Private MD News

Association teaches about protecting children from environmental toxins

Category: Environmental Toxin Testing

The "Is Your Child Safe?" workshop is a one-day, free event on May 9 in Springfield, Missouri, hoping to educate parents about the dangers of environmental toxins.

The brainchild of Angelique Chaverri, president of the Learning Disabilities Association of the Ozarks, the workshop will teach parents about healthy alternatives to toxic products and current efforts to reduce toxic chemicals through legislative pressure, according to an article in the Springfield News-Leader.

"We want people to think," says Chaverri. "The truth is, we can do something about this, at a personal and political level."

The News-Leader says the workshop will include speakers from government, environmental agencies, business and medical representatives who will speak about environmental toxin testing, the science linking toxins to learning development disorders, and the law.

"In America, chemicals are innocent until proven guilty," said Kat Logan-Smith, executive director of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, in the article, "In Europe, it's the other way around."

Logan-Smith, who is one of the speakers at the workshop, told the News-Leader she wants concerned parents to lead the efforts to regulate toxins, not "chemical companies concerned with sales."