|
GAIA has chosen July
14th, 2003 as a Global Day of Action (GDA)
aimed at the phase-out of incineration
as a waste disposal option. In solidarity
with this effort, Cancer Action NY will
be conducting press conferences in county
government centers of the Lake Ontario/St.
Lawrence River Valley region to raise
public awareness on the need to minimize
dioxin releases to the environment. The
Great Lakes/St. Lawrence River basin is
heavily impacted by persistent organochloride
pollutants (POPs) from sources, including:
municipal solid waste incinerators, hazardous
waste incinerators, coal-fired power plants
in the Midwest, as well as iron and aluminum
primary production facilities. Open waste
burning is widely utilized for waste disposal
in the rural areas of the region.
We
will be providing the summary documents
of the GAIA report, “Waste Incineration:
A Dying Technology” and the Institute
of Medicine of the National Academies
report, “Dioxins and Dioxin-Like
Compounds in the Food Supply: Strategies
to Decrease Exposure” to policy
makers and interested members of the media
in Stormont County, Province of Ontario,
Canada, and to their counterparts in Oswego,
Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties in
the United States. (Electronic copies
of these reports are available at the
following websites: www.no-burn.org and
www.nationalacademies.org) Our press conference
will focus on the greater vulnerability
of children to health damages caused by
dioxin exposure.
Environmental
protection is very much a spiritual matter.
We will be reading our poetry of bringing
an end to incineration and having clean
air, water, soil and food as a major feature
of each of these events.
Poetry
in combination with the scientific reports
creates an energy for bringing great change.
--July
14th, 2003
9:00
AM at the County Building, 46 E Bridge
Street, Oswego, New York, USA
4:00
PM at the Jefferson County Government
Building, 175 Arsenal Street,
Watertown, New York, USA
--July
15th, 2003
9:00
AM at the St. Lawrence County Courthouse,
48 Court Street, Canton,
New York, USA
2:00
PM at the Administrative Office of the
United Counties of Stormont,
Dundas and Glengarry, 26 Pitt Street,
Cornwall, Ontario, Canada
For
Further Information: Donald L. Hassig,
Cancer Action NY, 531 CR 28,
Ogdensburg, NY 13669; 315 393-1975;canceraction@hotmail.com
|
