Campaigns/Links

Sustainable Healthy Built Environments

HEALTHY HOMES FOR APARTMENT BUILDINGS

Research and public policy continue to emphasize the connections between healthy home environments and improved resident and community health across age groups.  Interventions have been linked to such positive outcomes as residents’ increased awareness of unhealthy household exposures and culturally relevant less toxic methods for managing home environments, reduced smoking, reduced measures of indoor air contaminants, an increase in use of refillable water bottles, and greater access to nutritional information.¹ Improved indoor air quality (IAQ) and exposure reduction has been linked to reductions in asthma symptoms.²

Projects for Environmental Health, Knowledge, & Action, Inc. (pehka.org) can help introduce residents and management to some of the education and practices currently endorsed by HUD’s Healthy Homes Program, the National Center for Healthy Homes, CDC National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH), and International WELL Building Institute.

Consider contracting with PEHKA for resident-centered services to promote: Household practices to reduce indoor exposures to contaminants, healthy consumer habits, and more.  Contact us to discuss our services, set up a custom program, or make an appointment for a free demonstration session.

1Rutgers Center for Green Building (2013). Final Report. Healthy Housing Technical Studies Grant #NJLHH 0202-09

²An Evaluation of State-Funded Healthy Homes Interventions on Asthma (2017) https://journals.lww.com/jphmp/Fulltext/2017/03000/An_Evaluation_of_a_State_Funded_Healthy_Homes.23.asp

Other Healthy Homes Resources

Breast Cancer Prevention Partners

Introduction to Integrated Pest Management

Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families

Community and Environmental Health

GAS AND OIL PIPELINE DEVELOPMENT

♦ Bayou Bridge Pipeline
Pipeline construction is continuing across the country and despite rulings of illegal operations or demonstrations of disregard for human and environmental well-being. Most recently is this emergency appeal by the Bayou L’eau Est La Vie Camp.

♦ NJ Ramapough Lennape Opposition to the Pilgrim Pipeline

The town of Mawwah has assessed $500,000 in fines on the Tribal Community for praying, gathering, and protecting their lands across from an upscale  housing development.   Read more and donate here to support their rights to their land.

Also read: In New Jersey, A New Pipeline Battle Is Brewing

♦ Standing Rock Resistance to the DAPL (Dakota Pipeline)

The Water Protectors at Standing Rock, North Dakota brought to international attention the hazards of oil pipelines to our waters, our lands, and our cultural values.  Protestors working to protect ALL OF OUR WATERS were subject to abuse of police power  and violation of treaties, as has been the case for hundreds of years. There has already been a spill in the new pipeline, underscoring the threats to our waters, lands, and health. Please visit standwithstandingrock.net 

♦ NJ Pinelands South Jersey Gas Pipeline

The watershed underlying the Pinelands is one of the largest sources of fresh water available for drinking water, but its quality and availability has been under pressure from development and now the approval of a 22-mile pipeline stretching west-east across the state below the Pinelands, including the Pinelands National Preserve. Please visit pinelandsalliance.org
Thousands of pipeline events including leaks, explosions, and injuries have occurred, resulting in death or harm to humans, land and water systems, and property.   PipelineStatistics are sourced readily from wikipedia with this additional opinion by Roz Ressner:

Engineers use the term “Potential Impact Radius” for determining “safe” setback distances along the route, determined by pipe diameter, material and working pressure. In this case the PIR would be longer than an NFL field. Pipeline malfunction and/or combustion would therefore result in a significant impact area, twice this radius, with little or nothing left standing, posing a danger for residents, property and the future of the Pinelands itself.

A permit by the NJ DEP for the BL England Plant where the pipeline is routed to serve allows emissions of thousands of pounds of arsenic, cadmium and chromium per year, including ultra-fine particulates which could be more damaging to the body than coal emissions. So why is the potential risk to the Kirkwood-Cohansey Aquifer and pristine national forest, the danger to residential and commercial properties, and the threat to health and safety of citizens disregarded by those who will reap the profits of the declining fossil fuel industry?  Climatologist James Hansen informs us that November temperatures in the Arctic hit 36 degrees above average.  Closer to home, Rutgers studies concluded in 2016 “that global sea level rose faster in the 20th century than in any of the 27 previous centuries” and “sea level is rising faster at the NJ shore than the global average because of land subsidence (sinking).”

