The Milky Way – The Newsletter of MOMS – Fall 2012
Welcome to the latest issue of The Milky Way, the newsletter of Making Our Milk Safe (MOMS).
In this issue:
- Policy Update
- The Other Side of the Rainbow: Don’t Forget the Good News
- MOMSpot: Kimberly Roberson
- New Materials Available
- What is Natural?
There is a lot happening on the policy front right now. As many of you may know, The Safe Chemicals Act passed out of committee in July (yahoo!) and is eligible for a vote on the Senate floor sometime this month. Now is the time to reach out to our elected officials (and especially those hoping to get elected this November) and let them know that passing The Safe Chemicals Act is one of our top priorities.
Thank you to Lindsay Dahl of The Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Coalition for these great tips for how you can engage your elected officials and those running for office in the lead-up to Election Day:
Here are a few simple tips to let candidates know you care about protections to the environment and public health:
- In key races in your state, send both candidates an email telling them you care about protecting public health and the environment.
- Call both candidates campaign offices and ask where they stand on these issues.
- When candidates knock on your door, ask them where they stand on toxic chemical regulation and other issues that are important to you.
- When attending debates, pose a question from the floor asking both candidates to state their support for increased regulations on toxic chemicals in consumer products and the workplace.
- Write local media outlets asking them to write about important environmental health issues.
- Write a letter to the editor to your local newspaper calling on candidates to support protections from toxic chemicals. Tips for writing a letter can be found here.
The Other Side of the Rainbow: Don’t Forget the Good News
Today is my last day at work before my maternity leave begins. As part of my daily ritual, I read this morning’s Above the Fold digest from Environmental Health News. For those unfamiliar with the publication, it’s an unbelievably robust collection of environmental news articles from a variety of sources on almost any environmental health subject you can imagine. Because I work in the field of environmental health, and am concerned about reproductive and children’s health in particular, I’ve customized my feed to send me articles that pertain to toxins that affect children’s development, infertility, women’s health—not especially lighthearted topics— so the daily dose of information that winds up in my inbox is sometimes a bit overwhelming. Read full article.
In this issue of The MOMSpot, we chat with Kimberly Roberson, certified Diet Counselor and Nutrition Educator, nuclear activist, and author about her work with The Fukushima Fallout Action Network (FFAN), and her new book Silence Deafening: Fukushima Fallout, A Mother’s Response. Kimberly shares her motivation for getting involved and how she keeps things light at home when her work gets too intense.
Q. Tell us a little about yourself. Where did you grow up? What were you like as a kid?
A. My youngest years were in the Midwest, playing outdoors, watching huge clouds come off the Lakes, and I loved to read a lot.
Q. Given the heavy nature of the work that you do, how do you keep things light? What do you do for fun?
A. I love to play with my little boy, although it definitely takes a concentrated effort to switch gears. Playful Parenting by Lawrence Cohen is on my nightstand as reminder that play is work for children. They need adults to play with them, on the floor at eye level. We love music, so we raid the music chest for instruments then play and sing along to classic rock. My son loves watching rock videos; he calls Freddy Mercury from Queen the “We-Will-Rock-You Guy”. It’s fun going from “Wheels on the Bus” to “We Will Rock You”. Read the full interview.
We’ve been busy the past several months putting together some outreach materials to help spread the message of MOMS and to educate parents about ways to protect themselves and their families from toxic chemicals. Our new MOMS tri-fold brochure–practically hot off the presses–is now available in both English and Spanish versions. While you can access these brochures online, feel free to let us know if you would like hard copies to hand out to your local mother’s group. Just drop us a line at moms [at] ceh.org to let us know how many you’d like and where we can send them.
In addition to the brochures, we’ve also put together an intro series of fact sheets that highlight chemicals to avoid during the life stages of Preconception, Pregnancy, and Breastfeeding. Full references for these fact sheets are available upon request.
Mary Brune was recently asked to contribute to the web series “What is Natural” for the Abe’s Market site. Check out her answer. How would you answer the question? email hidden; JavaScript is required to let us know.