25 Years of Citizen Activism and Constructionchej.org/wp-content/uploads/Summer2003.pdf · 2016....

Vol. 21, No. 2-3 Summer/Fall 2003

The Journal of the Grassroots Movement for Environmental JusticeCenter for Health, Environment and Justice

25 Years of Citizen Activism

and Construction

~ The New Grassroots Environmental Health Movement ~

PCB ACTIVISTS COMING TOGETHER TO TAKE ON POLLUTERS

CHEJ STAFF

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Lois Marie Gibbs

SCIENCE DIRECTOR

Stephen Lester

FINANCIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR

Sharon Franklin

ORGANIZING DIRECTOR

Michele Roberts

ORGANIZER/TRAINER

Larry Yates

ALLIANCE FOR SAFE ALTERNATIVES

CAMPAIGN COORDINATOR

Monica Rohde

CHILD PROOFING OUR COMMUNITIES

CAMPAIGN COORDINATOR

Paul Ruther

GREEN FLAG SCHOOL

PROGRAM CAMPAIGN ORGANIZER

Margie Klein

LIBRARIAN

Barbara Sullivan

EDITOR

Ron Nicosia

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ASSOCIATE

Danielle Asselin

DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

Maryll Kleibrink

MEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR

Sara Meehan

BOOKKEEPER

Hae-Young Kang

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Dorothea Gross

INTERN

Ryan Lester

CHEJ BOARD MEMBERS

MURRAY LEVINE, NYChairman

CLYDE FOSTER, ALConcerned Citizens Of Triana

VILMA HUNT, MA

LUELLA KENNY, NYLove Canal Medical Fund

PAME KINGFISHER, NMShining Waters

ESPERANZA MAYA, CAPeople For Clean Air And Water

SUZI RUHL, FL Environmental Law Institute

ALONZO SPENCER, OHSave Our County

ABOUT CHEJ

The Center for Health, Environment and Justice is a nonprofit, tax-exemptorganization that provides organizing and technical assistance to grassrootscommunity organizations nationwide. The center was founded in 1981 by Lois

Gibbs, who together with her neighbors won the relocation of more than 900 fami-lies from their neighborhood after it was contaminated by chemicals leaking fromthe Love Canal landfill in Niagara Falls, NY. Hundreds of people living near contami-nated sites around the country contacted Lois as her efforts and those of her neigh-bors captured national attention and proved, for the first time, that toxic waste is notan abstract issue but one that’s in everyone’s backyard.

The center’s mission is to help people build democratic, community-based or-ganizations to address public health and environmental threats. We believe stronglythat the best way to solve local problems is from the bottom up, when the peopledirectly affected speak for themselves and have a meaningful role, as equals, in anyand all decisions that affect their lives, homes and family. Our focus and resourcesare devoted to helping local community based organizations form, grow, and be-come effective in achieving their goals. We do this by providing information, advice,training, and support. We also refer callers to other grassroots groups who areworking on the same issues or fighting the same polluter.

CHEJ can help your newly formed group:

◆ learn how to conduct successful meetings

◆ raise funds

◆ define a strategic plan to accomplish goals,

◆ network with others

◆ hold news briefings and press conferences

◆ identify experts to assist with technical or scientific issues and questions

For more established groups, CHEJ can provide guidance and assistance on is-sues such as keeping people involved over the long haul, organizational structureand board development, one- to five-year strategic planning, building working coa-litions, developing campaign and issue strategies, media training and assistance, andexpanding beyond your existing geographical area.

CHEJ has staff scientists who can answer many of your questions and who canreview technical documents and tests results you need help with. The center alsohas a unique library of books, reports, government documents, subject and cor-porate files, and videos that may have just the information you need.

Currently, CHEJ is coordinating:

◆Alliance for Safe Alternatives, which is working to shift the market away fromproducts such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic that are made with orcreate persistent toxic chemicals during production, use, or disposal◆Child Proofing Our Communities, devoted to protecting children from pesti-cides and toxic chemicals in schools and day care facilities◆ Green Flag Schools Program, helps schools become healthier places for kidsand nature, and teaches students about school’s environment. By working to-gether, parents, teachers and students investigate environmental issues in theirschools, identify problesm, create solutions, and improve their school environ-ment.

We invite local groups to become part of these campaigns.

2 Everyone’s Backyard

Center for Health, Environment and Justice

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Summer/Fall 2003 3


Everyone’s Backyard is published quarterly by the Center for Health,Environment and Justice, Inc. The editor is Ron Nicosia and design layout byBarbara Sullivan. CHEJ grants permission to other publications, includingwebsites, to reprint materials from Everyone’s Backyard. All reprinted ma-terial should contain a statement acknowledging that the material was origi-nally published in Everyone’s Backyard, the quarterly newsletter of the CenterHealth, Environment and Justice.

Library of Congress #ISSN 0749-3940. Copyright by CHEJ. Reproduction bypermission only. Unsolicited manuscripts, news items, artwork, photographsand other submissions are welcome. All submissions become the property ofCHEJ and will not be returned unless special arrangements are made inadvance.

Center for Health, Environmentand Justice, Inc.

150 S. Washington StreetSuite 300 (P.O. Box 6806)Falls Church, VA 22040

(703) [email protected] ◆ www.chej.org

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF GRASSROOTS ACTIVISM

Lois Gibbs takes a look back at some of the major accomplishments ofthe grassroots movement she helped launch. She also introduces theEnvironmental Health Alliance, a new campaign to promote precautionaryapproaches to the use of toxic chemicals.............................................4

STRATEGIES AND TACTICS

Organizing to win requires clear thinking about goals and how to attainthem. Lois Gibbs explains what worked for the community at LoveCanal. ..............................................................................................6

PCB ACTIVISTS COMING TOGETHER TO TAKE ON POLLUTERS

The recent PCB Health Congress in Fairfield, Connecticut broughttogether activists from PCB-impacted communities throughout thecountry and laid the foundation for a new grassroots network................7

ACTION LINE .....................................................................................17CAMPAIGNS:

Child Proofing Our Communities ...........................................31Alliance for Safe Alternatives ..............................................32

RESOURCES .....................................................................................33

SPECIAL ISSUE!

In this special issue ofEveryone’s Backyard, CHEJcelebrates the 25th anniversaryof the community fight at LoveCanal that won relocation for 900families from one of the nation’sworst toxic waste dumps. This isnot the celebration of singleevent but of 25 years ofgrassroots activism that hasdemonstrated again and againthat government and corporatepower can be successfullychallenged. We’ve expandedEBY to 35 pages to include lotsof community stories and photosfrom the last 25 years. We alsotell you about our new coalition,the Environmental HealthAlliance, BE SAFE.

CHEJ’s newEnvironmentalHealth Alliance

~ BE SAFE~



TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF

GRASSROOTS ACTIVISM

BY LOIS GIBBS

The year 2003 marks the 25th anniversary of the Love Canal crisis—a good time to take a careful lookback at the grassroots movement that grew out of the Love Canal victory. But this is also a time forstrategizing for the future as grassroots leaders plan to launch a new campaign—the EnvironmentalHealth Alliance—to propel the precautionary principle to the forefront of public and political con-sciousness.

The Love Canal community’s successful fightfor the relocation of 900 working class familiesaway from a leaking toxic waste dump awoke a nationto the hazards of toxic chemicals in our environment.Overcoming powerful resistance from governmentand a multi-billion dollar company, OccidentalPetroleum, this grassroots effort demonstrated howordinary people can gain power and win their struggleif they are organized. Love Canal sparked a newnationwide social justice movement concerned withlinks between health problems and the environment.This movement refuses to concede to corporationsthe right to increase their profits through decisionsthat sacrifice the health of innocent families and theenvironment.

While traditional environmentalism in America hasfocused on protecting the natural environment, newergrassroots efforts are as much about protecting publichealth as protecting our natural surroundings. Theseefforts value the basic human right to have clean air,water, food and soil as well as the value of preservingour nation’s natural resources.

Traditional environmentalism primarily useslegislative and legal strategies to win change, but thegrassroots leadership believes systemic change comesfrom the bottom up. Grassroots leaders believe thatpeople plus organization equals strength—the strengthto influence policy and win protection of basic rightsand the strength to counteract the money and pressure

corporations bring to bear on elected representativesto oppose or weaken protective laws. As a result,the grassroots strategy is to build a stronghold at thelocal and state levels that can influence federal-levelrepresentatives and national policies.

Because traditional environmentalism is focusedon regulations and regulatory controls, it inevitablywinds up debating how much pollution can safely bereleased into the air or water. Efforts focus, forexample, on determining how many parts per billionof dioxin are permissible in the wastewater of a pulpmill. The grassroots movement, however, is focusedon prevention. Grassroots leaders are asking, “Whydo we need to pollute our rivers at all? Why do weallow dioxin-laced wastewater from a pulp mill’sbleaching process to be discharged into our riverswhen non-toxic alternatives exist?”

Neither approach is right or wrong or superior tothe other. The overarching goal of protecting theenvironment and all living things is the same for bothsegments of the environmental movement. Whenoperating on a parallel path, the two approachestogether can make significant progress in protectingthe environment and public health.

The grassroots environmental movement has along history of success. One of its most importantachievements has been building a broad anddiversified base of support that includes: workers;people of color; faith-based organizations; rural and

A NEW GRASSROOTS

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH MOVEMENT

WHO IS THE GRASSROOTS

ENVIRONMENTALHEALTH MOVEMENT?

Summer/Fall 2003 5


KETTLEMAN CITY,CALIFORNIA

Waste Management had operated the largesthazardous waste landfill west of the Mississippiat Kettleman City for years, so in the late1980s the company expected little resistancewhen it applied for a permit to burn toxic wasteat the site. But the largely Latino communityof 1,200 organized People for Clean Air andWater (PCAW) to fight the incinerator.PCAW knew they had been targeted becausethey were a small community of color, and theyhad had enough. When the incinerator’senvironmental impact statement was written inEnglish only, the community charged the stateand the company with “toxic racism.”Residents turned out for meetings, andmarched and rallied again and again, keepingthe pressure on decision-makers until they wonand Waste Management was denied a permitto build the incinerator.

ACCOMPLISHMENTSArmed with a willingness to do whatever it takes

to win, the grassroots environmental movement hasaccomplished much over the past two and a halfdecades. Leaders learned toxicology, researchedcorporations, established strong organizations, heldprotests, lobbied their elected representatives, ran forelected office, and mastered changing public opinionabout the seriousness of environmental chemicalexposures.

The movement has produced many extraordinaryvictories. Some of these are well known, such asthe federal “Superfund,” enacted in 1980, whichprovides a pool of funds for cleaning up the mosttoxic hazardous waste sites. Later, a communitygrants program was established that provides up to$50,000 per Superfund site for community groups to

urban families; indigenous peoples; parent-teacherorganizations; doctors, nurses, and other healthprofessionals working to transform the health careindustry’s disposal of potentially harmful substances;people who make their living fishing or who dependupon fish as a primary food in their diets; and othersfrom all walks of life.

hire their own technical expertise. And recycling hasbecome a household norm; now people look at youstrangely if you throw a can in the trash. But other,lesser-known victories are equally important.

PUTTING AN END TO

LANDFILLINGIn the last two and half decades, over 1,000

landfills have been closed, either because theycouldn’t meet new stronger regulations that grassrootsorganizations helped pass, or because citizens blockedexpansion construction. New commercial hazardouswaste landfills have become a thing of the past.

How was this accomplished? In 1985, CHEJconvened a came together at a roundtable discussionof grassroots leaders to develop a strategy to stop thecommercial landfilling of hazardous waste. Thestrategy was to force industries to abandon landfillingby making it more expensive to bury waste than toreduce and reuse materials or substitute less hazardousmaterials. To accomplish this, leaders realized theyhad to close existing landfills, stop new landfills frombeing built, and increase transportation costs for

COLUMBUS, OHIO

The Columbus municipal waste incineratorburned the city’s trash for 11 years beforelocal citizens found out that dioxin emissionsfrom the burner were the highest of anyincinerator in the country. The ParkridgeArea Residents Take Action (PARTA)organized strong opposition to shut down theincinerator. They filed complaints, met withgovernment officials and politicians, andorganized rallies, generating enormouspressure on the government to shut theincinerator down. A key moment in theirstruggle was the release of a strategic letterfrom EPA official William Sanjour to EPAAdministrator Carol Browner about the dioxinemissions. PARTA used the letter to expandthe group’s reach and increase pressure on thegovernment, which shut the incinerator downfor good in November 1994.

continued on page 8



Before you can define a strategy and tacticsfor your efforts you must have a clear set ofgoals. You need to ask, “I need a strategy to

obtain what?” If you don’t have a clear goal then thebest strategy and most creative tactics will not achieveanything.

