Alan Bell's Blog, page 4

Recommended Reading for Non-Toxic Living

Are you suffering from an environmental illness, or are you worried about the health of your family? We don’t need to suffer from chronic illness and premature death…most cases are preventable.

I’d love to share some recommended reading for non-toxic living so you can better educate yourself.

Check out these books this summer:

Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things by Rick Smith and Bruce Laurie. The authors use a variety of methods to test individual body burdens of toxic chemicals. They describe, for instance, how the innocuous rubber duck is infused with poisonous phthalates as well as common toxins in everything from Teflon to non-flammable pajamas. The book reminds us that what we do to Earth we do to ourselves. 
Dodging the Toxic Bullet: How to Protect Yourself From Everyday Health Hazards by David R. Boyd. This book identifies chemicals and toxins found in our air, food, water, and the products we use. It explains how we can limit our exposure and protect our health. The author also compares environmental safety protections in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe and identifies areas that need improvement. 
Green Goes with Everything: Simple Steps To A Healthier Life and Cleaner Planet by Sloan Barnett. An informative book by a mother and television consumer advocate on how to avoid toxic substances we use on a regular basis in our homes. It focuses on items that are harmful to children and how to avoid or substitute them. The book examines a wide range of products and reviews each one of their pros and cons. 
Toxic Free: How to Protect Your Health and Home from the Chemicals that are Making You Sick by Debra Lynn Dadd.  An informative, easy-to-read book that covers toxic substances contained in our everyday products, what they do to our health, and how you can cut back or even eliminate your exposure to toxic substances in your own home. The author’s website is also a great resource, listing manufacturers of toxin-free products of all kinds. 
Raising Healthy Children in a Toxic World: 101 Smart Solutions for Every Family by Philip J. Landrigan, Herbert Needleman, and Mary Landrigan. This book is filled with information and easy-to-follow checklists to help identify toxins in our homes, workplaces, and areas that children frequent. Each chapter includes questions that help readers zero in on the areas of importance to them. The book also gives practical recommendations on how readers can protect their families by reducing their exposure to toxins. 
Clean: The Revolutionary Program to Restore the Body’s Natural Ability to Heal Itself by Alajandro Jungar. In this New York Times bestseller, Junger, a cardiologist, explains to readers how toxins accumulate in our bodies, disrupt our systems, and result in physical ailments. He believes that our world is filled with toxins, and every day, we take in more of them. The book provides a one-month detoxification and nutrition program to clean up our bodies and restore our vitality and health.

We spend 90% of our time indoors, so making your home as non-toxic as possible represents a huge opportunity to take control of the health of your family.

I’d also love for you to get a copy of my book, Poisoned, and join the fight against toxins if you haven’t read it.

What would you suggest as recommended reading for non-toxic living?

Book Signings in South Florida

Alan will be personally appearing at two book signings in South Florida.

Saturday, July 1 at Barnes & Noble, 2-3:30 p.m., 2051 North Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Tuesday, July 11, at Books and Books, 7 p.m., 265 Aragon Avenue, Coral Gables, Florida

The Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel newspaper will be covering these events in a feature story.

When Companies Bring Chemicals to Market

Our species cannot adapt fast enough to survive the onslaught of chemicals pouring into our environment. Chemical poisoning is a risk we all face. We must face it now before it’s too late.

While I believe laws governing how and when companies bring chemicals to market should be changed, I’m not optimistic about that happening anytime soon. We can’t rely on our government to protect our health.

So, what’s the solution?

This week I posted an article on social media about SC Johnson’s ‘Groundbreaking’ Disclosure of Allergens. The company has committed to listing over 350 skin allergens on their website. They are being touted as an industry leader in transparency as they help consumers make more intelligent purchases.

Other companies choose to look the other way, rather than face the harmful consequences caused by their negligent actions.

The United States lags behind when it comes to reforming chemical regulations. The only existing US law regulating chemicals is the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA); this law was passed in 1976 and requires testing only those chemicals that pose “an unreasonable risk.” Even worse, at the time TSCA was passed, 62,000 chemicals were grandfathered-in because they were already on the market. Over 20,000 new chemicals have been introduced since then.

This is wrong. The burden of proof should be placed upon industry to show that the chemicals they’re manufacturing and using are safe for human consumption before being introduced into the marketplace.

Those who argue against chemical regulation claim such testing would be unduly expensive. They ask how companies could possibly make money, with that financial burden? If manufacturers had to pass that burden onto consumers, they say it would be horrible for business!

There is persistent lobbying against any sort of chemical regulation, and safety laws don’t get passed as a result. Meanwhile, humans around the world are paying the steepest price for this insanity.

Scientists realize it’s not financially feasible to subject every chemical to long, randomized control studies prior to being brought to market.

However, they often point to the Tox21—the Toxicology in the Twenty-First Century program—as offering a potential solution, at least in the short term, since Tox21 is laying the groundwork for accelerated, large-scale testing. Some of this testing includes screening industrial chemicals through simple cell-based studies—in short, chemicals that cause cells in a petri dish to show a toxic reaction would be subjected to further testing.

SC Johnson has taken on the financial responsibility of using their own scientists to determine the comprehensive lists of allergens, and the findings are validated by an expert panel that you can reference here.

Fisk Johnson, Chairman and CEO of SC Johnson, said: “We’re interested in helping people make the best choices for their families.”

