Sign Our Letter to First Lady Michelle Obama!

First Lady Michelle Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20502 August 2, 2010

Dear First Lady Obama,

We want to congratulate you for the work you are doing to fight the national epidemic of childhood obesity. We strongly support the recommendations of the Let's Move! Task Force that better nutrition, increased activity and safe environments are the necessary steps to end childhood obesity. We are writing you to ask you to consider strengthening the recommendation on safe environments to ensure we are creating healthy environments for children's activities.

As you may know, exposure to toxic chemicals can contribute to children's overall poor health. Children are the most vulnerable to the harmful effects of chemicals routinely found in the environments they frequent, such as pesticides used in or near schools, athletic fields, and playgrounds and indoor air pollution. Children breathe more air, eat more food, and drink more water than adults by comparison. Babies are born with a body burden of toxicity from chemicals passed to them in utero via placenta transfer and after birth through breast milk.

This fact was examined in President Obama's Cancer Panel Annual Report which was released on May 6. 2010.
"As a result, toxins remain active in their [children's] bodies for a longer period of time than would be the case for adults. In addition, children have lower levels of some chemical-binding proteins, allowing more of a toxic agent to reach various organs, and their blood-brain barrier is more porous than that of adults, allowing greater chemical exposures to the developing brain. Children's bodies also are less able to repair damage due to toxic exposures, and the complex processes that take place during the rapid growth and development of children's nervous, respiratory, immune, reproductive, and other organ systems are easily disrupted."

We were pleased to see the inclusion of the potential environmental chemical effects of endocrine disruptors on children's bodies (including the effects on obesity and diabetes) in your Task Force's report. Our research concurs with the conclusion that, "endocrine disrupting chemicals interplay with genes and the fetal and early postnatal environment." While we support further study, we also know that it is important to act to eliminate sources of toxic exposure wherever possible, indeed, beyond endocrine disruptors.

Over the past ten years, the Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ) and hundreds of local, state, regional and national organizations have worked to clean up the places where children live, learn, play and pray. CHEJ has focused chemicals found in the air, water, and soil outside of schools and the problem of chemicals and indoor air pollution in school buildings. Poor outside air quality is an immediate and long term health risk for students at schools such as a high school located in Tonawanda, New York. The school building and connected athletic fields are surrounded by forty-three industrial plants which collectively release chemicals such as the cancer-causing benzene into the air. The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) testing of air near the school revealed levels of benzene that exceed the state allowable limits. Another example is the Cesar Chavez High School in Houston, Texas. Surrounded by over 18 industrial chemical plants, this new school does not have an adequate evacuation plan for the students and staff should an accident occur at any of the surrounding plants. Indeed, faculty, parents, and community members have been warned that if such a catastrophe should occur at one of the chemical plants that directly face the school, it is a very real possibility that all the windows would be blown out leaving no barrier to toxic smoke and air.

To address chemical hazards, we specifically ask that your Task Force Report Recommendation 5.5 be amended to deal with the reality that air toxic hazards exist near some schools, and efforts should be taken to reduce such emissions and exposures. In fact, the EPA is already testing air emissions around over 60 schools in the country to determine how to address this problem. This recommendation currently urges that "State and local educational agencies should be encouraged to provide opportunities in and outside of school for students at increased risk for physical inactivity, including children with disabilities, children with asthma and other chronic diseases, and girls." However, it may not be possible for children to play outside where the air is polluted; physical disabilities can be exacerbated and toxic exposures can put even healthy children at risk of developing diseases like asthma, learning disabilities, and even cancer.

To address chemical contamination of school sites, we specifically ask that your Task Force Report Recommendation 5.9 be amended to deal with the reality that toxic hazards exist on or near some school properties, and efforts should be taken to clean up such contamination. This recommendation currently states that, "The Environmental Protection Agency should assist school districts that may be interested in siting guidelines for new schools that consider the promotion of physical activity, including whether students will be able to walk or bike to school," However, new schools and playgrounds are still being built on or near toxic contaminated land across the country, although there is an effort by the EPA to establish a policy that provides guidance for school districts on safe school siting issues. Unfortunately, these are just guidelines and are intended only for schools, not playgrounds and other areas where children commonly are active. Siting schools on or near sources of environmental contamination as well as a lack of comprehensive remediation of already contaminated schools will only broaden the scope of childhood health concerns such as obesity.

The majority of schools and playgrounds that we have identified are located in communities of low wealth and/or of color. As detailed in your report, low wealth families and families of color have so many obstacles when raising healthy children, thus, we believe that exposure to toxic chemicals in and around their schools and playgrounds are simply unacceptable. How can such families break the circle of poverty when they are ill, or have learning disabilities and cannot succeed at school?

We request that you broaden your efforts to reduce obesity in children, by including priority recommendations so that schools will clean up toxic contamination problems and seek to avoid siting schools and playgrounds near sources of toxic air pollution. By including these recommendations, your extraordinary program will comprehensively ensure that children have a healthy and safe environment.

Sincerely,