Further Resources
A movement working to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis, beginning with the scientific premise that 350 parts per million (of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere) is the outer safe limit for humanity. (Current level: 388.)
A coalition that works to eliminate toxic pesticides in homes, schools, lawns, and the food supply.
A portal on the collaborative encyclopedia SourceWatch that provides information on the coal industry to citizen groups working to promote a transition away from coal. SourceWatch also provides information on gas drilling and fracking.
An international partnership committed to strengthening the scientific and public dialogue on the impact of environmental factors on human health and catalyzing initiatives to address these concerns. The Web site provides links to the following projects and working groups:
Initiative on Children’s Environmental Health: An alliance of health professional and child advocates devoted to the promotion of children’s health through the prevention of environmental exposures.
Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative: A partnership of disabilities organizations, researchers, and environmental health groups working to understand the impact of environmental pollutants on neurological health.
Working Group on Asthma and the Environment: A consortium of scientists, health-affected groups, and community organizations working to understand the link between air quality and respiratory health.
A research center that works to protect children’s health by conducting scientific studies linking common pollutants—including air contaminants, pesticides, mercury, and endocrine disruptors—to children’s health.
A research and advocacy organization working on behalf of communities confronting minerals and mining operations, including, through its Oil and Gas Accountability Project, drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
A research organization that compiles scientific evidence on the health and environmental problems caused by exposure to chemicals that interfere with hormones, including those used in natural gas drilling.
A foundation-funded journalism organization that offers free subscriptions to a daily news digest and maintains searchable archives on a variety of environmental health topics, including air quality, asthma, autism, cancer, children’s health, climate change, coal, fracking for natural gas, green chemistry, male reproduction, pesticides, phthalates, and water issues.
Research and advocacy organization that has undertaken studies of product safety, drinking water contaminants, and body burdens of toxic chemicals, including those found in umbilical cord blood.
An educational organization that promotes hands-on, curriculum-based experiences with nutritious foods as a way to transform the school lunch program and to teach food preparation skills to children and their parents.
Green Chemistry and Green Engineering
Fields of research that seek to eliminate hazardous chemicals at the design stage—and detoxify high school and university chemistry labs:
The conscience of the green architecture movement and green building certification standards (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, LEED), HBN seeks to transform the building materials market. An outspoken critic of PVC plastic and arsenic-treated wood.
A global movement that seeks to detoxify the healthcare industry through elimination of mercury and PVC and other toxicants used in hospitals. Promotes safer chemicals, medical recycling, healthy food systems, green building, and green purchasing.
An advocacy group that documents and publicizes school environmental problems while shaping education, health, and environmental policies that promote healthy, non-toxic learning environments.
A research organization that advocates for family farmers, fair trade policies, rural wind power, and an end to the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture.
A nationwide, informational resource site for community supported agriculture, farmers’ markets, and sources of local, organic food.
A group founded by breastfeeding mothers seeking to keep breast milk safe by eliminating industrial pollutants that contaminate it. A project of the Center for Environmental Health (
www.ceh.org).
Membership organization that represents the profession of midwifery, which practices a model of care that monitors all aspects of the mother’s environment—physical, psychological, and social—during the childbearing cycle and seeks to minimize technological intervention in childbirth.
National Center for Safe Routes to School www.saferoutesinfo.org National program helping parents and communities to design routes to school free of traffic and other hazards so children can safely walk and bicycle to school.
The voice of the farm to school movement, supporting efforts to bring food from local farms to school cafeterias nationwide as a way supporting community-based food systems while improving children’s health.
An international citizens’ network that advances alternatives to pesticides. Maintains a searchable database.
The medical and public health voice of the environmental health movement, working on the climate crisis, the spread of nuclear weapons, and the degradation of the environment.
The central organizing force of the “right to dry” movement. Helps individuals reduce energy consumption and save money through the cultural rediscovery of clotheslines.
A nationwide effort by a coalition of organizations and individuals, including parents, to reform U.S. chemicals policy.
The leading voice for the precautionary principle in the United States. Encourages the practice of science in the public interest and advocates for the idea of legal guardianship for future generations.
A national organization that works to eliminate toxic chemicals that affect women’s health, including cosmetics and cleaning products.
IN CANADA:
An alliance of twelve organizations with expertise in issues related to children, public health, and the environment.