Wellness Update

By Mary Muchowski

September 30, 2010, marked the completion of our four-year grant from The California Wellness Foundation. We learned many things throughout this grant that gave us the opportunity to educate our community, particularly underserved populations, about the myriad ways we are exposed to toxics and ways to minimize exposure by using alternative solutions. We specifically addressed household cleaning products. We were fortunate to have help from interpreters who provided Spanish speaking and Hmong speaking communities with relevant information. We shared valuable information with many people through our outreach effort at fairs and other events, small workshops in classroom settings, and with our radio and television ads. The final report has been written, and we estimate that we have reached over 2,000 individuals with our classroom education and workshops, over 72,000 at fairs, farmers’ markets and other events, and over 900,000 people have been exposed to our newspaper articles and ads, our bus stop billboards, and our radio and television ads.

The California Wellness Foundation must have liked the work we did on the last grant, because they have given us another two-year grant! For this grant we will continue our Alternative Cleaning Solution workshops and try to get into more classrooms (elementary & high school). We will begin a new project which will involve testing for dioxins in the south Oroville/Palermo area around the old Kopper’s wood treatment facility.

In 1988 and 1994 the Environmental Health Investigations Branch (EHIB) of the EPA tested soil and local chicken eggs for dioxins and found that the level of dioxins in the eggs was high enough for them to issue health warnings about eating eggs from free-range chickens in the vicinity of Kopper’s. Yet, they have not done any testing since 1994. The testing was prompted by a non-profit group (Citizens for Clean Water) after a large fire at the Koppers site in 1987 spread dioxins (polychlorinated dibenzop- dioxins or PCDDs) and furans (polychlorinated dibenzofurans or PCDFs) over the south Oroville and Palermo areas. The contamination of the soil on the actual Koppers site is considered by the EPA to be remediated, but soil surrounding the site, on private land, was never considered part of the cleanup plan. We have contacted EHIB and they are willing to work with us, at least in an advisory role.

We welcome any contacts for groups you feel would benefit from our workshops. We have shared them with Enloe’s Better Breathers, WIC, North Valley Catholic Social Service’s teen mothers group, Fairview’s young parents program, CHIP housing communities, and Chico State’s Sustainability Conference attendees.

Please contact us at the BEC office 530.891.6424 or email Mary Muchowski marymATbecprotects.org.

From the Fall/Winter 2010 issue of the Environmental News.