Summer 2010 Newsletter
Dear friend,
I’m leaving Tuesday for DC and then France where my daughter and I will hike in the Alps. We are thrilled to be staying in Chamonix with Maurice Herzog who led the first ever ascent of an 8000 meter peak, the 1950 French climb of Annapurna and wrote the dramatic story in his best-selling book Annapurna. We’ll bring Maurice my book Annapurna a Woman’s Place, which is happily back in print this week. In December, Annalise and I are leading an adventure trip to Egypt, where we have wanted to go for years. Please consider joining us. There is more information below.
In DC I’ll be speaking with congressional staffers and the US Green Building Council staff to educate them about the toxic flame retardants in the insulation of many “green” buildings. Please check out the new improved website for the Green Science Policy Institute at www.greensciencepolicy.org. Among our news below is the suspension of a new flammability standard for bed coverings and pillows in California, based in part on our work. Please let us know if you would like to receive email updates and/or join our Facebook group as described below. We are still looking for an Executive Director and always appreciate volunteers. To contribute to our work, please go to
http://greensciencepolicy.org/support-green-science-policy-institute
We hope you are having a very happy summer,
Kind regards,
Arlene
CONTENTS:
Egypt adventure this December
News from the Green Science Policy Institute
Join us: Green Science Policy and Arlene Blum Facebook Pages
Annapurna: A Woman’s Place is back in print
Our Expedition to a Healthier World
Dancing with Dolphins
Annalise’s Adventure Blog and Gap Year Website
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EGYPT ADVENTURE THIS DECEMBER
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You are invited to join Annalise and me for a fun and educational Egyptian adventure during the December holidays. We will learn about Egypt’s 5,000-year-long story as we explore Cairo and cruise the Nile. Then we will spend a few days relaxing, snorkeling, and possibly diving in the dazzling Red Sea. Likely dates are December 21 to January 8. Get in touch if you might like to join us for this adventure in world’s oldest tourist destination and we will send you final dates, costs, and more details shortly.
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NEWS FROM THE GREEN SCIENCE POLICY INSTITUTE
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Please check out the new improved website for the Green Science Policy Institute at www.greensciencepolicy.org,
California TB604 is suspended. GSP has been providing scientific information for three years to stop the implementation of this standard which would have led to untested flame retardant chemicals and materials in bed coverings and pillows:
http://www.bhfti.ca.gov/home.shtml
Check out an excellent five part series on flame retardants and health on NPR. Podcast and full text at http://www.environmentreport.org/. I am interviewed in section five.
You can hear leading health scientists and me speaking about Flame Retardants: Emerging Science and Policy Considerations.
*Ami Zota, Sc.D., UCSF on exposure to flame retardants
* Kim Harley, Ph.D., UC Berkeley on recent time to pregnancy study and other human health findings,
* Julie Herbstman, Ph.D., Sc.M., Columbia University on neurodevelopmental outcomes
* Arlene Blum, Ph.D., UC Berkeley: on background, alternatives to flame retardants, policy considerations
The House Energy & Commerce Committee Hearing on Flame Retardant Chemicals has been postponed, possibly due to many committee hearings on the Deepwater Horizon rig oil spill
http://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1949:energy-a-commerce-committee-to-examine-flame-retardant-chemicals&catid=122:media-advisories&Itemid=55
Please let us know if you would like to receive about two e-mail updates a month from the Green Science Policy Institute
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JOIN US ON FACEBOOK
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We are slowly getting started on Facebook, but please do go to our site and become a fan for the Green Science Policy Institute or for me. We hope to be posting more information there soon.
Green Science Policy Institute Fan Page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Green-Science-Policy-Institute/142197399290?v=app_2344061033#/pages/Green-Science-Policy-Institute/142197399290?v=wall
Arlene Blum Fan Page:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Arlene-Blum/250255482375?ref=ts
We are also putting “Share This” buttons on the newsletters posted to the GSP website ( http://greensciencepolicy.org/newsletters-all). You can help create a buzz around our news items by using this button to post the newsletter link on your facebook, twitter, digg, myspace, etc.