Water is Sacred / Water is Life / Mni Wiconi

♦ Food and Water Watch

Please visit: foodandwaterwatch.org

Fracking: Studies show threats to water safety, connections with human health effects, and hidden toxic chemicals Oil Gas Leukemia

PUERTO RICO

♦ Public Education Crisis

By the end of 2018 there are an expected 500 public schools that will be closed.  This creates a severe hardship for Post-Hurricane disaster children trying to maintain a quality education, especially when they live in remote areas and lack reliable transportation,   The government’s reassignment process requires families to complete an online form for students, but many households do not have access or are not comfortable with the process.   Charter schools are a concern for many people, largely because schools have unequal performance and are not held to the same criteria as public schools.

♦ Health Brigades

Many organizations are working hard to meet the needs of people still struggling for long-term survival and sustainability.  See the work of Communitaria Initiativa, located in Puerto Rico, who is working to set up mobile health clinics in locations to residents without access to critical medical services.   They need donations to obtain nebulizers, defibrilators, an emergency cart, and other durable medical equipment.   They are also working with a consortium to support the ability for small coffee farmers to get back on their feet.

♦ Raices Cultural Center

An organization out of New Brunswick, NJ, Raices has been working to support many initiatives on the Island to help create a stronger, sustainable Puerto Rico.

 

RAPID BROWNFIELD DEVELOPMENT

New Jersey has moved to speed up the process of getting environmental cleanups done, by permitting some companies to take responsibility for meeting legal standards by themselves instead of waiting for Department of Environmental Protection certification each step of the way. Workforce housing, senior housing, community centers, recreation programs, and commercial spaces are planned redevelopment projects for contaminated land parcels. Read the full story here.

But how do we guarantee that a responsible clean-up will be accomplished and that future occupants of the spaces will not be exposed to residual chemicals? We need to be sure that the extent of the contamination is well defined and that public health precautions are taken for exposures during the remediation phase. Organizations can become actively involved and obtain important information to advocate for their communities.

FOOD SAFETY: SHOULD YOU BOYCOTT TYSON? 

June 10, 2018 More problems with Tyson Chicken: Recall of 3000 pounds of chicken containing plastic. A recall of 2.5 million pounds in 2017 was also reported.
Earlier: Tyson Foods is among 10 poultry companies sued by the state of Oklahoma on the charge that they polluted parts of the Illinois River watershed.  The US EPA settled Clean Air Act violations between 2006 and 2010 for chemical releases after anhydrous ammonia was released during incidents at facilities in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska, resulting in multiple injuries, property damage, and one fatality. Tyson Foods has also received fines for willfully violating worker safety regulations that led to a worker’s death and sickness in others from toxic exposures in its River Valley Animal Foods (RVAF) plant in Texarkana, Ark.  In addition, in 2006, Tyson paid out a settlement of $871,000 collectively to 13 plaintiffs after being sued by Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law for discrimination claiming a maintenance shop restroom was locked and accessible to only a few white workers in July and August of 2003. There have been numerous other complaints against Tyson foods for contamination of air, water, and ground contamination and for worker safety violations.  In 2016, OSHA (US Occupational Safety and Health Administration)  inspectors also found more than a dozen serious violations including hazards leading to amputations, carbon dioxide levels above the permissible exposure limit, failing to provide personal protective equipment and not training employees on hazards associated with peracetic acid.  Tyson was also found in violation of Fair Labor Standards for  failing to pay production line employees for the time they spend on work-related activities and by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for food safety handling.

Learning Environments

♦ Places Created for Learning

Providing space planning, building design, and interactive workshops and visioning services for advanced pedagogical- and learning – enhancement environments.

Please visit: Places Created for Learning

♦ Center for Health and Environmental Justice

Green Flag for Kids program to empower students to make environmental health changes in their schools and communities.

Please visit: Green Flag for Kids

♦ Rhode Island Legal Services “Not in My Schoolyard”

Schools are often sited in areas where students will be exposed to contaminants remaining from brownfields or other sources of pollution, resulting in serious threats to health.  The document offers guidelines for community participation in decisions about safe school building construction siting.

Please read: Not in My Schoolyard – Improving Site Selection Process

♦ Safe in School

Lays out some of the actions around the controversial incorporation of wireless services in school environments.

Please read: Is Wi-Fi Safe for Children? Beware of Health Risks

♦  Top School Health and Safety Websites

http://www.njwec.org/PDF/Factsheets/SchoolHaz_Series/Website_interactive_FINAL.pdf