POLICY

While it is important for each of us to make individual behavior changes to protect children from environmental health risks, it is even more important that we promote policies that prevent harm to our health and the environment. The following links provide information about current policy intiatives. Make a point of finding at least one that you support and then taking two minutes to call your elected representatives and letting them know. It's so easy and it's so important.

BE SAFE - www.besafenet.com - BE SAFE is a nationwide initiative to build support for the precautionary approach to prevent pollution and environmental destruction before it happens.

Children's Environmental Health Network Policy List - http://www.cehn.org/cehn/Policy.html

National Conference of State Legislatures - Environmental health policy database - http://www.ncsl.org/programs/environ/envhealth/ehdatabases.htm

Science & Environmental Health Network - Precautionary Principle information - http://www.sehn.org/precaution.html - The Science and Environmental Health Network is working to implement the precautionary principle as a basis for environmental and public health policy. The principle and the main components of its implementation are stated this way in the 1998 Wingspread Statement on the Precautionary Principle: "When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically. In this context the proponent of an activity, rather than the public, should bear the burden of proof. The process of applying the precautionary principle must be open, informed and democratic and must include potentially affected parties. It must also involve an examination of the full range of alternatives, including no action."