KAMLOOPS – Community members are invited to attend two free talks on chemical exposure and health next Thursday in the Alumni theatre located in TRU’s Clock Tower building.
Environment and social justice activist Mae Burrows will speak on cancer-smart consumer choices in Becoming a Cancer Smart Consumer: the Issues, at 12:30 pm, and on Chemical Trespass and preventing Cancer: the Pesticide Connection, at 7:30 pm. Both talks are sponsored by the TRUFA Occupational Health and Safety and Human Rights committees and CUPE.
Burrows will give an overview of chemical trespass and occupational and environmental exposures to carcinogens and other chemicals, and the high cancer rates occurring in Canada. She will also talk about workplace rights, the toxins-free schools initiative and the need for right-to-know labelling of carcinogens in consumer products, in particular, cosmetic pesticides.
The evening presentation will also feature Dr. Warren Bell, member of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and integrative healing medical doctor, who will talk about the Ontario College of Family Physicians report indicating that children’s health is adversely affected by exposure to pesticides, and Kathryn Seely, of the Canadian Cancer Society, who will talk about the CCS position calling for a ban on cosmetic pesticides, also covering cosmetic pesticide bans enacted in many Canadian cities and of the strategies used by citizen groups to win these bans.
Burrows, author of the CancerSmart Consumer Guide, holds a master degree in applied science from SFU. She is president of Reel Change Productions, Inc. a video production and educational consulting company, and Executive Director, Labour Environmental Alliance Society, with over 15 years of experience in environmental consultation.
She was a recipient of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment Pollution Prevention award, and the Western Canada Wilderness Committee Eugene Rogers Activist of the Year award, and was named Canadian Labour Congress Environmentalist of the Year.
There is no admission fee for either of the talks, but there will be a donation box for LEAS at the door
For more information, please contact Mae Burrows at (604) 669-1921 or by e-mail.
