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MALE CALL
Learning Disabilities Association of NY
By Stephen Boese, LDANYS
While many are accustomed to hearing about the good work
of environmental organizations in protecting the environment,
a unique collaboration between two health advocacy organizations
is bringing awareness and prevention of environmentally related
diseases and disabilities to a whole new level. The Huntington
Breast Cancer Action Coalition (HBCAC) and the Learning Disabilities
of New York State (LDANYS) are partners in a very unique
collaboration that serves to protect and promote children’s
environmental health on Long Island.
Thanks to the leadership and foresight of State Senator Carl
Marcellino and Assembly Member Robert Sweeney (each chairs
the environment committee for their house of the Legislature),
New York State is now funding a system of children’s environmental
health centers of excellence, including two on Long Island.
These centers, which originated with the visionary plan of
Dr. Philip Landrigan of New York City’s Mount Sinai Medical
Center, provide an unprecedented array of services for children
and their families. Each center is a children’s clinic, and
provides clinical consultations for children who may have
suffered from and exposure to an environmental hazard. One
center, led by Mount Sinai pediatrician Dr. Maida Galvez is
in Huntington at the North Shore Medical Group, the second
is at SUNY Stony Brook, and is coordinated by pediatrician
Dr. Evonne Kaplan Liss. These centers are backed by an extensive
education and outreach program, which is coordinated by HBCAC
and LDANYS.
HBCAC President Karen Miller and LDANYS Executive Director
Stephen Boese have long worked to advocate for the development
of these Centers. Now that the vision is becoming reality,
we are working to assure that the message about the value
of these centers is reaching parents, professionals and others
throughout Long Island. Just as importantly, we are also working
to assure that valuable information reaches parents and their
children about common environmental hazards to children’s
health and about common sense preventive measures.
Recently, we’ve heard growing concerns about the potential
health impact of our everyday product such as toys, jewelry,
lunchboxes, clothing, and many others. Combined with industrial
pollutants in the air land and water, our children’s health
is at risk from environmental toxins like never before. Rates
of childhood cancer, learning and developmental disabilities,
autism, asthma and other environmentally related diseases
continue to climb. As organizations of parents, professionals,
and individuals impacted by environmental disease and disability,
we are acutely aware of the need for common sense prevention
that will protect our children from environmentally related
disease, such as cancer, and from environmentally caused learning
and developmental disabilities. The Center’s of Excellence
and the coordinated education and outreach initiative provide
a tremendous opportunity to not only provider greater diagnosis
and treatment options for children exposed to environmental
hazards, but also to provide quality information to the Long
Island Community about prevention of serious, persistent and
life-long illness and disability in children.
Contacts:
Huntington Center for Excellence in Children’s Environmental
Health at North Shore Medical Group, 1-866-265-6201 For more
information about the developing Stony Brook center, contact
Evonne.Kaplan-Liss@stonybrook.edu
HBCAC, 631-547-1518, friends@hbcac.org
LDANYS, 518-608-8992, sboese@ldanys.org
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