This morning Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families will host a press call with health leaders to weigh in on the recently introduced Chemicals in Commerce Act. Their biographies are listed below. The press call will be published live later this afternoon.
Our statement on the “discussion draft” can be found here.
Feb 28, 2014, Health leaders respond to Chemicals in Commerce Act:
Dr. Phil Landrigan, Mount Sinai Hospital
Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., M.Sc., is a pediatrician and epidemiologist. He is the Dean of Global Health, Professor and Chair of the Preventative Medicine department, and a professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Landrigan is known for his many decades of work in protecting children against environmental threats to health. He has been a member of the faculty of Mount Sinai School of Medicine since 1985 and Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine since 1990. He was named Dean for Global Health in 2010. Dr. Landrigan is also the Director of the Children’s Environmental Health Center.
He has published more than 500 scientific papers and 5 books. In 1997-1998, Dr. Landrigan served as Senior Advisor on Children’s Health to the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and was instrumental in helping to establish a new Office of Children’s Health Protection at EPA.
Matthew Zachary, Stupid Cancer
Matthew Zachary was a college senior and concert pianist en route to film school when he lost use of his left hand and was diagnosed with pediatric brain cancer. Told he’d likely never perform again and had a 50/50 chance of surviving, his life was put on hold.
Sixteen years later, Matthew’s struggle to get busy living has inspired countless thousands. A founding member of the original Google Health Advisory Council, he launched Stupid Cancer in 2007 as a social bullhorn to raise awareness that his own generation of young adults, a largely unknown group in the war on cancer, accounted for 72,000 new diagnosis each year. As CEO of Stupid Cancer, Matthew has built an extraordinary team of staff members and volunteers who have helped launch a social movement, uniting several industries to address the under-served needs of young adults affected by cancer.
Maureen Swanson, Learning Disabilities Association of America
Maureen is Director of the Healthy Children Project of the Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA), focused on raising awareness of environmental factors linked to learning and developmental disabilities, and on promoting policies and practices to reduce toxic chemical exposures, especially for pregnant women and children. She represents LDA in the Safer Chemicals Healthy Families (SCHF) campaign, a national coalition of health, environmental and parent groups, along with businesses, working to promote safer chemical policies, and is co-chair of SCHF’s health work group. Maureen testified before Congress on behalf of LDA in February 2009 on the need to revise the Toxic Substances Control Act to better protect children’s health.
Prior to her position with LDA, Maureen was a senior policy analyst with the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance. She holds a master’s degree from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs and a bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University.
