It all started with a stomachache. A year later, in April 1991, Nancy andJim Chuda lost their only child, Colette, to Wilm's Tumor, a rare non-genetic form of cancer, at the age of five. During Colette's illness and after her death, the Chuda's searched for reasons to explain this tragedy. After dialogues with a Wilm's Tumor specialist and supported by scientific evidence, Nancy and Jim were convinced that Colette's death was due to environmental toxins.
Soon after her death, in memory of their daughter and with support of theirfriends, the Chuda's created the Colette Chuda Environmental Fund (CCEF), anon-profit organization that researches the causes of childhood cancers inrelation to the environment. In 1992, they created the Children's Health Environmental Coalition (CHEC), which is dedicated to educating and organizing parents and grassroots groups of the need to protect our children from the threat of environmental toxins. "We have the right to know what isin our food, air and water," believes Nancy Chuda. "We have a right to demandthat it is safe. Safe for ourselves, but even safer for our children."
Nancy's friend of over twenty years, Olivia Newton-John, passionately took onthe role of national spokesperson of CHEC. Newton-John was Colette's god mother and her daughter was Colette's devoted friend. An environmental activist herself, Newton-John felt that "kids are getting sick because ofpoisons in the environment and we need to do more to protect them."
The irony of Colette's death was that prior to her illness, both her parents were extremely sensitive to environmental issues. Nancy had been a broadcast journalist for over twenty years. In 1989, as a reporter on "The Home Show",she was so moved by her coverage of the National Resource Defense Council's(NRDC) report on children and pesticides that she left her job and became afull time activist with Mothers & Others for a Livable Planet in Los Angeles.She purchased organic produce and rid her home of hidden toxins. Jim, was andstill is an environmental architect. Years after their suspicion that the environment was to blame, a 1995 study published in the American Journal ofEpidemiology, stated that pesticide exposure prior to pregnancy, and "by exposure to the fetus in utero, or by exposure after birth from residuespresent in breast milk, in foods, in the home, or in the surrounding environment" may contribute to the development of Wilm's Tumor. Wilm's Tumor is one of the most common abdominal childhood malignancies. Childhood cancers on the rise
The 1994 study, Handle with Care: Children and Environmental Carcinogens, bythe NRDC, reviews what is known about childhood exposures to carcinogens and examined information on nearly 400 cancer-causing chemicals, some of which are present in our homes and schools. This report reveals that "the overall incidence of childhood cancer increased 10.8 per cent between 1973 and 1990.Brain/nervous system cancer increased 32.6 percent and acute lymphocyticleukemia increased 27.4 percent. Cancer is now the number one disease killerof children from late infancy through early adulthood." Philip Landrigan,M.D. and Herbert Needleman, M.D. in their book Raising Children Toxic Free,state that an estimated 80 to 90 percent of all cancer in humans is caused byexposure to carcinogens found in the environment. Also, significant is thatthere has been an increase in children's learning disabilities, attention deficit and other behavior disorders. Everyday hazards in our homes
According to CHEC, since 1950, at least 75,000 new chemical compounds havebeen released into the environment through consumer and industrial products and foods. The U.S. government has not conducted even basic toxicity testingfor 75% of the top-volume chemicals in commercial use and regarding the effecton children, 90% of these chemicals in commercial use have not been assessed.Toxicity studies cannot not measure the dangerous the effect of thecombinations of chemicals that children are exposed to daily.
CHEC's handbook, The Household Detective Primer: How to Protect Your Children from Toxics in the Home, is filled with statistics and facts about toxins andeasy-to-follow suggestions on how to de-toxify your home. Some of CHEC'sfacts and concerns are as follows:
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CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE -->Written by: Carol Baxter
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