One of my favorite organizations, Healthy Child, Healthy World educates parents, promotes policies and supports community efforts to protect our children from environmental health hazards, especially those that may be present in the home environment. Healthy Child, Healthy world has published a terrific guide to help parents maintain healthy homes. Their website provides clear and concise information about chemicals, environmentally-linked conditions and diseases, and public policy. It also features great tips for parents, including downloadable “pocket guides” for a variety of products including personal care products, cleaning products, baby food and formula.
Project Green Schools is a small non-profit with a big mission: to create greener and healthier learning environments. Founder and Executive Director, Robin Organ, knows first-hand about the havoc that environmental toxins can wreck on personal health. Her own experience with toxic overload inspired her to found Project Green Schools and work to transform our schools into green & healthy spaces. Project Green Schools offers educational programs for staff, parents and students to help improve indoor air quality, food and nutrition, and resource conservation. They currently work with over 70 schools and are establishing new relationships all the time. Folks in the Boston area can learn more about them by visiting one of the many Community Green Fairs that they host over the course of the year.
Founded in 1981, Beyond Pesticides is a non-profit organization devoted to assessing and publicizing the risks of conventional pest management practices and identifying and promoting healthy and environmentally-friendly non-chemical alternatives. Beyond Pesticides provides a wealth of information about pesticides including the Pesticide Gateway, a database of 80+ pesticides, and fact sheets on non-chemical treatments for a range of pests, from ants to rodents to wasps.
Founded in 1981 by Lois Gibbs, CHEJ exists to help families and communities protect themselves from exposure to environmental toxins. Gibbs was spurred to action by her own community’s environmental health nightmare: She and her neighbors had been poisoned by toxic chemicals buried beneath their homes by Hooker Chemical Corporation. Since then, CHEJ has help communities organize to stop pollution and hold polluters accountable. CHEJ works on a variety of campaigns, including one to phase out the use of Poly Vinyl Chloride (dubbed “The Poison Plastic”) and another to help schools engage in environmental advocacy. They also publish a variety of fact sheets and reports on environmental health issues for the general public.
What is Bisphenol-A and why is exposure bad for you health? What about phthalates and perchloroethylene? Where in your everyday life might you encounter toxic chemicals and what can you do to protect yourself? If you have questions about chemicals and health, there is no better resource than Tox Town. Maintained by the National Library of Medicine, Tox Town provides easy to understand descriptions of toxic chemicals, information about exposure and links for those interested in learning more.
Perkins + Will, a commercial planning and design firm in Boston, has recently released a great new green resource for design/build professionals and the public alike. The Perkin + Will Precautionary List is an online directory of chemicals used in building products that are listed by government agencies as harmful to human health. You can search the directory by chemical, material use, and health impact.
Located at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, the Toxic Use Reduction Institute promotes alternatives to toxic chemicals in industrial production and consumer goods and services TURI’s programs and services include research and testing of chemicals; trainings of toxic use professionals; outreach; and education. While TURI works primarily with researchers, government agenices and businesses, the community page of its website provides a wealth of information, tips and resources for consumers. TURI also publishes a weekly bulletin, called the “Greenlist Bulletin” which previews recent publications and websites relevant to toxic use reduction. The Greenlist Bulletin is one of the few email bulletins I subscribe to that I always read. The publication previews are accessible to the general public and provide cutting edge information about our exposure to environmental health hazards.