What do I mean by strategy and tactics? Astrategy is a plan that you use to achieve a goal or setof goals. Tactics are the specific actions you take toachieve your goals. Your choice of tactics will dependon the plan you develop for accomplishing your goals.

At Love Canal, of course, I never thought aboutwhat we were doing in these terms.

However, the group we formed—the Love CanalHomeowners’ Association followed this model closely.We began by setting a clear goal. We wantedrelocation. Our families were facing chemicalexposures from 20,000 tons of toxic wastes buried inthe center of the community, and we wanted to getthem out of there.

In developing a plan—a strategy—for achievingour goal, our first step was to determine who couldrelocate the 900 families. Who had the funds and theexperience to move the families? We consideredOccidental Petroleum, the company responsible forthe contamination. We also looked at the school board,the city, the county and the state of New York, whoall shared some responsibility for the situation.

Our emotions told us to go after OccidentalPetroleum since they were most responsible, but werecognized that would be a ten-year legal battle. Afterlooking at all of the possibilities, we decided that thestate was our best option because it was the statethat had the resources to do what we needed.

All strategies also need to focus on a specific“person.” Our mothers were right when they said,“You can’t fight city hall.” City hall is a building—abureaucracy. The mayor, however, is another story.

STRATEGIES AND TACTICS

LESSONS LEARNED FROM 25 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

BY LOIS GIBBS

So we needed to figure out who within the statecould make the decision to relocate us. Love Canalresidents decided on Governor Carey. Not only didthe governor have the authority to make the decisionbut he was also up for reelection.

LCHA leaders came up with a strategy for gettingwhat we wanted from the governor: We’d make LoveCanal a political issue in the campaign and convincethe governor that voters wanted him to move familiesand that he would lose votes if he refused. The mediawas critical to the plan, as were the governor’s owncampaign activities.

Once you have decided on a strategy, you’ll needto devise tactics that put pressure on your opponent.At Love Canal, we used a variety of tactics againstthe governor:

• A group of us followed the governor acrossthe state, using his public appearances toexpose our plight and his lack of action to thepublic.

• Every time we talked with the media, wemade sure we used the governor’s name.“My child is sick because the governorrefuses to move our families and sueOccidental for reimbursement.”

• We used the science about health effects andthe extent of the contamination to make ourcase for moving the families.

• Faith-based leaders held prayer vigils and“walks of concern” around the dumpsiteasking for the governor to take immediateaction.

continued on page 25

Summer/Fall 2003 7


PCB ACTIVISTS COME TOGETHER

TO TAKE ON POLLUTERS

BY LARRY YATES

“We, the people, regardless of race,age or income have a right to a clean andhealthy environment and to a life, free fromthe effects of industrial pollutants thathave been imposed upon us throughoccupational exposure or more commonly,without our knowledge and/or against ourwill .…”


How about this for General Electric’s worstnightmare: at the entrance to theirinternational corporate headquarters in

Fairfield, Connecticut, 60activists from communitiespoisoned by PCBs(polychlorinated biphenyls)in Georgia and Alabama,Alaska and Washington,Michigan, Indiana andWisconsin, organized byGE’s longtime opponents inM a s s a c h u s e t t s ,Connecticut, and New Yorksing, chant, and hold upsigns telling GE’s neighborsthat GE puts profits aheadof children’s lives.

And the nightmaredoesn’t stop there. Theactivists go on to form anetwork and press for realsolutions to PCB issues.Now this is a nightmare notjust for General Electric but for CBS (Westinghouse),Monsanto, AK Steel, and even the U.S. Departmentof Defense.

That’s exactly what happened this March whenPCB activists came together in Fairfield, Connecticut,to participate in the first PCB Health Congress. Theylearned about the latest science on PCB healthimpacts; they learned about each other’s activism;and before they left, they laid the foundation for anew grassroots network.

The PCB Health Congress was the first PCBs-related conference organized by and for grassrootsactivists. For most of us, the PCBs in our bodies arepart of the global soup of persistent toxic chemicals—an unwelcome but anonymous “gift” from unknown

industrial and military sources. But for local activistsin Anniston, Alabama, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, andother PCB-impacted communities, PCBs are personal.

They know who releasedthe PCBs that wound upin their front yards andschoolyards, in thewildlife and water aroundthem, and in their bodies.They’ve spent hours inface-to-face meetingswith corporatespokespeople; they’veseen the corporatemessages on TV and infull-page ads in the localpaper. And, like the guyin the movie, they’re“mad as hell, and they’renot going to take it anymore.”

The spirit in whichthey came together wassummarized in these

words from the Declaration of Independence fromPCBs, developed by Housatonic River activists withinput by e-mail from many of those who signed it atthe congress:

Photo courtesy of R.E.A.Ch (ResidentsEnvironmentally Acting for Change).



shipping waste. Grassroots leaders joined togetherwhere ever proposals for new commercial facilitiessprang up.

Since the beginning of the campaign, all but oneproposal for a commercial hazardous waste landfill inthis country that CHEJ is aware of has been stopped.Most of the existing commercial landfills have beenclosed, which left only a few commercial disposalfacilities open nationwide. This means that mostproducers of hazardous waste have to ship their wastelong distances, causing transportation and theassociated accident insurance costs to skyrocket.There is no federal law that prohibits the commercialburial of toxic/hazardous waste. It is people who havestopped it.

SIERRA BLANCA, TEXAS

Sierra Blanca, a small Texas town 16 miles fromthe border with Mexico and with a mostlyMexican American population, was chosen in1992 to be the site for a dump for radioactivewaste from all of Texas and from Maine andVermont as well. Five hundred people turned outat the first public hearing to oppose the idea – ina county that had only 1,200 registered voters!In 1994, the Sierra Blanca Legal Defense Fundwas formed by local residents and theirsupporters to oppose the plan. They took theirstruggle to Congress, where the late SenatorPaul Wellstone was their champion, and to theTexas Legislature. They also mobilized supportfrom across the border; ultimately the Congressof Mexico passed a resolution against theproject, uniting all of Mexico’s political parties.Among the many actions taken against the planwere a three-day march in the Texas desert,rallies at border crossing points joining U.S. andMexican citizens, and a hunger strike byMexican legislators. Bowing to public pressure,a Texas state agency killed the project inOctober 1998.

RIGHT-TO-KNOW

LEGISLATION

Another major accomplishment was the passageof “right-to-know” legislation, which has reducedwaste and toxic chemical usage. The strategy forpassing this legislation was locally based but nationallyeffective. Right-to-know legislation began as a workerissue. Workers in industrial plants wanted to knowwhat they were working with and what was storedand transported to and from the plant. Labor organizedto get this information. Later unions formed coalitionswith grassroots environmental groups and passed city-specific right-to-know laws. Soon, more cities werebeing organized around this issue and corporationsbegan to worry, not only about releasing theinformation to the public but also about having to fillout a different form for each city for each of theirfacilities. Eventually, the corporations’ lobbyists inWashington, D.C. began applying pressure tostandardize the paperwork and minimize theinformation they had to reveal. In 1986, the federalCommunity Right-to-Know law was passed as anamendment to the Superfund legislation to clean uptoxic dumpsites.

MCTOXICS CAMPAIGN:

A SUCCESSFUL CONSUMER

CAMPAIGN

In 1987 the nationwide grassroots networkdesigned a campaign to stop the use of Styrofoampackaging. Styrofoam was a symbol of toxic, wastefulproducts. In the manufacturing, use, and disposal ofStyrofoam, toxic chemicals are released. In fast-foodpackaging, Styrofoam is used by the consumer foronly minutes and could easily be eliminated.

Grassroots leaders chose McDonaldsCorporation because it is a high-profile companyvulnerable to public opinion. They believed that ifthey could get enough consumers to push McDonaldsto stop using foam sandwich boxes, other fast foodrestaurants would follow their lead, decreasing thedemand for Styrofoam. The campaign involvedchildren, schools, religious institutions, county

25 Years continued from page 5

Summer/Fall 2003 9


governments, and those faced with the potential sitingof an incinerator or landfill in their community. Soon,school children everywhere joined the campaign, andin restaurants across the country people were saying“No” to Styrofoam. On November 1, 1990,McDonalds announced that it would no longer useStyrofoam sandwich packaging. McDonalds’ decisionwasn’t the only victory; entire counties, churches, andstatehouses banned the use of Styrofoam.

NATIONAL PEOPLE OF COLOR

LEADERSHIP SUMMITS

WARREN COUNTY,NORTH CAROLINA

In 1982, Warren County was chosen asthe location for a landfill for used oilcontaining PCBs that had been illegallydumped along North Carolina’s highways.Residents organized Warren CountyConcerned Citizens Against PCBs tofight the landfill. The residents believed sostrongly that the decision to build thelandfill in their community was based onincome and race that they lay down in themiddle of the street to stop trucks fromcoming through with the PCB-contaminated oil. Activists nationallyjoined in this nonviolent resistance—launching the environmental justicemovement. The landfill was built, but withthe governor’s promise to apply a bettersolution if it was ever found. The groupnever gave up, and after nearly 20 yearsof pressure the PCBs are being removedfrom the landfill and destroyed using asafer method selected by local residents.

Environmental justice and human rights have beena constant theme at each level of growth of thegrassroots environmental health movement. InOctober 1991, the First National People of ColorEnvironmental Leadership Summit was held inWashington, D.C., an event that propelled the issuesof justice and human rights onto the doorsteps of thepresident and congressional leaders.

The summit brought together many diversecultural groups and communities and produced apowerful declaration on the principles of environmentaljustice. Newly formed coalitions began their collectivework. Over the years, these webs of connection havegrown and become stronger.

In February 1994, President Bill Clinton signed anexecutive order on environmental justice issues,responding to the powerful organized efforts of groupssuch as the Indigenous Environmental Network,Southwest Network for Economic and EnvironmentalJustice, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, andothers. The environmental justice executive orderbegins to acknowledge the obvious—that communitiesof color and low-income communities have more thantheir fair share of polluting industries and waste sites.

A second summit was held in Washington D.C.last year that addressed ways to build on the successesof the environmental justice movement and improvethe lives of people of color. The movement seeks tobroaden its scope to address such issues asglobalization and to spur the growth of grassrootsinvolvement to achieve systemic change.

STOP DIOXIN EXPOSURE

AND THE ALLIANCE FOR

SAFE ALTERNATIVES

In response to the 1994release of the EPA’s draftreport on the sources andhealth effects of dioxin(commonly known as theDioxin Reassessment), CHEJand 40 national, state, and

local leaders founded the Stop DioxinExposure campaign. Dioxin, which is producedprimarily through the combustion of chlorine, is oneof the most toxic substances ever studied and cancause serious health problems, including cancer, birthdefects, and developmental problems in children, atminute levels of exposure. Through burning trash andmedical waste, the bleaching of paper in mills, andother sources, the entire population was being exposedto this dangerous chemical.


PENSACOLA, FLORIDA

The Escambia Treating Company, located in thecenter of an African-American community, treatedwood piles, railroad ties, and foundation pilings withpentachlorophenol and creosote for 40 years. Thecompany shut down in 1982 and walked away fromthe site, leaving a landfill, contaminated pond, leakingbarrels, and widespread soil and groundwatercontamination. Nine years later, the U.S. EPAshowed up and created a huge pile of contaminatedsoil that became known as “Mt. Dioxin” because ofits high level of dioxin. The community organizedCitizens Against Toxic Exposure (CATE) tofight for cleanup of the site and to get health care forthe community. After years of organizing focused onstate and federal decision-makers, CATE won permanent relocation in 1996 for all 358 families living inthe community. CATE continues to fight for a health clinic for victims and their families.


The 1994 EPA report acknowledged that, onaverage, Americans had accumulated enough dioxinin their bodies to cause adverse health problems. TheEPA’s most recent draft of the Dioxin Reassessment,released in 2000, has confirmed this basic conclusion. Dioxin ad that ran in the NY Times in 2000

The campaign used the health threat posed bydioxin as an opportunity to reach a broad public aboutthe need to create a sustainable society and holdcorporations and government accountable forprotecting our health and the environment. Workingwith hundreds of grassroots groups, the campaignhelped communities across the country shut downgarbage and medical waste incinerators, convincedstate and local governments to adopt new policies forthe purchasing and disposal of products and wastesthat release dioxins, and successfully pressed for newlaws that reduce the amount of dioxin produced bypaper mills. The EPA has found that dioxin levels inthe general environment have decreased since thestart of the campaign.

Recently, the campaign has broadened its effortsto reflect the full scope of the work being done bycampaign members on PVC plastic, PCBs, and otherpersistent toxic pollutants.

Summer/Fall 2003 11

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

In July of 2002, Seattle became the first city inthe country to pass a resolution to phase out thepurchase of products contributing to persistenttoxic pollution. A coalition of organizations led bythe Washington Toxics Coalition mobilizedgrassroots groups and worked closely withsympathetic government officials to build supportfor the resolution among members of the Seattlecity council. The adoption of clean purchasingpolicies by cities increases awareness of thedangers of persistent toxic chemicals and, bycreating demand for a wide range of cleanerproducts, lowers the costs of these products forthe general public.