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ANNAPURNA: A WOMAN’S PLACE is BACK IN PRINT
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Annapurna A Woman’s Place, which has been out of print since fall is now available. You can order an autographed copy at
http://arleneblum.com/annapurna.html
When we decided to attempt Annapurna, we thought it would be a relatively safe easy peak. History has shown it to be the most dangerous and possibly the most difficult of the world’s 8000 meter high mountains. This classic adventure story was included in Fortune magazine’s list of “The 75 Smartest Business Books We Know” and chosen by National Geographic Adventure Magazine as one of the 100 top adventure books of all time.
The famous “A Woman’s Place is on Top…Annapurna” t-shirt, Annapurna videos, and Himalayan language courses are also available at www.arleneblum.com.
You can purchase an autographed copy of the hardback or paperback of “Breaking Trail”: http://arleneblum.com/breaking_trail_pb.html
You also can purchase Breaking Trail from your independent bookstore and read reviews at Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Trail-Climbing-Arlene-Blum/dp/0156031167/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-3932194-6039963?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175628508&sr=1-1
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JOIN OUR EXPEDITION TO A HEALTHIER WORLD
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More challenging than climbing Annapurna is the Green Science Policy Institute’s expedition to a healthier world. We invite you to volunteer to help, send messages to decision-makers, or contribute to our work for a healthier and more sustainable future for our children, our pets, and the environment.
Please make a tax-deductible donation at http://greensciencepolicy.org/support-green-science-policy-institute or by check (please make check payable to SEE/GSP) and mail to:
Green Science Policy Institute, P.O. Box 5455, Berkeley, CA 94705
Please include your Name, Address, City, State, Zip, Phone
GSP is a Project of Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (SEE), a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Contributions of $50 or greater will receive an acknowledgment letter from SEE that can be used for tax purposes.
We believe that preventing health problems by reducing toxic chemicals is much more effective than trying to cure the conditions they are associated with such as cancer, endocrine and thyroid disruption, neurological and reproductive problems such as hyperactivity and infertility. We are working with distinguished scientists, doctors, industry representatives, and policy makers around the world to reduce toxics. Our collective efforts have stopped the unnecessary use of billions of pounds of flame retardants in consumer products. With your help we can continue and expand our work.
Get in touch if you would you like to help with SB 772, a critical bill in Sacramento to reduce the use of flame retardants in baby products.
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DANCING WITH DOLPHINS
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Okeanis, based in Monterey Bay, is doing a fundraiser to help support ongoing research on a population of coastal bottlenose dolphins serving as an indicator species for environmental pollution. An estimated 500 dolphins travel along 1,000 Km of California coastline impacted by pollution, fishing, and boat traffic. Please join Daniela on 6 August 2010 at 7:30 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Monterey Peninsula in Carmel for an evening of art and science and Dance for the Dolphins.
For more information contact Daniela Maldini, Ph.D., President and Chief Scientist, Okeanis:
Phone: 831-731-5002 dmaldini@okeanis.org www.okeanis.org
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ANNALISE’S ADVENTURES and GAP YEAR SITE
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Annalise graduated form Stanford in June. In the fall, she plans to help with a research project in Nairobi, Kenya She was awarded a MAP Sustainable Energy Fellowship, ( http://www.maproyalty.com/fellowships.html), to help provide refugees and villages near the Burma-Thai border with sustainable water, sanitation and energy.
After high school, Annalise took a wonderful gap year and has made a website to help other students who want to take time off at and volunteer outside the U.S.: http://www.freewebs.com/gapyearsite The site has profiles of successful gap years and resources for volunteering internationally. If you can recommend good programs, or know someone who has taken a gap year and would like to write for the site, you can email Annalise at annalise@stanford.edu.
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Please consider contributing to our work of stopping this requirement for unneeded and untested flame retardant chemicals and materials in our beds by making a donation at: http://greensciencepolicy.org/support-green-science-policy-institute
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Please contact us if you would like your name to be taken off this e-mail list or would like more information about the Green Science Policy Institute or Arlene Blum’s leadership and sustainability lectures or workshops.
Arlene Blum, PhD
arlene@arleneblum.com
Visiting Scholar, Chemistry
University of California, Berkeley
Box 5455, Berkeley, California, 94705
Telephone: 510 644-3164 Mobile: 510 919-6363
Web: www.greensciencepolicy.org, www.arleneblum.com