If you're interested in this project, please contact Dorothy directly
([log in to unmask]).  

________________________________

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Dorothy Wigmore [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 8:03:43 PM
Subject: Help with project about toxics

 

 Friends:

 

I'm working on a national project (funded by the Canadian Partnership
Against Cancer or CPAC) about finding groups, companies, NGOs,
government departments, etc. involved with "toxics use reduction" (TUR)
activities. The goal is to see who's doing what and if they might be
interested in a national network with the goal of reducing the presence
of toxics in Canada.

 

For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, TUR is about
reducing the presence and use of toxics in the workplace and other
environments. The Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute defines
the field this way:

	in-plant changes in production processes or raw materials that
reduce, avoid, or eliminate the use of toxic or hazardous substances or
generation of hazardous byproducts per unit of product, so as to reduce
risks to the health of workers, consumers, or the environment, without
shifting risks between workers, consumers, or parts of the environment.

 

Using the precautionary principle and substitution approaches, TUR
activities could include:

*	community campaigns to ban pesticides; 
*	general laws requiring manufacturers and/or users to reduce the
use of toxic chemicals (e.g. the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act
and the related institute that's doing amazing work -- see turi.org); 
*	attempts to get manufacturers to take toxic substances out of
their products; 
*	right-to-know coalitions (e.g. Toronto just passed a by-law on
this topic, thanks to a community-labour-environmental-public health
coalition); 
*	activities to ban or reduce the use of cancer-causing
substances; 
*	campaigns to deal with particular industries or companies,
focused on preventing the use of toxics or toxic processes (e.g.
MiningWatch); 
*	environmental health campaigns about chemical sensitivities; and

*	academic work about policies and other methods to reduce
exposure to carcinogens or other toxics at work or elsewhere. 

 

I'm interested in leads to people, topics, documents or organisations.
I'm particularly interested in things that might be happening in smaller
communities, First Nations and other places that are in the hinterland
of this country. Connections to Quebec would be appreciated.

 

If you have questions, please let me know. Happy to call you to answer
them, talk more about this, etc. Just let me know what works best for
you.

 

Appreciate whatever you can do to help me. I need to have some
preliminary lists and ideas together by mid-March, so the sooner the
better for getting back to me.

 

 

Dorothy W.

Winnipeg

 


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