HEALTH CARE WITHOUT HARM

Health Care Without Harm is another example of apowerful coalition effort thathas broadened the largergrassroots environmentalhealth movement anddeepened its impact. Bornout of CHEJ’s 1995 work ondioxin, it effectively became

its own organization in 2002. This coalition workstogether with local, state, national, and internationalorganizations to transform the health care industry’spractices and purchases to eliminate pollution withoutcompromising safety or care.

For example, the coalition sought to have thehealth care industry replace its toxic products— forexample, those containing mercury or PVC—with safealternatives that either pose no public health andenvironmental risks or are less damaging through theirlifecycles. The coalition identified the largestpurchaser of health care products in the U.S.—KaiserPermanente—and pressured it to commit to changeits purchasing practices. The coalition believed thatif you can change the largest purchaser, as wasaccomplished by pressuring McDonalds to stop usingStyrofoam, smaller purchasers will also be inclined tofind safer products at reasonable prices due to thedemand created by the larger targeted corporations.

Launched this spring, the Alliance for SafeAlternatives supports local groups in their struggleagainst the sources of persistent toxic chemicals andadvocates for alternative production processes,products and disposal practices. The Alliance hastaken a leadership role in a national coalition to raiseawareness about the European Union policy calledREACH that would require industry to publicly providebasic health, safety and environmental impact datafor a long list of chemicals used in everyday consumerproducts. The education campaign is targeting boththe media and policy makers as a mechanism forcreating greater leverage for the state and local policyinitiatives being spearheaded by community groups.

HUDSON RIVER, NEW YORK

For more than 30 years, two General Electric(GE) capacitor plants released PCBs into theHudson River. These chemicals settled into thesediment and eventually contaminated more than200 miles of the river. Over the years, numerouscommunity and environmental groups organizedand called for cleanup of the river. For two anda half decades, GE resisted paying for any cleanup,choosing instead to spend millions on lawyers andpublicity campaigns. But a resilient network ofactivists never let go of the issue. A David facing acorporate Goliath, they finally succeeded in 2002 ingetting the EPA to require GE to dredge PCBs fromthe river as part of an estimated $460 millionSuperfund cleanup.

CHEJ launched the Child Proofing OurCommunities campaign to channel the rising concernofparents and communities across the country intoeffective and coordinated grassroots action to eliminateenvironmental health hazards from our schools.

A major focus of the campaign has been to callattention to the problem of building schools on or neartoxic sites. In the 2002 report Creating Safe LearningZones: Invisible Threats and Visible Actions, thecampaign looked closely at five states—New York,Massachusetts, New Jersey, Michigan andCalifornia—and found that over one thousandpublicschools housing over 600,000 students werelocated within a half mile of a known toxic orhazardous waste site. The report provided guidance



large part of their day at school, we need to makesure that our schools do not pose invisible threats totheir health.

Over the years, CHEJ has received hundreds ofcalls from parents complaining that schools are makingtheir children sick. It is not unusual to find schoolsthat are built on dumpsites, like the school at LoveCanal, or near polluting facilities. In many cases,school environments are contaminated with pesticides,cleaning chemicals, molds, offgassing from toxicbuilding materials, or diesel fumes from idling buses.

CHILD PROOFING OUR

COMMUNITIESThe fight at Love Canal began when I asked the

school board to transfer my son from a school on theperimeter of the dumpsite—and the board refused.As I found out, children are especially vulnerable toexposure to toxic chemicals. Because they spend a

CHILDREN’S HEALTH AND

ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMICAL

HAZARDSOn April 21, 1997, in response to the growing

public concern about involuntary exposure of childrento pesticides, dioxin and other toxic chemicals,President Bill Clinton issued another executive order.This order, entitled “Protection of Children fromEnvironmental Health Risks and Safety Risks,”states: “A growing body of scientific knowledgedemonstrates that children may sufferdisproportionately from environmental health risksand safety risks.” The order asks federal agenciesto make it a high priority to identify and assessenvironmental health risks and safety risks that maydisproportionately affect children.

Ignoring the lessons of Love Canal, cityofficials in Quincy announced in 2000 that theyplanned to build a high school on land onceused to dispose of shipyard and industrialwaste. Concerned parents educatedthemselves about the contamination at the site,which included PCBs, asbestos, lead, andother chemicals, and then set out to mobilizethe community. Calling themselves Parentsfor Safe Schools, the parents used everyopportunity to put pressure on city officials,becoming a regular presence at city councilmeetings and packing public meetings to voicetheir opposition to the plan. By the end of theyear, city council members had had enough,and the mayor announced that the city wouldhave to find another location for the school.

QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS

Summer/Fall 2003 13


As a result of the media coverage generated bythe campaign’s reports and the work done bycampaign partners, city and state policies have beenpassed addressing school-siting, arsenic-treated woodin playgrounds, and pesticide use. The campaign hasalso supported dozens of community efforts focusedon protecting children’s health at school. It has helpedgroups obtain remediation of indoor air qualityproblems, stop schools from being built on toxic sites,and win cleanups of schools already built oncontaminated sites.

The campaign will launch a new program this falldesigned to help communities make their schoolshealthier places to learn thorough promotingenvironmental health education and turningenvironmental concerns into action. The Green FlagProgram will work with students and adults to identifyenvironmental problems, promote solutions, and createnew policies or programs that address environmentalproblems in schools such as pesticides use, use ofproducts containing toxic chemicals, and poor indoorair quality. If you would like more information on theGreen Flag Program, see the Child Proofing OurCommunities Campaign page on page 31.

STEP 1. WE HAVE TO MAKE CHOICES THAT

REFLECT THE LESSONS WE’VE LEARNED.

2003: NEXT STEPS FOR

THE MOVEMENT

Our movement is at a turning point in history. Asa Society we can make this choice by either takingthe lessons we’ve learned from our past and usingthem as a guide or ignoring them and conducting“business as usual.” If we use what we’ve learned,we can move forward and make informed decisionswhile being open to embracing new ideas, technologies,and priorities as a part of our growth as a movement.

STEP 2. WE HAVE TO BE WILLING TO

REINVENT THE CONCEPT OF “BUSINESS AS

USUAL.”

� Providing incentives for companies to createnew businesses and jobs and subsidize adequate newjob training for unemployed industrial workers.

� Encouraging new industries that producealternative energy products, such as solar panels,and minimize waste.

� Investing heavily in recycling industries insteadof incinerators that burn wastes and pollute theenvironment.

� Supporting organic and family farms insteadof allowing huge corporate farms to spray tonsof pesticides or create mammoth lagoons for animalwastes that destroy rivers, groundwater and drinkingwater supplies.

In Washington, D.C., the political jockeyingcontinues over money, power and party politics, whilefamilies across the nation are increasingly concernedabout their health.

The economic base of our country has changedover the past 25 years from steel mills and industrialcomplexes to high-tech and service industries. In orderfor our society to keep abreast of these changes andhave a positive role in making the most of this newgeneration of businesses, governmental support isneeded in the form of:

for evaluating the impact on a school located on ornear a known contaminated site, including siteassessment and cleanup processes that need to betaken by school decision makers before a school ispermitted to open.

LEWISTON, NEW YORK

In Lewiston, NY the community is calling for ahealth study of people who attended classes at anAir Force Plant building in the 1960’s surroundedby suspected radioactive waste, as well as, theexisting Lewiston-Porter school system (K-12)that is near the federal Niagara Falls Storage Site’smassive concentration of radioactive waste, andthe Northeast’s largest commercial hazardouswaste landfill operated by Chemical WasteManagement. Un explained illnesses and cancerdeaths among students and teachers in theLewiston-Porter school system over the yearshave raised questions about a possible connectionwith the toxic dumps.


By assembling all the organizations under a singlecall for change—a platform that the American peoplecan stand behind—a powerful voice has been created.


NEXT STEPS IN 2003

2003: A NEW UNITED

FRONT

In January, 2003, theE n v i r o n m e n t a lHealth Alliance waslaunched when 160organizational leadersstarted havingconversations about howto move forward on apath towards building ahealthier tomorrow in the

face of our country’s many challenging environmentaland public health problems.Through a series ofconversations and group meetings, it was agreed thata collective effort must be undertaken. It became clearthat each organization was doing extraordinary workof its own. However, each victory and each stepforward with a single focus only allows us to achievelimited success.

Through this unified voice, a powerful choir withthe potential to effect far-reaching and long-lastingchange is reaching the American people. With publicsupport, leaders of organizations from all across thenation are optimistic that through this collective effortwe can move our country forward.

Organizational leaders have drafted a platform—BE SAFE to guide decision-making through the nextdecade. This October, the Environmental HealthAlliance will launch a nationwide campaign based onthis platform. Groups will hold media events andeducational meetings and will be seeking other groupsto sign on to the platform and use it to advance workon state and local policies. Be sure that your group ispart of the campaign! Sign on to the BE SAFE platformby sending in a letter on your organization’s stationaryindicating your group’s support. Or visit our website atwww.besafenet.com and endorse the BE SAFEplatform online.

Brochures on the following issues will be featuredon the website in the Fall 2003. For a sample, pleasesee Protecting Children's Health brochure on ourwebsite, www besafenet.com. Thanks.

Air PollutionArsenic-Treated Wood ProductsAsphalt PlantsBrominated ProductsBurn Barrels & IncinerationProtecting Children's HealthClean Car CampaignClean Computers CampaignClean ProductionContaminated SedimentsDioxinEnforcementEnvironmental JusticeFossil-Fuel PlantsGlobal WarmingGreen BuildingsGreen EnergyGreen SchoolsHog Factory FarmsIncineratorsJust TransitionLandfillsMercuryMilitary Toxic DumpsMiningNuclear PowerNuclear Waste DumpsPesticidesPesticides & FarmworkersPBTsPlutonium PlantsProducer ResponsibilityPVC Consumer ProductsRight to KnowSafe Hometowns InitiativeSludgeSuperfundToxic FertilizerWaste Gasification TechnologiesWater PollutionWilderness ProtectionWorkers & EconomyUntested ChemicalsZero Waste

Be counted when we deliver this national plat-form to the White House in 2005. Endorse the platformtoday at www.besafenet.com

Environmental Health Alliance

BE SAFE PlatformIn the 21st century, we envision a world in which our food, water and air are clean, and our children grow uphealthy and thrive. Everyone needs a protected, safe community and workplace, and natural environment toenjoy. We can make this world vision a reality. The tools we bring to this work are prevention, safety,responsibility and democracy.

Our goal is to prevent pollution and environmental destruction before it happens. We support thisprecautionary approach because it is preventive medicine for our environment and health. It makessense to:

■ Prevent pollution and make polluters, not taxpayers, pay and assume responsibility for the damage they cause;

■ Protect our children from chemical and radioactive exposures to avoid illness and suffering;

■ Promote use of safe, renewable, non-toxic technologies;

■ Provide a natural environment we can all enjoy with clean air, swimmable, fishable water and stewardship for our national forests.

Platform Principles

HEED EARLY WARNINGSGovernment and industry have a duty to prevent harm, when there is credible evidence that harm is

occurring or is likely to occur—even when the exact nature and full magnitude of harm is not yet proven.

PUT SAFETY FIRST Industry and government have a responsibility to thoroughly study the potential for harm from a new

chemical or technology before it is used—rather than assume it is harmless until proven otherwise. We need to

ensure it is safe now, or we will be sorry later. Research on impacts to workers and the public needs to be

confirmed by independent third parties.

EXERCISE DEMOCRACYPrecautionary decisions place the highest priority on protecting health and the environment, and help

develop cleaner technologies and industries with effective safeguards and enforcement. Government and industry

decisions should be based on meaningful citizen input and mutual respect (the golden rule), with the highest

regard for those whose health may be affected and for our irreplaceable natural resources—not for those with

financial interests. Uncompromised science should inform public policy.

CHOOSE THE SAFEST SOLUTIONDecision-making by government, industry and individuals must include an evaluation of alternatives,

and the choice of the safest, technically feasible solutions. We support innovation and promotion of

technologies and solutions that create a healthy environment and economy, and protect our natural resources.

We choose a “better safe than sorry” approach motivated by caution and prevention.We endorse the common-sense approach outlined in the Blueprint’s four principles listed below.


Summer/Fall 2003 15


Collaboration between scientists and communitypeople was a key element of the congress. ScientistsDr. David Carpenter of the State University of NewYork, Peter DeFur of Virginia CommonwealthUniversity and Environmental Stewardship Concepts,and CHEJ’s Stephen Lester shared their commitmentto ensuring that communities have the best knowledgebase possible. Lively discussion focused on cutting-edge issues such as the degree to which PCBs enterour bodies as volatilized breathable vapors. (Mostenvironmental agencies still focus on ingestion of fishas a source of PCBs in our bodies.)

