Living Downstream

A nonprofit organization that identifies the risks of pesticides, promotes nonchemical alternatives, and assists individuals and community-based organizations that are struggling with issues involving pesticides—from golf courses and schools to lawn care and food production. Provides databases and fact sheets.

A membership organization based in San Francisco that views breast cancer as a public health emergency and addresses social injustices, including involuntary chemical exposures, that put women at risk for breast cancer.

A prevention-based organization that advocates for the identification and elimination of environmental causes of breast cancer.

A coalition of organizations seeking to require the personal care products industry to eliminate the use of chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects. The Environmental Working Group, one of its founding members, has created the searchable Skin Deep database that profiles twenty-five thousand personal care products and their ingredients.

A national organization in Canada that supports community right to know and the precautionary principle. The Canadian Cancer Society seeks the identification and elimination of cancer-causing substances in the workplace, home, and environment.

An affiliation of groups that seek to improve children’s environmental health in Canada.

A network of more than three thousand individuals and organizations working to address growing concerns about the links between human health and environmental factors. The Toxicant and Disease Database summarizes links between chemical contaminants and 180 human diseases.

A nonprofit organization that compiles scientific evidence on the health and environmental problems caused by exposure to chemicals that interfere with hormones, with a special focus on development.

A syndication service that is published daily by Environmental Health Sciences. It both publishes its own articles and offers summaries of articles published in referenced journals as well as a daily digest of articles on environmental health topics, including cancer, that are published each day in the world press. I subscribe to its free daily e-letter, Above The Fold.

A non-profit research organization that brings to light information on public health and the environment. Provides a database of chemicals found in municipal drinking water supplies throughout the United States.

The European sister organization of the Collaborative on Health and Environment. HEAL, located in Brussels, Belgium, oversees a project called Chemicals Health Monitor that provides a comprehensive compilation of recent information and evidence about the links between chemical contaminants in the environment and human health problems. HEAL provides news on chemical safety policy, especially the EU legislation called REACH, and on human biomonitoring.

A nonprofit organization in Sweden that serves as a watchdog for the legislative process and implementation of the European Union’s chemical policy REACH, which entered into force in June 2007. It seeks the elimination of hazardous substances and is the standard-bearer of the Precautionary Principle in Europe.

An Illinois-based nonprofit organization that promotes community-based, organic food systems by training new farmers and connecting them with farmland. Thanks to this organization, my family’s four-generation farm is, once again, an organic operation.

The premier source for cancer statistics in the United States, SEER collects information on incidence from geographic areas representing 26 percent of the United States and cancer mortality data for the whole nation. The Cancer Stat Fact Sheets provide recent statistics for each type of cancer.

Canada’s publicly accessible inventory of pollutant releases to air, water, and land.

A nonprofit organization that promotes the elimination of highly hazardous pesticides and offers a pesticide database on toxicity and regulatory information, including data on pesticide use in California.

A partnership of scientists, physicians, public health advocates, and community activists that works to identify the links between the environment and women’s health, especially breast cancer. Silent Spring Institute provides a database on the 216 different chemicals shown to cause mammary gland cancer in animals, including individual study results, chemical regulatory status, and likely sources of exposure. It provides another searchable database on the 450 primary epidemiologic research articles on breast cancer and environmental pollutants.

A global treaty to protect human health and the environment from inherently toxic chemicals that remain intact in the environment for a long time and travel far from their points of manufacture and use. Because of their propensity for long-range transport, no one nation-state acting alone can protect its citizens from persistent organic pollutants. Administered by the United Nations, the treaty was adopted in 2001, and enacted into international law in 2004. At this writing, the treaty calls for the worldwide phase-out from use and production of twenty-one chemicals and requires parties to take measures to eliminate or reduce the release of these substances into the environment. Currently, 164 nations are parties to the Stockholm Convention. At this writing, the United States is not.

There are two ways of acquiring environmental data available to the public under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). One is through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is the branch of the federal government charged with administering EPCRA and maintaining the TRI. The other venue is the Right-to-Know Network, which advocates for improved access to government-held information on the environment, health, and safety. RTK Network puts TRI data together with other environmental data—such as hazardous waste and spill and accident reports. Both the EPA and RTK Net host excellent Web sites with mapping features that allow searches by chemical, by facility, or by ZIP code.