Fall 1999: Environmental Health
Increased cancer rates, adverse developmental effects from synthetic
chemicals that mimic estrogen, even impotent alligators! Each
week we are bombarded with studies and frightening allegations
of new adverse health effects of environmental contaminants. What
do we really know about the impact of environmental pollutants
on wildlife and human health? And which policies are most appropriate
to address the actual or potential threats? Nationally recognized
policy makers, researchers, and activists will engage these questions
critically in a semester-long series of events.
September 13, 1999
EPA Policy: Defining the Public's Interest
Lecture by Carol Browner, Head of the Environment Protection Agency
(EPA)
Appointed by President Clinton in January 1993, Carol M. Browner is now the longest serving Administrator in the history of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As EPA Administrator, Browner's mission is to protect public health and the environment by safeguarding the nation's air, water, and land from the harmful pollution.
October 5, 1999
A Sense of Wonder
A play based on the life and works of Rachel Carson
In her 1962 book, The Silent Spring, Rachel Carson alerted the
world to the adverse health impact of environmental pollutants.
Play written and performed by Kaiulani Lee.
October 21, 1999
Environmental Justice
Panel Discussion
Who should pay the price for greater environmental justice?
Who should make the decisions? The questions explored by the panelists include the evidence of environmental inequities, how much risk is acceptable and who should make that decision, what constitute environmentally just policies, what role race plays in these policies, how community-based organizations and non-scientists can in the debate and decision-making about environmental hazards; and how we can distribute the burdens of environmental hazards more evenly across economic groups and nations.
Moderator Judith Kurland '67, Regional Director, U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, Massachusetts. Throughout
her career, Ms. Kurland has combined policy andpractice, shaping
public policies and developing programs that demonstrate and test
the real world merits of these policies.
Michele Corash '67, Partner in the international law firm
of Morrison &Foerster, head of the firm's 60-member environmental
law group. Ms. Corash was General Counsel of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency and Deputy General Counsel of the United States
Department of Energy in the Carter Administration.
John Graham, Director, Center for Risk Analysis, Harvard
University. Mr. Graham has devoted his career to identifying cost-effective
ways to save lives, prevent injuries and diseases and protect
the environment.
Vernice Miller, Member of the National Environmental Justice
Advisory Council of the EPA, co-founder of West Harlem Environmental
Action. Ms. Miller has focused on the intersection between race,
land-use planning, and environmental policy. Embedded within these
issues is the subtext of the relationship between race, public
health, and public policy within an environmental context.
Nancy Maxwell, Senior Scientist in epidemiology at the
Silent Spring Institute, Newton and Hyannis Ms.Maxwell has studied
how the presence of polluting land uses, both industrial and agricultural,
across Massachusetts is related to communities' economic status
and social makeup, on the one hand, and to the local incidence
of several cancers, on the other.
November 17, 1999
Assault on the Sexes: Chemical Risks to Humans and the Environment
Panel Discussion
Sperm counts are down. Rates of testicular cancer are up. The reproductive system of alligators and gulls has been changed dramatically. Researchers theorize that pollutants like dioxin and pesticides are at the root of the problems. In Our Stolen Future Theo Colburn and her co-authors claim that "wildlife studies vividly demonstrate that these chemicals have the power to derail sexual development, creating intersex individuals that are neither male nor female. They can sabotage fertility, erode intelligence, undermine the immune system, and alter behavior."
A panel of national experts will analyze what we know about the effects of environmental estrogens on wildlife and human health, whether present safety assessment methods of chemicals are adequate, and what evidence we need to take effective action.
Moderator Rochelle Tyl, Director, Center for Life Sciences
and Toxicology, Research Triangle Institute, NCMs. Tyl's work
has focused on manifestations and mechanisms of reproductive and
developmental toxicology in animal models from exposures to pharmaceuticals,
industrial chemicals, pesticides and environmental pollutants
(including known and possible endocrine disruptors).
Linda Birnbaum, Director, Experimental Toxicology Division,
National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory,
EPA Ms. Birnbaum's primary interests are in the mechanisms of
toxicity of environmental chemicals, how the body handles environmental
chemicals, and the application of this knowledge to improve our
ability to assess risk.
Christobal Bonifaz, Laywer, Amherst, MA. Mr. Bonifaz' lawfirm
specializes in toxic tort litigation and international environmental
litigation. Mr. Bonifaz spearheaded the current lawsuit against
Texaco Corporation on behalf of Ecuadorean Indians.
George Daston, Developmental toxicologist with Procter
& Gamble Mr. Daston's interests are in determining the mechanisms
by which certain chemicals can cause birth defects and other forms
of abnormal development so that exposure to these chemicals can
be reduced.
Louis Guillette, Professor of zoology and Research Foundation Endowed Professor at the University of Florida, Gainesville Mr. Guillette's research has examined the role of environmental contaminants as endocrine disruptors in various wildlife species.
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