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Attorney General Eliot Spitzer |
Adelphi University Presented "Our Children at Risk II"
The Second Public Health Symposium Further Explored the Link Between Environmental Exposures and Childhood Health and Developmental Problems
Garden City, NY
April 17, 2003
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer spoke to a packed house at Adelphi's Ruth S. Harley University Center during a recent public education symposium and announced plans to sue one of the nation's leading pesticide manufacturers for violating an agreement against false advertising of its products.
The symposium, "Our Children at Risk II", which was held on April 2, 2003, featured Attorney General Eliot Spitzer as keynote speaker, and he
took the opportunity to announce that Dow AgroSciences LLC, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co., has violated a 1994 agreement that it refrain from advertising that the pesticide Dursban is safe and warned the company that he intended to file a suit over the matter.
Patti Wood and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer |
Dr. Herbert Needleman
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Dr. John Wargo
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The lawsuit announced by the Attorney General centered on Dursban, which contains chlorpyrifos, a synthetic compound that has been linked to severe health problems in humans including nerve damage, asthma and birth defects. The Environmental Protection Agency, specifically citing the kind of health risks to children that were the focal point of the Adelphi conference, took action in 2000 to prohibit most household uses of chlorpyrifos.
"Our Children at Risk II," like the previous conference at Adelphi in October, focused on the link between environmental exposures and childhood health and developmental problems, with information on what is harming our children and what we can do to protect them.
A growing body of scientific research suggests that children are at risk of health and developmental problems caused by their exposure to chemical toxins in the environment. The public symposium included a research update and featured a videotaped interview with Senator Hillary Clinton, and presentations by Dr. John Wargo and Dr. Herbert L. Needleman, co-author of Raising Healthy Children in a Toxic World presented by Patti Wood, Executive Director, Grassroots Environmental Education, co-sponsor of the symposium.
Audience members were encouraged to participate in a question and answer section during the symposium. Video footage of the symposium is available for viewing at the University's RealMedia™ Archive of Past Events.
About Adelphi University: Adelphi University, chartered in 1896, was the first institution of higher education for the liberal arts and sciences on Long Island. Through its schools and programs—The College of Arts and Sciences, the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, the Honors College, ABLE Program, and the Schools of Business, Education, Nursing and Social Work—the co-educational university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as professional and educational programs for adults. Adelphi University currently enrolls over 7,700 students from 44 states and 60 foreign countries. With its main campus in Garden City and centers in Manhattan, Hauppauge, and Poughkeepsie, the University maintains a commitment to liberal studies in tandem with rigorous professional preparation and active citizenship.
Media Contact
For additional information, please contact:
Lori Duggan Gold
Vice President for Communications
p - 516.877.3693
f - 516.877.3266
e - duggangold@adelphi.edu
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