Community people shared their successes andfailures. Mitch Rice, a longtime activist fromBloomington, Indiana, told the tale of the fight from1989 to 1994 that blocked Westinghouse’s plans toincinerate PCBs there, and he sang one of the “PCBBlues” from that fight. (You can hear the “PCB Blues”yourself on the web at copa.org/incinerator.html.) Butthat fight, he also told the congress, didn’t make theproblem disappear, and today many of the PCBs thatwere not incinerated are now escaping from linerlessdumps into the porous limestone soil of southernIndiana.

Several activists from the Hudson Valley sharedtheir more recent victory of getting a commitmentfrom U.S. EPA to dredge the Hudson—as well asthe difficulties ahead as General Electric continues toresist facing its responsibilities.

The congress was initiated by activists from theHousatonic and the Hudson watersheds, and thenortheast U.S. was heavily represented. Some keycommunities, like Warren County, North Carolina, andthe Akwesasne Mohawk nation, were not present;this meant the congress did not hear firsthand aboutthe long battle in Warren County that has led totreatment of PCBs by alternative methods or aboutthe Akwesasne community’s use of both traditionalknowledge and scientific information in their fight.

The congress did hear from June Gologergen-Martin, a Siberian Yu’pik from St. Lawrence Island,about the impact of PCBs and other toxics left behindafter the Cold War in or near native communities,including her home village of Savoonga. (Also, PCBs

from the whole northern hemisphere tend to migrateto the Arctic.) Gologergen-Martin emphasized theimpact of PCBs on her home community, which stillbases its diet and its way of life on age-old traditionalpractices. She is working with David Carpenter andAlaska Community Action on Toxics on a four-yearproject (part of the National Institute forEnvironmental Health Sciences’ Environmental JusticeInitiative) to address the military contamination on St.Lawrence Island, as well as long-range contamination.

The congress looked beyond specific impacts andissues of PCBs to the broader framework of thinkingabout toxic dangers. Peter Montague of theEnvironmental Research Foundation (which publishesRachel’s Environment and Health News) stimulatedthe minds of participants with a critical discussion ofthe risk assessment approach favored by corporationsand their friendly regulators. The Declaration ofIndependence from PCBs included support for theEnvironmental Health Alliance, the new multi-groupeffort being launched this fall by CHEJ to promoteprecautionary approaches to regulation, alternativetechnologies and products, and meaningful citizen inputinto government and industry decisions. (For more onthe Alliance and its Be Safe platform, see page 17.)

As the congress ended, participants steppedforward to volunteer for committees, and traded phonenumbers and e-mail addresses. One of the committeeswill plan the next congress, and there was somediscussion about which PCB-abuser would have thisgroup showing up at its front door sometime in 2004.

PCB’S

continued from page 7


March in Anniston, Alabama

Summer/Fall 2003 17


ALABAMA

� Residents of Anniston arecheering the jury decisions that havethus far awarded $35 million to about200 individuals who sued Monsantofor polluting this mostly African-Amercian community with PCBs. Inan important legal victory last year,a jury found that Monsanto andSolutia, which owns what was onceMonsanto’s industrial chemicaldivision, are liable for Monsanto’syears of dumping PCBs in the area.The jury is making awards now forproperty and emotional damage andstill needs to review the cases of 700claimants. Then it will take up claimsfor personal injury and punitivedamages.

� The Southwest ImprovementAssociation, which unites tenneighborhoods in Birmingham, isworking hard to shut down acomposting operation just outside thecity limits in Jefferson County. Theyhave met with their representative onthe county commission to let herknow how important this issue is tothem.

CALIFORNIA

� Kodiak residents led by theWomen’s Bay CommunityCouncil (WBCC) have succeeded inshutting down a soil incineratorlocated in the middle of a residentialarea. The soil burner opened lastyear despite strong communityopposition and was shut down brieflyfor environmental violations. AfterWBCC sued the local government forviolating zoning regulations,government and company officialsagreed to shut the burner down forgood at the end of this summer in

ALASKA

ARKANSAS� Citizens Advocating SafeEnvironment (CASE) continues tobattle the Tontitown landfill onseveral fronts. Although CASE lost ahearing before the state’s PollutionControl and Ecology Commission onthe expansion of the landfill, it drewpublic attention to the fact that theArkansas Department ofEnvironmental Quality and WasteManagement had come into courttogether, filing a joint legal brief.CASE also got state legislators tointroduce legislation banning landfillsin major watersheds and in areas withkarst (limestone) geology. Thelegislation lost by just one vote. NowCASE is building alliances with otherArkansas landfill communities andwith statewide environmental groups.

Action Line

� The Environmental HealthCoalition (EHC), San DiegoOrganizing Project, andMetropolitan Area Committeeconducted three informativeworkshops for residents of BarrioLogan, a mostly Latino communitynear the San Diego shipyards, oncommunity planning, affordablehousing, and environmental justice.Residents will have a chance toparticipate in drawing up a newcommunity plan for theirneighborhood to mitigate the impactof 50 years of mixed-use zoningallowing toxic businesses to operatenext to homes. The workshopswere held this February as a cleanupof heavy metal waste at the Master continued on page 18

return for a pledge from WBCCmembers that they would notinterfere with the burner’s operationsor try to close it down sooner.

Plating site began under EPAsupervision. The plant, whichemitted extremely toxic fumes intothe neighborhood, was closed lastyear in response to pressure fromcommunity residents and the EHC.

�Going to Beverly Hills High Schoolmay sound like a dream come true,but the truth is a nightmare. Parentsare concerned about the health effectsof having 18 active and 25abandoned oil wells on the schoolgrounds. While the community isorganizing itself to pressure theschool board to move the school toa safer and healthier location, formerstudents ill with cancer have securedthe assistance of environmental heroErin Brockovich. After trackingdown more than 250 cancer casesamong former students, Brockovichand her law firm have begun filingclaims against the high school andcity government charging thattoxicfumes from the oil wells causedthe cancers. At the beginning ofMay, oil operations at the schoolwere temporarily shut downbecause emissions of benzeneviolated air quality regulations.

COLORADO

� The Environmental JusticeProject and other activists in theBoulder area have been fighting hardto stop plans by a local Cemex ce-ment plant to burn tires. In responseto a suit filed by the Sierra Club, alocal judge ruled that the plant’s per-mit to burn tires, which had not beenused for several years, was no longervalid. The company set up a meet-ing with the county board to discussthe permit situation, but after the

ACTION LINE

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board received numerous lettersfrom people wanting to speak againstthe plant, the meeting was cancelled.When Cemex held its own informa-tion meeting to explain why tireburning was a good idea, only fiveresidents attended, while opponentsheld a silent vigil outside. Now, ac-tivists are gearing up to make surethe county does not grant the com-pany the new permit.

CONNECTICUT

�At the Toxics Action Center 2003Conference earlier in the spring,keynote speaker Lois Gibbs of CHEJpresented Canary Committeefounder and president, JoellenLawson, with the “OutstandingActivism Award” for the work hergroup has done to improve air qualitystandards in schools.

�The Connecticut Congress hasoverwhelmingly passed the IndoorAir Quality Bill for Schools—atremendous victory for the CanaryCommittee, which spent all springworking with allies in the legislatureto draft and build support for the bill.The legislation provides anemergency fund for indoor airqualityproblems in schools and mandatesthat the EPA’s Tools for Schoolsprogram be implemented in anyConnecticut school upon requestfrom a teacher or administrator. Thenew law also requires that schoolfacilities and ventilation systems beinspected every five years. And anynew school that is planned will nowhave to undergo an environmentalassessment before it’s built to ensurethat it is not near any contaminatedsites.

� People in Lake City areorganizing to stop a plant that wouldgassify tires there. Residents andstaff of Eastside Village RetirementCommunity have taken the lead,bringing 50 people to the countyboard and applying enough pressureto ensure that the county delays anydecision on the issue.

FLORIDA

GEORGIA

� Citizens to Save EmanuelCounty was formed quickly whenthe word got out that EnviroProintended to spread septage (materialfrom septic tanks) on county fields.When the company spread theseptage even before applying forpermits, the Georgia EnvironmentalProtection Department quickly finedthem. With encouragement from thegroup, the county government hastaken a solid stand against EnviroProin court. The septage-spreading planhas already been rejected in severalother Georgia counties.

�After Citizens to Save CandlerCounty (CSCS) defeated plans fora landfill in their area, the grouphelped save Peach County as well.The landfill developers who ran fromCandler County turned to PeachCounty but gave up again after CSCSmembers met with local activistsand shared how they won.

� In Gwinnett County, members ofCommunity Awareness RegardingEducation and Safety (CARES)have put together a constantdrumbeat of successful events topressure the board of education notto open Sycamore ElementarySchool, which would be locatedbetween two landfills, one of whichis still active. In March, CARESbrought 150 people to a board of

Photo courtesy of Community Awareness Regarding Education and Safety.

education meeting held at theproposed new school building andhanded out notecards to everyonewith questions such as, “Since weknow landfills have make kids sickbefore, why are you putting our kidsin harm’s way when we have a goodalternative?” Once people asked allthe questions on the note cards, all150 walked out. Next, CARES heldtwo successful rallies, generatingextensive media coverage. On thesame day as one of the rallies, oneof CARES’ leaders spoke to theGeorgia House of Representativesadvocating statewide school-sitinglegislation. Armed with CHEJ’stechnical review of the schoolboard’s environmental assessmentand with hundreds of peoplesupporting their cause, CARES hasclearly made an impression onschool board members, some ofwhom are showing a new willingnessto listen to what the group has tosay.

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Action LineCenter for Health, Environment and Justice

Summer/Fall 2003 19

IDAHO

� The Silver Valley People’sAction Coalition (SV PAC) ofKellogg has completed its healthsurvey of the communities near theBunker Hill Superfund site. Toxicwaste from the mining industry hascontaminated a vast area ofnorthwestern Idaho, exposinggenerations of residents to highlevels of lead and other heavy metals.The survey—the first major healthsurvey of the region—confirmed thatmany residents in the area sufferfrom serious chronic healthproblems. A third of the womensurveyed have had miscarriages, andnearly a third of the adults have heartdisease. One out of three childrenhave difficulty with reasoning, andone out of five show signs ofattention deficit disorder. SV PACis developing a Community LeadHealth Project to treat adults andchildren affected by exposure tolead.

�Congratulations to ConcernedCitizens of Ogle County (CCOC)for stopping the expansion of landfillowned by Rochelle Waste Disposal!The Rochelle City Council rejectedthe 2,000-ton-per-day expansion thisspring after CCOC got residentswriting to their local officials. Yardsigns were also a key part of theirorganizing. The dozens of signs inthe county included one in the yardof every neighbor of every councilmember. After the vote, a CCOCspokesperson told local TV newsthat he hopes the landfill ownerunderstands Rochelle doesn’t wanttheir money or their dump. Theowner will probably appeal to theIllinois Pollution Control Board, butCCOC will be keeping the pressureon its state representatives.

ILLINOIS

� Living Under RemediationMadness (LURM) in Oak Parkjoined with the South AustinCommunity Council (SACC),another Chicago area grassrootsgroup, to stage a lively demonstrationoutside of the shareholders meetingof Commonwealth Edison,Chicago’s electric utility. SACC isdemanding that Com Ed re-open thecustomer service center in AustinBank that was closed last October.LURM is calling for Com Ed to cleanup coal gas waste throughout theneighborhood around Barrie Park,not just in the park itself whereComEd is cleaning up now. LURMis also pressing the City of Oak Parkto buy out residents whose homesand property are contaminated by thewaste, which was left from a coalgas plant that operated in the earlyyears of the last century. Residentsnear Barrie Park have been living withthe massive park cleanup for fouryears.

Photo courtesy of Concerned Citizens of Ogle County

INDIANA

� Friends of Mile Square isorganizing to fight sludge lagoonsproposed for a wetland area that isalso an informal park for the townof Albany. Some of the same peoplegot assistance from CHEJ nine yearsago when the town proposedspreading sewage sludge on localfields. The town board voted for thelagoons with little public notice andno public hearing, and local leadersthink the vote can be reversed. Theyare also pressuring the Army Corpsand the Indiana Department ofEnvironmental Management.

