| Montreal, 2/05/2000 – Environmental threats to the health of children will be the subject of a one-day symposium to be convened in Toronto next week by the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC).
Leading experts from across the continent will bring together the latest scientific findings on a wide range of environmental factors affecting the health of children, ranging from air pollution to endocrine disruptors, from pesticides in food to contaminants in play areas. The participants will identify obstacles, challenges, information gaps and other themes common to their varied experiences and suggest policy directions for governments to consider that would help improve the quality of the environments in which North American children live.
The symposium will benefit from the participation of many highly distinguished experts including:
Dr. Richard Jackson, of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta), will chair the symposium.
Dr. Barry Commoner, described by TIME as the Paul Revere of ecology, founder, in 1966, of a pioneering ecological research center now at Queens College of the City University of New York, will be the luncheon speaker. Dr. Commoner will discuss his recent work on the entry of dioxin into the food chain through atmospheric deposition, plant adsorption, and consumption by dairy cattle. This is a dominant route of dioxin exposure, especially for infants and children. Dr. Commoner will relate these findings to the current efforts by UNEP to develop a treaty on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and emphasize the importance of those efforts.
Dr. Lynn Goldman, an environmental health policy researcher at Johns Hopkins University, formerly a senior official of the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Dr. Theo Colborn, senior scientist with the World Wildlife Fund, co-author of Our Stolen Future.
Dr. Graham Chance, former Chair of the Canadian Institute for Child Health, creator of the Cherish the Children concept.
Dr. Lauren Vanderlinden, Ontario College of Family Physicians, and Kathy Cooper, Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA), collaborators in a soon-to-be released study on standards setting and children's health in Canada.
Dr. Carlos Santos Burgoa, Director, Instituto de Salud, Ambiente y Trabajo, and a pioneer in environmental health in Mexico.
Dr. Francisco Valdes Perezgasga, of the Mexican NGO En Defensa del Ambiente, A.C., author of a paper on the Torreon contamination problem published by the Texas Center for Policy Studies.
The symposium is open to the public but, regrettably, there is no longer space available. For more information on the symposium, visit the Children’s Health and the Environment page.
Where: The Westin Prince Hotel, 900 York Mills Road, Toronto (The Prince Ballroom South)
When: Wednesday, 10 May 2000, 08h30
NOTE: At 15h00 the chairman will provide a summary of the discussion up to that point on the special vulnerabilities of children, major environmental factors impinging on the health of children, and the health consequences, to set the stage for discussions on policy implications through the balance of the afternoon.
The CEC was created by Canada, Mexico and the United States to foster cooperation among the people and governments of North America in responding to environmental opportunities and challenges that emerge in the context of a continent-wide open market. | 
