Women's Health & Environment Conference

I attended this conference sponsored by Teresa Heinz, The Heinz Endowments, and Magee-Woman's Hospital of UPMC. Interestingly, much of the discussion was concerning chemicals in cosmetics, PBA, and other endocrine disruptors/mimics, that I have covered in my last blog entry and over the past 18 months. There was a terrific lineup of speakers. Many of whom focused their presentations on reform of the existing Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA). I am pleased to say that there was focus on solutions to deal with the chemicals to which we are subjected. Most encouraging, was the optimistic viewpoint from the Honorable Lisa P. Jackson, (current head of the EPA) that industry will work with the Administration and Congress to pass legislation to update TSCA. As I mentioned in previous posts, there is no regulation for any but a handful of the over 80,000 existing chemicals today. See this link to the EPA website for more information on this legislation 2000 in attendance.

Attendees to the conference were provided a flash drive with over 70 PDF documents and more. These documents have background papers, and booklets with in depth information on the speakers, their research, etc. I will attempt to create links to the documents that I think are most relevant. Unfortunately, I will be unable to provide access to every publication due the the volume. Watch for updates.