LOUISIANA

� Mossville EnvironmentalAction Now (MEAN) has won acommitment from the Agency forToxic Substances and DiseaseRegistry (ATSDR) to assist residentsin obtaining health services and to

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Action Line20 Everyone’s Backyard


passed with over 60 percent of thevote, adding Addison to a growinglist of Maine towns with localrestrictions on pesticide use. “Ourhope is that this ordinance is just thebeginning of the public educationprocess,” said Kausen. “We cannotafford to continue to use pesticidesas we have traditionally done; it’stime to put our health first.”Contributed by Toxics Action Center.

work with the group on its demandthat residents be relocated. Theimpoverished African-Americancommunity, which is next door toseveral facilities that emit dioxin, hasbeen fighting for relocation for overa decade. The meeting with ATSDRcame after months of pressure fromthe group and after members ofComing Clean sent ATSDR a letterdemanding an accountability session.At a public meeting following themeeting with group, however,ATSDR presented misleadinginformation to the community aboutthe average dioxin-blood levelsrevealed by the agency’s latest tests,focusing on parish-wide levels andignoring the high levels in Mossvilleresidents. Dioxin-blood levels amongMossville residents are about threetimes the national average, virtuallyunchanged from 1999 levels. MEANissued a press release and a fact sheetto set the record straight.

MAINE

� A coalition led by theEnvironmental Health StrategyCenter succeeded in gettingprecedent-setting arsenic legislationpassed this June. The law prohibitsthe sale of arsenic-treated wood forresidential construction after April 1,2004. The ban on disposal methodsthat could contaminate groundwateror release the toxin into the air makesMaine the first state to regulate thedisposal of arsenic-treated wood. MARYLAND

�ACORN members living next toBaltimore’s Metropolitan TransitAuthority bus lot are in the streetsorganizing to get back breathable air.Residents say the fumes from 200buses idling are increasing asthmaand other health problems in theircommunity, especially since theMTA got rid of a buffer zone of treesbetween them and the buses.

A Senate hearing in January produced a strong outpouring of support forformer EPA ombudsman Robert Martin. Representatives of communitiesthat Martin had assisted eloquently praised his efforts to help get theircommunities cleaned up and made a powerful case for having a fullyindependent ombudsman to investigate grievances against the EPA. Martinresigned last April after Administrator Whitman moved the ombudsman tothe office of Inspector General and took away his authority to decide whichcomplaints to review. Since then, support has been building within Congressfor creating an ombudsman position with real independence and significantresources. In May, the Senate unanimously approved a bill that would for

the first time establish a separate Office of the Ombudsman within the EPA, giving the ombudsman fullcontrol over his budget and staff and the authority to investigate grievances brought against anydepartment of the EPA. The ombudsman would be appointed by the president and be answerable toCongress.

Communities that Martin worked with are still feeling his departure. Investigations being conductedby Martin were halted and his files confiscated. And Martin’s replacement, EPA veteran Mary Boyer,didn’t see the job quite the same way Martin did. In Pensacola, Florida where Martin had workedtirelessly with the African-American community to try to get the EPA to remove dioxin-contaminatedwaste, Boyer told residents, “Unlike Mister Martin, I do not act as an advocate.” Boyer has since

resigned. �

UPDATE ON EPA OMBUDSMAN

�Addison resident Donna Kausenled a successful effort this spring toprotect herself and her neighborsfrom harmful pesticides sprayedover Maine’s vast blueberry barrens.When Addison residents voted at atown meeting in March, they passedan ordinance drafted by Kausen andher neighbors to prohibit aerialspraying of pesticides. The ordinance

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Awarded annually by the Goldman Foundation, the prestigiousGoldman Environmental Prize not only honors individual courage andachievement but helps call attention to serious environmental problemsand ways to address them. This year’s winners include two activistsworking on issues of special concern to CHEJ.

As the Convenor of the Philippine Clean Air Coalition and theCoordinator of Greenpeace International’s Toxics Campaign in Asia,Von Hernandez led the fight against waste incineration in thePhilippines through a campaign of mass protests and public education,resulting in the world’s first nationwide ban on incineration. VonHernandez is one of the founders of GAIA (Global Anti-IncineratorAlliance/Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives).

West Virginia activist Julia Bonds directs the Coal RiverMountain Watch, which has led the fight against mountaintop removal(MTR) coal mining in Appalachia. Taking on the region’s mostpowerful industry, she has worked to educate the public about thedevastating social and health impacts of MTR, which destroys streamsand forests and pollutes vast areas with heavy metals.

The prize is awarded to activists from six geographic areas.CHEJ’s Lois Gibbs won the award for North America in 1990, thefirst year the prizes were given. For more information on thisyear’s winners, see www.goldman.org.

2003 GOLDMAN PRIZE WINNERS

MASSACHUSETTS

�Three neighborhood groups inWilmington are fighting to clean upthree separate toxic sites in thetown—which was recently namedby Boston Magazine as one of theworst places in the state to live inbecause of its toxic sites and highcancer rates. The Woburn-Wilmington Collaborative isworking to force a cleanup of theOlin Chemical dumpsite in the town.Recently, four public drinking waterwells were shut down due tocontamination from the Olin site.Townspeople Organized AgainstIllness and Contamination(TOXIC) is working to ensure aproper cleanup at Rocco’s Landfill,a 200-acre Superfund site straddlingthe Tewksbury-Wilmington border.Superfund cleanup at the dumpstalled when the Bush administrationtook over. Finally, the Ipswich RiverHeadwaters Stream Team is tryingto get another old dump properlyshut down. Contributed by ToxicsAction Center.

� Members of Fort FooteElementary Parents Associationheld a successful demonstration infront of their school to protest theschool’s toxic mold problem. Armedwith CHEJ’s technical review, whichshowed that the school’s own studyfound serious mold problems, theparents demanded immediate actionand further testing to protect theirchildren’s health. Then, prepped byCHEJ organizers, the group’s leadersheld a strategy session where theyplanned their group structure and setroles such as recruitmentcoordinator, researcher, and mediacoordinator.

MICHIGAN

� The Coalition for Nuclear-FreeGreat Lakes has been working withofficials and residents of WatersTownship to oppose putting“rubbleized” material from a nuclearplant in a local landfill. County andnuclear utility officials support WasteManagement’s plans for the landfill,but township officials have thus farremained firmly opposed.

� A coalition of two dozenenvironmental, community andreligious organizations, including theEcology Center, MichiganEnvironmental Council, and NOWASTE (Network of Waste Activists

to Stop Trash Exports) has launchedan ambitious campaign — Don’tTrash Michigan — to drasticallycutthe importingof out-of-state trash,tighten standards for landfills, endincineration, and promote recycling.Broadcast and press media inMichigan provided extensivecoverage of the opening of thecampaign, and Michigan politiciansseem to be listening. Both state andfederal legislators have introducedbills that would restrict imports ofout-of-state trash, and GovernorGranholm has announced that thestate “will no longer be America’sdumping ground.”

Action Line


Military’s War on the Environmental Laws

The Miltary Toxics Project (MTP) is leading opposition to efforts by the U.S. Department of Defense touse the war on terrorism to justify military exemptions to environmental laws. MTP has mobilized 70communities affected by military contamination to petition Congress and call public attention to the impactof the proposed legislation. The military wants to virtually strip the EPA and state governments of authorityto enforce toxic cleanup laws at military bases and to exempt the military from compliance with the CleanAir Act. The proposals would also eliminate or drastically reduce protection for marine mammals andsome endangered species. The DoD—already the world’s largest polluter—continues to argue theexemptions are necessary to enhance military readiness in a time of war—a claim refuted by a GovernmentAccounting Office report issued last year and publicly rejected by outgoing EPA Administrator Whitman.


MINNESOTA

�Residents in the rural city ofPreston organized SoutheastMinnesota EnvironmentalProtection (SEMEP) to block aproposed tire-burning facility. Lastfall, opponents of the facility ralliedto elect two write-in candidates, themayor and a city council member,who voted against the facility.Although a Preston city ordinancestates that four votes are required togrant a usage permit, the three to twomajority vote was considered validby city council proponents of theplant, and the Minnesota PollutionControl Agency (MPCA)has alreadygranted the permit. Under SEMEP’sleadership, concerned citizens areappealing MPCA’s decision. SEMEPcontinues to organize against thefacility, and the numbers ofopponents are growing steadily asword gets out about it to arearesidents.

MISSOURI

�Parents from the Jefferson groupMissouri Access have decided tobecome MEAN — MissouriEnvironmental Access Network —and have rededicated themselvesto address school environmentalhealth issues. Through the local

MONTANA

�The Milltown Dam is comingdown! The Clark Fork Coalition(CFC) has led the long campaign tobreach the dam on the Clark ForkRiver because it traps heavy metalsfrom upstream mining operations,contaminating the region’sgroundwater and poisoning fish.The campaign’s slogan—”Removethe Dam, Restore the River”—resonated with people in MissoulaCounty. More than 10,000residents—out of a population ofonly 90,000—sent comments to theU.S. EPA demanding that the dambe demolished and the contaminatedarea cleaned up. In April, after yearsof study, the U.S. EPA finally

NEW HAMPSHIRE

� Citizens Leading forEnvironmental Action andResponsibility (CLEAR), parentsand staff of St. Mary School, andother Claremont neighbors have wonseveral rounds of their fight to blocka new underground tank builder onan old site already polluted by asimilar business. The city’s directorof public works denied thecompany’s request for anadministrative ruling to allow themto continue a non-conforming use.CLEAR announced plans for avictory celebration and told itsmembers and supporters, “Victoryis every day they don’t open forbusiness! Be ready to party!”

Independent Living Center (ILC), asocial service agency that helpspeople with disabilities, includingmultiple chemical sensitivity, MEANhopes to provide information,support, and resources to schoolcommunities facing poor indoor airquality and other environmentalhealth problems. MEAN will beworking closely with CHEJ’s GreenFlag program. Eventually, the grouphopes to create a model relationshipbetween local ILCs and schoolenvironmental health programs.

announced that as part of its cleanupplan, the dam would have to be torndown. Atlantic Richfield Company,which now owns Anaconda Mining,the company primarily responsiblefor the contamination, will have topick up the $100 million cost of thecleanup. “It’s a great day for the riverand for communities alongside theriver,” said Tracy Stone-Manning,executive director of the CFC. “Weget to put a river back together. That’sjust stunning. There aren’t manyplaces in the West that have this kindof opportunity.”

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NEW JERSEY

�One mom in Livingston has turnedher personal nightmare into apowerful local campaign to protectchildren’s health at school. Whenher daughter became seriously illfrom chemicals and mold at Mt.Pleasant Elementary School, themom mobilized other parents andformed Livingston Parents forHealthy Schools. The group isworking for a cleanup of the schooland for long-term environmentalimprovement and education throughparticipation in CHEJ’s Green Flagprogram. After the parents gaveapresentation at a Mt. Pleasant PTAmeeting, they were invited to speakabout the Green Flag program infront of the Livingston PTA board,which decides on policy for theschool. The board reacted verypositively and is strongly consideringendorsing the program at all theirschools.

�Over a hundred runners, somewearing gas masks, raced passedchemical plants in New Jersey’s “killzone” as part of Greenpeace’s “Runfor Your Life” event. The purposeof the May action was to callattention to the vulnerability ofmillions of New Jersey and NewYork residents to chemical accidentsor terrorist attacks on the plants. Theone-mile race ended with a spiritedrally in New York’s Liberty Parkwhere speakers called on Congressto pass legislation requiringcompanies to adopt tighter securitystandards and safer technologies.

First Annual “Dirty Dozen” PolluterAwards. Speakers at the newsconference in Rochester includedrepresentatives from CEC, theKandid Coalition, HolleyEnvironmental Action Council,and Residents EnvironmentallyActing for Change (REACH).Kandid Coalition which monitorsEastman Kodak, nominated thecompany for being “New York’s No.1 manufacturing polluter and one ofthe nation’s top emitters of cancer-causing chemicals.” Holley residentssingled out Diaz ChemicalCorporation for the chemical spill lastyear that forced the relocation of 20families. The company has a historyof serious chemical accidents, withmore than 30 in the last 25 years.REACH selected General Electric forcontaminating a Brockportneighborhood with PCBs. Althoughthe massive cleanup is almostfinished there, PCBs near the site are

NEW YORK

� On April 3, community andenvironmental groups in Albany,Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuseheld press conferences to announcethe “winners” of the Citizens’Environmental Coalition’s (CEC)

Members of the Citizens’ EnvironmentalCoalition greet Kodak costumers in Rochester.Photo courtesy of CEC.

threatening to recontaminate thecleaned areas. Referring to theaward—made from egg cartonscontaining a dozen misshapen eggsrepresenting each of the“winners”—CEC’s Mike Schadesaid, “These are some bad eggs youwouldn’t want to find in your EasterBasket.”

�The Citizens’ EnvironmentalCoalition (CEC) kept the pressureon Kodak by coordinating the first-ever National Day of Action forClean Air at Kodak. Actions tookplace at more than 20 drugstores inNew York, Oregon, Texas, Virginia,and Washington that sell Kodak film.The goal of the actions was to raiseawareness among both storeownersand consumers that Kodak chemicalsare poisoning the environment andpeople. Near Kodak’s corporateheadquarters in Rochester, activistsdressed as a nurse and doctor stageda colorful street theater protestoutside a drug store and handed out“prescriptions for a clean Kodak” topeople entering the store. (See“Shareholder Activism,” p. xx formore on CEC’s efforts to get Kodakto eliminate its toxic emissions.)

