Environmental Health
Women's Environmental Health
Program
 Widespread
environmental contamination by pesticides and
other chemicals have been detected worldwide in
wildlife and in humans. Studies report chemicals
that mimic estrogenic activity. The planet is
being used as a wholesale testing ground for the
release of untested, dangerous chemicals into
our environment that are having deadly effects
on health and longevity. Millions of dollars are
invested in cancer research for early detection
and treatment, however, inadequate governmental
and political attention is placed on the causes
of cancer and other deadly illnesses on an international
level. Developing countries now face the same
onslaught of environmental degradation the U.S.
has been exposed to for decades. There exists
a wait and see attitude in regard to the release
of pesticides, herbicides and other harmful chemicals
with no real plan or vision as to alternative
measures to be employed. Corporate control of
the release of these substances into the environment,
the food chain and onto our dinner table has been
the legacy of decades of toxic exposure.
Organochlorides such as DDT
and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) which have
been used extensively as insecticides and as fluid
insulators of electrical components are known
to be persistent environmental contaminants and
animal carcinogens. These chemicals have been
found in human tissue and are suspected causes
of breast and other cancers. Studies identify
links between various childhood cancers and pesticides.
As a result, the Saratoga Foundation for Women Worldwide established
the Pediatric Environmental
Health Project to explore the connection
between childhood illnesses and environmental
toxins. Long-term health effects in lab animals
and humans include birth defects, gene mutations,
nervous system damage and liver and kidney disease.
Pesticides have harmful effects on human immune
systems (impairs the ability to fight disease),
have neurotoxicity effects
(which can impair brain and motor skills), and
have negative estrogenicity effects which produces
certain cancers. And yet, the U.S. Federal Environmental
Protection Agency does not require that chemicals
be proven safe prior to use, a dangerous practice
we seek to change.
 The Saratoga Foundation for Women Worldwide compiles
studies of environmental health effects on women
of pesticides, herbicides and chemicals applied
in various countries. The aim of the program is
to propose alternative measures which may be substituted
and employed to avert environmental contamination
and injury to health. The goal of the Women’s
Environmental Health Program is to raise the prominence
of the environment and women’s health onto the
agenda of key policy making institutions and governments
to ensure that environmental health is integrated
with other policy priorities.
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