - 13, Seattle WA
Neighborhood
asthma
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February 13, Sacramento CA
California
EJ Meeting
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Feb 24 - 26, Bethesda MD
Children's
Environmental Health
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March 9 - 13, Salt Lake City UT
Society of Toxicology
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March 13 - 15, Bellingham WA
Healthy
children, healthy planet
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March 18 - 19, Washington DC
Advisory
committee on childhood lead poisoning prevention
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March 18 - 19, Eufaula AL
Alabama
Environmental Health Association
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March 19, Pittsburgh PA
Health
and the Urban Environment
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March 28, Chicago IL
CDC
Chicago summit to eliminate childhood lead poisoning
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March 31 - April 4, Pittsburgh PA
Particulate
matter and human health
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