�Less than two months after beingnamed one of CEC’s “dirty dozen,”Diaz Chemical shut downoperations, though it is unclearwhether the closure is for good.After investigating the facility, theU.S. EPA had ordered DiazChemical Corporation to upgrade itssafety equipment or stop usinghazardous chemicals. Facinglawsuits from 175 residentsimpacted by last year’s chemicalspill and from the New Yorkattorney general’s office for beinga public nuisance, the companydecided to close rather than invest

WINNING PROPOSALS FOR NON-BURN

TREATMENT OF MEDICAL WASTE

On April 7—World Health Day—Health Care Without Harm announced thewinners of its international contest for safer, cleaner, non-incinerationtechnologies to treat medical waste in developing areas. Sixty entries camein from 30 countries. The winning proposals were:

� a solar-powered autoclave system named Prometheus, which isportable and can be used in any weather conditions, designed bythe team of Rhys Hardwick-Jones at the University of Sydney,Australia;

� a system that combines mechanical grinding with boiling water totreat medical waste, designed by M.G. Holiday of the Newcastleupon Tyne Hospitals;

� a proposal to treat waste through the heat generated by a chemicalreaction involving lime that would harden the waste into a cement-like material designed by Mark Bricka and Allissa Willis atMississippi State University.

The designs had to be relatively easy and inexpensive to build and operate,require little or no electricity, and be capable of treating a treat a range ofmedical waste with minimal impact on the environment. The designs areavailable to the public at www.medwastecontest.org.

in new equipment. Meanwhile, theEPA announced that it has agreed toconduct additional air and soil testsbefore cleaning up the homescontaminated by the Diaz spill lastyear—a key demand of the HolleyEnvironmental Action Council.The EPA has also agreed toindefinitely extend relocation benefitsfor the nine families that have notbeen able to return to their homesafter the spill.

�Months of pressuring the city andthe board of education have paid offfor [email protected]. 65 andNeighborhood Against TCE. Boththe elementary school—a formerairplane parts factory—and thesurrounding Ozone Parkneighborhood are slated for cleanupand remediation. The New YorkDepartment of EnvironmentalConservation announced this winterthat it had reached an agreementwith Endzone, Inc. requiring thecompany to clean up the toxic plumeof TCE (trichloroethylene) under theschool; in return, the state will dropits litigation against it. The consentorder allows the community tooversee the cleanup, which isscheduled to start in October, andwith the help of the ColumbiaEnvironmental Law [email protected] 65 is working toincrease community involvement inthe process. The group is also urgingthe city to close P.S. 65 until thecleanup is complete.

sediment from the Hudson River willbe sent to their already heavilyimpacted community.

� Congratulations to the hardworking residents of ConcernedCitizens of Clarence (CCC)! SafetyKleen’s hazardous-waste incineratorin Clarence has been shut down—for good. The plant has been closedsince a chemical fire last summercaused $2 million in damages and leftresidents shut up in their homes.After the fire, the facility was soldto Clean Harbors, but communitypressure convinced the new ownersthat reopening the facility would bea mistake. Patricia M. Melancon,president of CCC, which fought foryears to close down the incinerator,said, “This is a tremendously goodthing for the Town of Clarence. Itrights a wrong that has been plaguingour town for decades.”

� In a big victory for Albionresidents and Stop PollutingOrleans County (SPOC), the townboard has rejected a proposedWaste Management landfill, turningits back on millions of dollars inincentives to accept the dump.Waste Management has been seekingto open the new landfill on adefunct landfill site, and theowner of the landfill, who is inbankruptcy, offered the towna lucrative “host communityagreement” if it approved theplan. SPOC energetically opposedthe new dump and got thetown board to stand firm. Afterthe vote, the town supervisorsaid, “The landfill would bean unforgivable scar on ourlandscape.”

� Residents for ResponsibleGovernment (RRG) is working toprotect the community of Lewistonfrom multiple threats. RRG isopposing expansion of a hazardouswaste landfill and is pressing theArmy Corps of Engineers to providemore information more frequently ona nuclear waste site. RRG is alsoconcerned that PCB-contaminated



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�Members of Safety Always Firstfor Eastchester (SAFFE) are doingeverything they can to stop a poten-tially toxic water treatment plant fromopening less than a block away fromtheir elementary school. Throughpublic pressure and strong mediacoverage, SAFFE persuaded theircity council to fight United Water incourt. The group, however, is notleaving this effort to the lawyers

�Save Our Lake Environment(SOLE) on Chautauqua Lake nearJamestown has seriously delayed aplan by pro-herbicide residents toform a quasi-governmental lakedistrict, which would applyherbicides to the lake to deal withaquatic plants. The pro-herbicideforces had been working on quietlygetting official approval for the planwhen SOLE distributed 2000 flyersand did a radio interview exposingthe process.

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NORTH CAROLINA�Friends of the Green Swamp(FOGS) know how to prepare theirsupporters for a public hearing. Thegroup served chicken and rice plates,hot dogs, and soft drinks in theparking lot across from the countybuilding and held a rally before goinginto a hearing on a variance a localdeveloper needs for a landfill inColumbus County. FOGS has alsobeen getting yard signs out all overthe county and has at least one largerwooden sign (4 ft x 4 ft) in eachcounty commissioner’s district.

NORTH DAKOTA

�Concern is growing on the FortBerthold Reservation, home to theMandan, Hidatsa and Sahnishnations, and in nearby non-Indiancommunities, about an oil refineryplanned for the Makoti area.Tribal government leaders, whofavor the refinery, have facedquestioning from communitymembers at various gatherings,and information has been sharedby community members about thenegative environmental impactsof refineries in other communities.Community members have beenreceiving support from ProjectUnderground and the IndigenousMining Campaign Project ofthe Indigenous EnvironmentalNetwork.

alone. With the help ofCHEJ, SAFFEmembers are also working to get thesupport of state political leaders tokeep the plant away from their schooland to pass statewide legislation toprevent water treatment and chemi-cal plants from being placed next toschools in the future.

• We leafleted outside the governor’s thousand-dollar-a-plate dinner asking donors to help them convincethe governor to move the residents or else the LCHA efforts would hurt his campaign.

• We built strong alliances with labor, which we are able to do because family members belonged to localunions. Union members wrote letters and walked picket lines with residents, actions that threatened totake some of the labor vote away from the governor.

Even when Governor Carey answered “No comment” to reporters’ questions about Love Canal, residentsknew their strategy and tactics were working. The media was asking questions and the public was listening.

And watching. Governor Carey was unable to escape the visuals on TV night after night of teary-eyedwomen holding their small children and, saying the governor wouldn’t help their innocent families. His publicrelations people were at a loss about how to “spin” the governor’s inaction and counter the mother and apple-pie appeal of Love Canal residents.

After winning everything LCHA could from the state, we used the same strategies and tactics at thenational level to put pressure on President Carter, who was then running for reelection. The image of mothersand fathers with sick children in tow was too much for him as well.

On October 1, 1980, a year and a half after LCHA was organized, relocation benefits were offered to allresidents that lived within a 10-block area. Our goals were achieved because we put in place a focusedstrategy and employed effective tactics to make the strategy work. �

STRATEGIES AND TACTICScontinued from page 6

conitnued on page 26

CAMPAIGN FOR JUSTICE IN BHOPALSurvivors’ groups have been calling on Dow, which now owns Union Carbide, to accept responsibility for

the 1983 pesticide disaster at Bhopal, which killed 8,000 people and left tens of thousands seriously injured.In March, Greenpeace activists working with the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal

blocked the entrance of Dow’s Houston headquarters to deliver 250 gallons of contaminated water fromBhopal wells.

On May 1, two women survivors, RasheedaBee and Champa Devi, and activist SatinathSarangi started a 40-day tour in the U.S. to callattention to Dow’s refusal to compensate victimsand to clean up the still-contaminated site. Duringthe tour, the group met with university studentsand communities affected by Dow’s toxic pollutionand were joined by environmental activists herein protests against Dow. At a demonstration inNew York’s financial district at the beginning ofMay, the group began a fast, initiating a WorldwideRelay Hunger Strike to call attention to Dow’sindifference.

A week later, the two women were inMidland, Michigan to address Dow’s shareholders. At a rally outside the meeting, supporters held up10-foot banners with images of victims at Bhopal. The pair demanded that the company take responsibility forthe disaster and for poisoning communities. In response, CEO William Stavropoulos denied that Union Carbidefaces criminal charges in the Bhopal court—though the company is considered a fugitive from justice byIndian courts.

The activists ended their fast in mid-May at a demonstration in front of the Indian embassy in Washingtonjoined by Greenpeace, Health Care Without Harm, and Code Pink Women for Peace. Thus far, morethan 200 activists in 20 countries have helped keep the fast going. For more information, please seewww.bhopal.net.

Photo courtesy of Bhopal.Net, a project of theUK Campaign for Justice in Bhopal.

OHIO

�In Middletown, local activists areworking closely with the SierraClub Ohio and Citizens’ Action toget AK Steel to take responsibility forthe serious contamination of Dick’sCreek, which runs behind a schooland has been a popular site forwading and fishing. Recently, theSierra Club had testing done whichshowed that the PCBs in the creekare very similar to those from AKSteel. (Different mixtures of PCBswere used by different companies atdifferent sites.) AK Steel denies that

the tests prove anything. When theSierra Club was asked if it would doany more testing, a spokespersonsaid it would not. “At some point,this becomes ridiculous,” she said.“AK Steel is the 800-pound, PCB-releasing gorilla sitting on Dick’sCreek.”

�Opponents of the massive WTIincinerator in East Liverpool tookheart from a federal court’s ruling inApril that the company mustreinstate a whistleblower thatreported the company’s illegal

practices to the Ohio EPA. Theemployee had reported that WTI wasaccepting waste, such as benzene,that it had no permit to incinerate andstoring waste illegally at an adjacentfacility. The judge ordered that WTIpay the employee $50,000 incompensatory damages and$125,000 in exemplary damages.Alonzo Spencer, president of SaveOur County, a group that has foughtthe incinerator for 20 years, said,“The decision gives us incentive tocontinue our efforts against thisunsafe, illegal, and unwantedfacility.”



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OREGON

� Victims of Toxic Exposure(VOTE) held informational meetingswith environmental, health and legalexperts to discuss TCE exposurewith former Viewmaster employeesat the beginning of April in severalcommunities near Beaverton, whereViewmaster operated. Mattel, thecurrent owner of the Viewmasterplant, refused to help VOTE identifyformer employees. The OregonDepartment of Human Services(ODHS), which found high rates ofcertain cancers in an earlier study ofViewMaster workers, wants to do alarger study and to set up a citizensadvisory committee. VOTE,however, is questioning the idea of acitizens committee.

�The Oregon Toxics Alliancesponsored a benefit in April forcommunity groups that are part ofthe Railroad Pollution Coalition,which is fighting for a cleanup ofthe Union Pacific railroad yard inEugene. At the event, CHEJ’s LoisGibbs spoke on the need to developa multi-issue statewide campaign toaddress the problem of toxic wastein communities. Lois also workedwith the community groups ondeveloping an organizational structurefor their coalition.

�Move Your Ash (MYA) in Yorkhas been pressing for an end to twohuge uncovered piles of incineratorash that tower several stories highover two York neighborhoods. Ameri-can Ash Recycling obtained the ashfrom the local Solid Waste Author-ity, with approval fromPennsylvania’s Department of Envi-ronmental Protection, by claimingthat the ash would be recycled intobuilding material. Most of the ash,though, is still in two piles, estimatedto total over 300,000 tons, and lo-cated two blocks from people’shomes. MYA folks, including phy-sicians and neighborhood represen-tatives, met with the local SolidWaste Authority, which agreed tolimit the amount of incinerator ashgoing to American Ash. MYA alsouncovered evidence that a localelected official had actually courtedAmerican Ash to come to York; thegroup publicized this information justbefore a local primary election.

PENNSYLVANIA

�Group Against Gas (GAG) got250 neighbors to sign on to an ap-peal to Governor Rendell to usePennsylvania Emergency Manage-ment Agency funds for relocation.GAG sent the letter to Rendell withsupport letters from SenatorsSantorum and Specter, Congress-man Kanjorski, and LawernaceCounty, and Luzerne County Com-missioner Steve Urban, along with apacket of pertinent Laurel Gardensgasoline “spill” information. PA state

Representative Todd Eachus willhand-deliver these letters and packetsto Governor Rendell and Departmentof Environmental Protection ActingSecretary McGinty.

