Rebuilding the Unity of Health and the Environment A New Vision of Environmental Health for the 21st Century (2001) / Chapter Skim
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Keynote Address
Keynote Address
Pages 7-10
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From page 7... ...
In slightly more than 6 years, Congress laid the groundwork for what is still the most sophisticated framework of environmental law and regulation constructed by any nation, including the following: . The Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 was designed to set basic federal standards for drinking water quality in response to an avalanche of data showing that state and local governments were failing to protect the public from waterborne diseases, chemicals, and heavy metals.
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From page 8... ...
Fifteen years ago, we were largely ignorant about the lower thresholds at which children are sensitive to toxic exposures, due to lower body weight arid other factors; the multiple pathways through which children are exposed to a chemical, resulting in an increased cumulative exposure far above safe levels; and the synergistic effects of multiple chemical exposures.
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From page 9... ...
For example, Inuit mothers in the Arctic, far from sources of industrial pollution, show some of the highest worldwide levels of PCBs in their breast milk as a result of a diet high in fat from marine mammals, as the toxins emitted at lower latitudes moved up the food chain. The costs to society of impaired learning capacity in children because of environmental contamination are difficult to measure, but we know that the cumulative loss of intellectual capacity is tragic not only at the personal level, but at the societal level.
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From page 10... ...
This convention will enable measures to be taken to reduce or eliminate exposure to the most potent persistent organic pollutants now found in the environment and will also establish a framework for considering additional compounds as the science advances. The convention is about public health.
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