�While admitting that the cleanupof the site is far from complete, theU.S. EPA sent a high-level official totell the community that the EPA isgoing to leave the site and turn it overto contractors and consultants. TheEPA has sent out letters to localgovernments urging them not to callthe situation a “disaster”—though theoncologists who serve thecommunity have warned residentsnot to get any additional gas exposureand the local governments haveforegone taxes on homes in thecommunity for several years.Working hard for a “toxicturnaround in the greater Pottstownarea,” the Alliance for a CleanEnvironment (ACE) is conductinga health survey to document thepatterns of illness and diseases in thecommunity known to be linked withthe hazardous substances emitted bypolluters in the area—above all thePottstown landfill and OccidentalChemical’s PVC plant. Using thePennsylvania Cancer Registry, ACEhas already found that rates ofchildhood cancer in the area havebeen increasing for at least twodecades and are now almost twicethe national average. ACE’simmediate goal is to motivate DEPto require significant reductions intoxic emissions from the polluters inthe Greater Pottstown Area. ACEheld a press conference to announcethe health survey and has askedchurches, civic organizations,schools, PTAs, and local governmentbodies to help distribute the survey.ACE has also posted the survey onits website to make sure that as manypeople as possible participate.

�Advocates for Sustainable De-velopment won its fight to stopConnectiv from putting in a powerplant in East Donegal Township. Thecompany cited the poor economywhen it dropped its plans, but theAdvocates believe their yard signs,their pressure on local officials whosupported the plant, and the mediacoverage the group generated on theissue made the real difference.

� Halt Environmental LeadPollution and other residents inThroop fighting for a cleanup of theMarjol Battery site were delightedwhen the Throop Zoning HearingBoard rejected a request from GouldElectronics Inc., the owner of thesite, to rezone it back to an industrialproperty. Gould has opposed acleanup of the site, which iscontaminated with lead, otherheavy metals, and PCBs.

PUERTO RICO�On May 1, residents of Viequesheld a jubiliant, island-wide party tocelebrate the departure of the U.S.Navy. Joined by hundreds from theother islands of Puerto Rico and fromthe U.S., happy residents marchedfrom the island center to the gatesof the former Navy military base.Residents demolished the centralNaval checkpoint and walkedthrough part of the base—landpreviously off-limits. After four daysof festivities, the groups thatcampaigned to end the U.S militarypresence on the island resumed workon ensuring the land is properlycleaned up and used for social andeconomic development. The U.SDepartment of the Interior hasassumed control over most of theformer land occupied by the Navy;only a fifth has been transferred toVieques. The Navy remainsresponsible for the cleanup, whichwill be overseen by the U.S. EPA.Committee for the Rescue andDevelopment of Vieques andcommunity organizations aredemanding that Puerto Ricanofficials participate in all decisionsconcerning the administration of thelands, that the cleanup be undertakenwith the goal of making possible awide range of uses of the land,including agriculture and housing,and that Viequenses be employed inthe cleanup. EPA community forumsbegin in Vieques in the fall.

SOUTH CAROLINA

� Allendale County CitizensOpposed to Landfills (ACCOL) isworking with volunteer legalassistance to write a new wasteordinance for the county. The groupalso got input from CHEJ. ACCOLreported that the proposal for abrownfield use of a former landfill therehas cleared its first hurdle for federalfunding.

TEXAS

�A woman in Joshua who hasalready had lung cancer called CHEJon a Monday about blocking plansby the volunteer fire department toburn down an abandoned house rightnear her home. She was concernedabout dioxin and other chemicals.We urged her to get some neighborstogether and take action. By Friday,she wrote back to tell us whathappened. The woman “gathered 20citizens that feel the same as [shedoes] about the environment andtook the issue before the citycouncil….” The result: “ JoshuaCity Hall has decided that they WILLNOT BURN that old house after all.”

VIRGINIA

� Rayon Park ResidentsAssociation leaders are very upbeat.Within months after the neworganization formed, theneighborhood got substantial fundingfor a drainage ditch that will help itdeal with military toxins that aredraining into their community. Theproblem had been neglected foryears before the group got together.The group is also hopeful about aCommunity Development BlockGrant application by ChesterfieldCounty for $1.2 million that wouldadvance the cleanup of theneighborhood even further.

�The Blue Ridge Coalition andthe National Committee for theNew River brought out hundreds ofopponents of Duke Power’s plansfor a pipeline and power plant to ameeting with Virginia’s Secretary ofNatural Resources. Duke is movingforward with its pipeline plans, butwas forced by public pressure to drilldeep beneath the New River ratherthan crossing it with a pipeline. Itspower plant plans appear to havebeen defeated, and residents are stilldetermined to stop the pipeline fromcrossing their property.

WASHINGTON

� In a major victory in the battleagainst persistent toxic chemicals,Governor Locke signed into law theMercury Education and Reduction Actin May. The law bans the sale ofmercury thermometers, thermostats,and auto-switches beginning in 2006,requires schools to remove all mercuryproducts by 2006, and mandates thatthe state purchase products withoutmercury whenever feasible.Congratulations to the WashingtonToxics Coalition and WashingtonPIRG, who worked to build support forthe law among state officials and in thestate congress.

WISCONSIN

� Concerned Citizens of DunnCounty heard no more fromproponents of an ethanol plant thereafter they quickly mobilizedopposition to the plant last December.Concerned Citizens activists havesince joined with others around thestate to form a new statewidenetwork to work on ethanol issues,the Wisconsin Institute forSustainable Local Environments(WISLE). WISLE is working tooppose federal and state subsidies toethanol, which they believe largelybenefit large agribusiness interests.

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�Loudoun Neighbors AgainstToxic Sludge showed up at a boardof supervisors meeting in hazmatsuits to make sure their testimonyagainst spreading sludge in thecounty would not be ignored by thelocal media. The local healthdepartment doesn’t see any problemwith sludge, and the board is stackedwith sludge supporters. The groupis preparing for a long fight; it’sdeveloped a well-researched websiteand is actively networking withgroups around the state and thenation.

BRITISH COLUMBIA,CANADA

�Two hundred angry residents inSurrey packed a school boardmeeting and succeeded in blockingthe installation of AT&T cell phoneantennas on Sullivan Heights HighSchool. The group included studentswearing tin foil hats and parents whopromised to remove their childrenfrom the school if cell phoneantennaswere installed. After themeeting, the school board metinclosed session and decided torenege on its twenty-year contractwith AT&T. The group got technicaland moral support from MiltBowling, coordinator of Canada’sElectromagnetic Radiation TaskForce and board member of theElectro-Magnetic RadiationNetwork.

Over the past several years, groups within CHEJ’s network havestarted to incorporate shareholder activism into the bag of tools

they use to pressure major corporations to be more environmentallyresponsible. May was an important month for groups fighting threemajor corporations.

On May 5, members of Health Care Without Harm (HCWH)attended the Stericycle shareholder meeting in Rosemont, Illinois.Stericycle is the largest medical waste disposal company in the UnitedStates and operates nine incinerators. HCWH presented Stericyclewith a detailed report card showing that the company has failed to liveup to its mission to be “the leading company dedicated to theenvironmentally responsible management” of medical waste. Thecompany did not receive a “satisfactory” grade in any of the areassurveyed – elimination of incineration, disclosure and accountability,reduction of waste volume and toxicity, and protection of workers andcommunities. At the meeting, representatives from Haw River, NorthCarolina and Salt Lake City, Utah urged Stericycle to shut down theincinerators still operating in their communities.

The meeting produced a commitment from Stericycle to work withHCWH to change state statutes that require incineration for particularwaste streams. Stericycle also agreed to work with hospitals to specifynon-incineration technologies in their waste disposal contracts. IfStericycle keeps its pledge, this will be a big victory.

On May 6, members of New York’s Citizens’ EnvironmentalCoalition (CEC) traveled to Los Angeles for Eastman Kodak’s annualshareholder meeting. Kodak is the number one manufacturing polluterand the largest emitter of carcinogens to the air in New York, accordingto the most recent U.S. EPA Toxic Release Inventory Program. CECis leading a campaign to get Kodak to stop emitting dioxin from the twohazardous waste incinerators at the company’s headquarters in Rochester.At the meeting, a former Kodak employee introduced CEC’s resolution— “Adopt a Non- Toxic Chemicals Policy”— calling on Kodak to developand implement a plan to phase out emissions of persistent bioaccumulativetoxins (PBTs), such as dioxins and mercury. Outside the meeting, activistsdressed in bright yellow “Kodak Toxic Cleanup Crew” hazmat suitshanded out flyers to shareholders encouraging them to vote for theshareholder resolution. Even though the board of directors issued astatement urging shareholders to vote against the resolution, CEC’sproposal received votes representing over 10.5 million shares—about 6percent of the total— which means that the resolution can be broughtback next year for another vote. CEC intends to use the resolution asleverage in its ongoing dialogue with Kodak and will work withshareholders to organize for next year’s meeting.


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MEXICO

�Local residents working withGreenpeace Mexico protestedagainst a proposal by multinationalcorporation Vivendi for a hazardouswaste landfill in the Tecalimunicipality of Herrera. Two weekslater Mexico’s national environmentalministry announced it was rejectingthe proposal. A Greenpeacespokesperson said that the residents“would have done anything to stopthe project,” which they considered“una bomba de tiempo”—a timebomb. �

SHAREHOLDER ACTIVISM

Action Line is a way to sharestrategies and actions thatwork and to stay up-to-dateon industry trends andtactics.We encouragecontributions please sendyour Action Line contribuionsto EBY Editor, P.O. Box 6806,Falls Church, VA 22040

On May 8, activists from around the worlddescended on Midland, Michigan for the annual DowChemical shareholder meeting. Dow, one of the largestmanufacturers of dioxin-generating products in theworld, has been the focus of shareholder activism for anumber of years and those efforts increased after thecompany bought Union Carbide and inheritedresponsibility for the Bhopal chemical disaster of 1984.This year a resolution titled “Policies on Dioxin andPersistent Toxics” was filed requesting that the boardof directors “issue a report by October2003…summarizing the company’s plans to remediateexisting dioxin contamination sites and to phase outproducts and processes leading to emissions of persistent organic pollutants and dioxins.” Dow attempted tohave the resolution withdrawn, but in the end it received close to 7 percent of the vote, which means it can bereintroduced next year. (For Dow’s response to demands that the company take responsibility for the Bhopalpesticide disaster, see “Campaign for Justice in Bhopal” p. xx.)

For more on Stericyle, see www.noharm.org; for the campaign to clean up Kodak,seewww.kodakstoxiccolors.org; for more on Dow, see www.ecocenter.org.



Shareholder Meeting continued

The “Kodak Toxic Cleanup Crew” at Kodak’s annualshareholder meeting. Photo courtesy of CEC.

Membership in CHEJ

CHEJ’s work is important and needs to be supported by people and organizations who believe in building andempowering communities to stop the poisoning of the American people, our environment and all living things. CHEJhas never taken funds from polluters or government. Please, consider making a contribution or joining as amember so that we will have the resources to continue this work. Below is a description of our membershipprogram.

� Individual MembershipReceive Everyone’s Backyard, a 10% discount onCHEJ’s unique publications, training events andmerchandise, priority access to our technicalassistance, organizing and research services andreferrals. Individual Membership — $30

� Group MembershipJoin with community groups across the countryworking towards health and environ-mental justice.Receive CHEJ’s newsletter, Everyone’s Backyard,priority access to our technical assistance, organizingand research services and referrals, the unique "how-to" resources on our members-only website, a 10%discount on unique publications, and merchandise,recognition in CHEJ’s annual report and insiderbulletins. Group Member—$100

� Advocates CircleHelp ensure that CHEJ has a dependable source ofincome to meet unexpected challenges and enjoy theconvenience of monthly automatic payments.Advocates Circle - $10 a month or more

� Partners’ CircleReceive the above, plus CHEJ News, providingcurrent updates on national campaigns andgrassroots news, invitations to nearby events, andrecognition in CHEJ’s annual report and Everyone’sBackyard.

Health Defender — $100Family Partner — $250Neighborhood Advocate — $500


This September the campaign willlaunch its most ambitious initiative yet—the Green Flag Program. The program isdesigned to promote environmentalleadership in schools by issuing awards inthe following fours areas:

� Integrated Pest Management (IPM)� Indoor Air Quality� Reduce, Reuse, Recycling� the purchase and use of non-toxicproducts.

To help schools achieve a healthierenvironment during this time of shrinkingeducation budgets, the Green Flag programwill offer a blend of resources andincentives. The campaign has been pilotingthe program this spring and several schoolshave already made progress towardaddressing environmental problems in theirschools.

HERE’S HOW SCHOOLS GET

STARTED.

Campaign Organizer Margie Klein isthe program’s coordinator and will be theprimary contact person for all schoolsinterested in applying to the program. Anyschool from k-12, public or private, canapply.

CHILD PROOFING OUR COMMUNITIESC A M P A I G N P A G E

Child Proofing Our Communities is a locally-based, nationally connected campaign aimed at protectingchildren from environmental health hazards in schools and child care settings by raising awareness,empowering community members, and encouraging concerned adults to take action at the local levels.The campaign is currently working on improving indoor air quality; reducing the toxicity of buildingmaterials; reducing the use of pesticides; preventing the location of school buildings on or nearchemically contaminated areas; and cleaning up schools located on or near contaminated land. ContactCampaign Coordinator Paul Ruther at [email protected] and Campaign Organizer Margie Kleinat [email protected].

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CONTACT THE GREEN FLAG PROGRAM:

SELECT A GREEN FLAG SCHOOL

COORDINATOR:

In general, someone with an existingrelationship to the school can becometheGreen Flag school coordinator. Theschoolcoordinator can be a parent, teacher,school administrator, facility manager,school nurse, etc. High school students arealso eligible.

One school coordinator is MargaretFitzgerald, a music teacher at HuckleburyHills Elementary school in Brookfield,Connecticut. Margaret’s district recentlycompleted an asbestos abatement in all ofits schools after she identified extremely highlevels of the toxic material in her classroom.Margaret has brought the Green Flagprogram in to her school to address continuedindoor air quality problems and to promoteeducation and awareness on environmentalhealth issues.

The campaign will provide each GreenFlag school coordinator with a 25-questionsurvey asking general questions about theschool and its present environmentalprograms and policies.

In completing the survey last spring,Mickey Maheu, a fourth-grade teacher atSoutheast Elementary school in Mansfield,Connecticut, realized that his school lackedthe required health and safety informationon the school’s cleaning products. Mickeyobtained the appropriate records and

Once the Green Flag team hasdecided on its issue area, the programwill assign it a Green flag mentor. Thementor is an individual who hasspecific expertise to the program areaand who, ideally, is located within theschool’s state or region.

Robina Suwol, director ofCalifornia Safe Schools, is a mentor


COMPLETE A SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT SURVEY:

WORK WITH A GREEN FLAG MENTOR:

SET UP A GREEN FLAG TEAM:

The school coordinator isresponsible for forming a Green Flagteam of students and adults. The GreenFlag team could be an already existingafter-school environmental club, aspecific class or grade level, or eventhe entire school.

Jake Lubarsky, a seventh gradeteacher at the Thornton Friends Schoolin Silver Spring, Maryland, recruited hisentire classroom of students to becomea Green Flag team. They adapted theschool environment survey intohomework, taking similar questionshome and educating their parents on theissues. They are now creating anambitious recycling program to go intoeffect this fall.

recruited a parent with extensiveknowledge of cleaning products andsuppliers to join his school’s Green Flagteam and help them explore the purchaseof environmentally preferable products.



The mission of the Alliance for Safe Alternatives is to transform production processes, products, and disposalpractices so that they are not a source of persistent toxic chemicals in our food, water, soil, and air. The Allianceis a national partnership that promotes alternative technologies and products, supports local struggles against thesources of persistent toxic chemicals, advocates for state and local policies to reduce and eliminate these chemicals,and works to hold government and industry accountable for protecting our health and environment from persistenttoxics. The Alliance developed out of CHEJ’s Stop Dioxin Exposure campaign. For more information, please visitour website at www.safealternatives.org. You can contact the Alliance at [email protected]

Poll Shows 80% of Voters Support Phase Out of Persistent Toxic Chemicals

As part of the launch of the Alliancefor Safe Alternatives on April 17, CHEJissued a national press release thatincluded polling data representing one ofthe first comprehensive studies of voteropinion on persistent toxic chemicals.Groups in 18 states participated in thelaunch by issuing similar releases tailoredto the issues they are working on.

Among the key findings of the surveywere the following:

� Nearly half of those polled said thattoxic chemicals in land, air, water,and food represented an“extremely” or “very serious”problem in their state;

� An overwhelming majority of morethan 80 percent of those polledsupport a comprehensive policy tophase out such chemicals andreplace them with saferalternatives; and

� Women, across party lines, supportsuch policies.

This data is the result of surveys of1,200 voters in Maine, Michigan, andWashington sponsored by the Alliance forSafe Alternatives, along with partners inCalifornia, Maine, Massachusetts,Michigan, and Washington.

Europe Moves Forward with Bold, New Chemical Policy to Protect Public Health,U.S. Government and Industry Opposes

� After hearing a description of thefactors that distinguish persistenttoxic chemicals from other toxics,two out of three voters indicatedthat they were “extremely” or“very concerned” about theproblems posed by such chemicals;

� More than three-quarters of votersmistakenly believe that chemicalcompanies are already required toprovide information about the healthimpacts of the chemicals theycreate, and a majority mistakenlybelieve that the governmentconducts safety tests on chemicalsused in all major consumerproducts;

CAMPAIGN PAGE

On May 7 the European Unionmoved one step closer towards launchinga sweeping new policy initiative that wouldclose a large loophole in how toxicchemicals are regulated, creating newstructures for government oversight ofchemicals used in commerce and

consumer products. The policy wouldrequire that industry publicly provide basichealth, safety, and environmental impactdata for a long list of chemicals that havenot been tested for their impacts despitewidespread use in everyday consumerproducts.

The same day, the Alliance, alongwith a coalition of 32 groups, issued a pressrelease denouncing the actions the U.S.government and chemical industry havetaken to block progress on the policy.


� Schools across the country are reducing their use of toxic pesticides and adopting effective pestmanagement practices that protect children’s health. A new report by the School Pesticide ReformCoalition, a project of Beyond Pesticides, explains how they’re doing it. Safer Schools: Achieving aHealthy Learning Environment Through Integrated Pest Management lays out the essentials of integratedpest management IPM and highlights programs in 27 school districts in 19 states, detailing the strategiesschools have used to reduce and in some cases eliminate the use of toxic chemicals. Written byenvironmental and children’s health advocates, including CHEJ, the 27 case studies are the heart of thereport and provide compelling lessons for school administrators and parents who want to protect their

children’s health at school. The report includes a list of organizations, pest management companies that use IPM, and consultants thatcan assist in the implementation of a school IPM program, as well as a list of schools that have IPM policies. Copies of the report areavailable for $5.00 by contacting Beyond Pesticides at 202-543-5450 or [email protected]. The report is available online atwww.beyondpesticides.org/schools.


� Faced with evidence that their products were dangerous, the lead and vinyl industries responded by suppressing information,controlling scientific research and discrediting independent researchers, blaming workers and children for poisoning themselves, launchingaggressive advertising campaigns to promote their products as essential for progress and comfort, and deceiving and manipulatinggovernment agencies to avoid or weaken regulation. In Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution, Gerald Markovitzand David Rosner have written what will certainly become the standard work on what the two industries knew about the harmful effectsof their products, when they knew it, and how corporations plotted to keep their products on the market regardless of the immense socialcost and the suffering they caused. An outstanding work of historical scholarship. (University of California Press, 2002, 408 pages, $34.95)

RESOURCES

� Philip Landrigan and Herbert Needleman, experts on the impact of toxics on children’s health, have written an informative practicalguide for parents on ways to identify and avoid environmental health hazards in the home and at school. Written in an informal, accessiblestyle, Raising Healthy Children in a Toxic World: 101 Smart Solutions for Every Family addresses both big threats such as lead andpesticides and the lesser-known hazards that lurk in carpeting, cleaning products, and toys. Includes useful checklists and resources foradditional information and alternative products. (Rodale Press, 2001, 152 pages, $12.95)

� Community and Environmental Defense Services (CEDS), based in Maryland, assists communities working on a range ofdevelopment issues, including traffic and highways, waterways, golf courses, and landfills. Their latest publication, How to Win LandDevelopment Issues, is a detailed and well-written primer that can help with identifying project impacts on a community, understandingreview and permit processes, mobilizing support for your position, working with regulators, influencing decision-makers, and overallstrategizing. Publications can be downloaded free from the CEDS website at www.ceds.org. Or contact CEDS at (800) 773-4571 or

� Those interested in what we can learn from polls and voting patterns about public attitudes on the environment would do well to takea look at Deborah Lynn Guber’s The Grassroots of a Green Revolution: Polling America on the Environment. Guber finds that while publicconcern for the environment seems strong, competing values, inadequate knowledge of the issues, and feelings of ineffectiveness limit theactions Americans are ready to take. An exception that Guber explores is in the marketplace, where public willingness to spend more onenvironmentally-friendly products is high. (MIT Press, 2003, 278 pages, $24.95)

� While DuPont has acknowleged that fumes from Teflon-coated cookware can kill birds, what about the impact on people? Testsconducted by Environmental Working Group show that within a few minutes on the stove at normal cooking temperatures, Teflon pots andpans begin releasing gasses known to be toxic to people. EWG’s report Canaries in the Kitchen reveals that DuPont has known for yearsthat offgassing from Teflon products can make people sick and even has a name for it: “polymer fume fever.” The report calls for warninglabels on Teflon products and for studies to examine the long-term human health impact of the chemicals released when Teflon is heated.(On the web at www.ewg.org/reports/toxicteflon.)

Summer/Fall 2003 33

2. Complete a detailed survey on one of the four issuesand educate the school community about the issue (level2). The Green Flag team will receive T-shirts andbaseball caps, and each student will get their own GreenFlag Detective Kit.

3. Develop a policy or program to improve environmentalconditions in the school, promote it through educationalactivities, and have implemented the change for at leastthree months (level 3). The school will then receive acertificate of achievement and a decal for the issue(s)the school worked on. These will be presented at anaward ceremony.

To view the pilot materials currently available, please visit usonline at http://www.greenflagschools.org. To get involved in theprogram, contact Margie Klein or Paul Ruther. �


ALLIANCE FOR SAFE ALTERNATIVES


The new chemicals policy is called “REACH,” which standsfor Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals.REACH would ensure that within an 11-year time framecompanies would have to provide data on the hazards of anychemical it manufactures, imports, or sells in quantities over onemetric ton (2,200 pounds)—or the EU could ban the chemical.REACH would restrict the use of chemicals suspected of beingcarcinogenic or reproductive toxins as well as those known topersist and accumulate in the environment.

This policy is important for groups in the United Statesbecause it complements state- and local-level policy effortsalready underway to find safer substitutes for harmful toxins andoffers citizens here an opportunity to promote a global systemthat encourages the development of safer chemicals.

The American Chemistry Council and the U.S. government,however, have been actively lobbying European delegates againstREACH. In fact, U.S. government statements on the policy

have incorporated the chemical industry’s positions and rhetoric.Citing “adverse trade implications,” the Bush administration isnow pulling out all the stops. On April 29, Secretary of StateColin Powell sent a directive to all U.S. embassies urging them tolobby European officials to oppose this policy. The Departmentof Commerce is organizing meetings with business leaders instrategic locations across the U.S. to drum up opposition toREACH. Although these meetings are supposed to be open tothe public, Commerce is making virtually no informationavailable on dates, locations and times.As EBY goes to press, the coalition is organizing to ensure thatpro-REACH voices within the U.S are heard by the EuropeanUnion, the U.S. government, and the chemical industry.

Visit our new website at www.safealternatives.org for thefull press releases, a list of groups that participated in the Alliancelaunch, and more information on REACH. �



GREEN FLAG SCHOOLS PROGRAM

who has been active in creating the program. After her sons weresprayed with pesticides at their elementary school five yearsago, Robina joined other concerned parents in a successfulcampaign to get the Los Angeles Unified School District(LAUSD) to adopt a precautionary policy on pesticide use—now highly acclaimed as one of the best in the country. Robina isworking to obtain LAUSD’s endorsement of the Green Flagprogram and will work as a program mentor with city schoolsthat are implementing it.Schools must successfully complete allthree levels of the program to receive their green flags. Eachschool must:

1. Complete the school environment survey, form a GreenFlag team and determine which issue area/s it wants towork on (level 1). The school will then receive theGreen Flag (an actual flag!) in recognition of its goodstart. The flag has spaces for four decals, representingthe four issue areas the school can choose to work on.

CHEJP.O.Box 6806Falls Church, VA 22040(703) 237-2249

Non-Profit Org.U.S.Postage PaidMerrifield, VAPermit No. 6484

THE MOVEMENT IS NOW AT A MILESTONE—AND

READY MOVE ONTO THE NEXT PHASE.

You can be part of the launching of this next stage by participating

in the year long campaign to educate and organize for public health.

CHEJ and other leaders are developing and circulating a platform—based

on the precautionary principle—that we hope will become a guide to public

policy. We need your participation to develop this platform—and to make

the campaign a success. Events will be held to celebrate local victories, raise

funds and educate the public and policy makers.

Don’t be surprised if someone from CHEJ contacts you about the campaign.

Your voice and participation will play a vital role in our efforts. Stay tuned

for more information—we’re only few months away from the campaign

launch date!

25 Years since Love Canal

Make sure you recieve your copy of 25 Years of Citizen Activism available this Fall!

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