While it’s most important that we learn to educate ourselves about how to best protect ourselves and our families, I’m encouraged that when companies bring chemicals to market some are taking the initiative to protect consumers as well.

See my other recent articles about Whole Foods and sunscreen.

Paris Climate Deal: The Repercussions

“In the words of Justice Brandeis, if there is to be justice, the world will need the truth. Then we must act on what we know to be true.”

-Jan Schlichtmann

Injustice is widespread, manifesting in people, governmental organizations, and corporations that are seemingly bland and harmless—just as Ted Bundy hid his evil beneath a thin veneer of “normal.”

Some corporate entities are truly evil, knowingly exposing victims for profit. Other companies choose to look the other way, rather than face the harmful consequences caused by their negligent actions. In either scenario, wrongdoers should be held accountable for their actions, because it’s the only way to help protect victims and curtail this irresponsible behavior.

Our global pandemic is terrifying, yet many people choose to look the other way rather than face their own mortal vulnerability. Sadly, the human race is committing this ultimate crime against itself—and against future generations.

Environmental toxins are devastating human health worldwide. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you work, or how you live. No one is immune.

More people become ill or die from exposure to environmental toxins than are seriously injured by AIDS, auto accidents, war, and violent crime combined. On the eve of the 21st Climate Change Conference in Paris, world health organizations warned of the profound impact environmental pollution is having on our earth’s population.

Clinicians and scientists consistently report that widespread exposure to toxic environmental chemicals is threatening healthy human reproduction and exacerbating major health disorders such as diabetes, obesity, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.

Such worldwide concern about how we are destroying our environment, and how our environment is killing us, must serve as a clarion call for our collective awakening and action on an unprecedented scale.

Toxicity doesn’t discriminate along social, political, economic, financial, geographic, racial, or religious divides. We are all equally at risk: mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, sons, and daughters. Like Frankenstein, mankind has created a monster. Humanity must now stop it before it’s too late.

Yesterday, President Trump decided to withdraw from the Paris Climate Deal. In 2015, 195 countries moved forward with this agreement in an effort to alleviate climate change and its consequences. The US is currently responsible for about 1/5th of global emissions.

It’s uncertain what consequences this will have for the other countries who signed on to the Paris Agreement. However, this decision reiterates my point of view that we can’t depend on our government to protect us from the toxicity in our environment. We must take control and protect ourselves and our families from the hidden dangers in our homes, schools, and workplaces.

Even Driving Can Be a Toxic Landmine: How to Mitigate Your Risk

When I first became sick, if I was driving in traffic with the windows down, the car exhaust would make my lungs seize up. And, driving in a new car made me feel nauseated. I simply couldn’t tolerate it. It was a catch-22 because renting a new car caused me to suddenly start gasping for breath, which required me to keep the car windows open.       

I hadn’t started restricting any of my activities: not my diet, not my outings to hotels, and not my brand new car rentals; but, I was reacting to multiple chemicals in the environment and had no idea that my car was also toxic to me.

I later learned that many others with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity drove antique cars, thereby preventing reactions to chemicals found in new leather or fabric seats. They even stripped all fabrics and leather out of the cars and drove around in metal shells.

However, it’s not only what is inside of our cars that can be toxic.

I worked on a case in 2002 where a woman, Judilyn, was delivering mail along one of her regular routes and had her windows rolled down to enjoy the breeze as she drove.

She wasn’t surprised to hear the sound of a crop duster buzzing over the fields. She spotted the plane flying toward her and saw immediately that it was still releasing chemicals, even though it wasn’t over any crop fields. The pesticide hit the windshield and front of her car.

She tried to roll up her windows in time but failed. Judilyn instantly smelled the chemical fumes and felt the spray settle on her arm and on the lower parts of her legs, which were exposed in shorts. She also drew the fumes in through her nostrils and tasted the spray in her mouth.

She didn’t know it at the time, of course, but the crop duster’s spray contained three chemicals that day: tribufos, a cotton defoliant; ethephon, an organophosphate; and carentrazone, an herbicide.

Within thirty minutes, Judilyn felt the skin on her arms and legs begin itching and burning. Over the next few days, she experienced additional health problems. She often felt nauseous and suffered from diarrhea and piercing headaches. Acute pain in her neck and abdomen sometimes made her double over in agony. During the next few months, Judilyn continued to suffer flu-like symptoms.

Then, less than ten months after her first exposure, Judilyn was delivering mail when once again she spotted a crop duster flying overhead. This time it was spraying a mixture of the insecticide Mustang Max (zeta-cypermethrin) and Mepex (mepiquat chloride), a plant growth regulator.

The moment Judilyn saw the crop duster approaching, she tried to quickly roll up her windows and close the car’s vents but to no avail. Her ongoing health problems eventually caused her to become too incapacitated to continue working at the job she loved. To Judilyn, it was clear that the pesticides caused her symptoms.

The toxicity outside of our cars wasn’t just an issue in 2002. A 2017 Study in Nature Scientific Journal showed that 38k people a year die early because of diesel emissions testing failures.

Judilyn wasn’t safe in her car from the toxic chemicals outside, neither was I, and neither are you. When possible, drive earlier in the day while it is still cool, and before people filled the air with hydrocarbons from their cars.

Even inside our vehicles, leathers, fabrics, and plastics emit toxic chemical vapors. Our cars can be toxic, and that’s why it’s important to buy a healthy automobile with low VOC materials.

 

How to Find the Best Non-Toxic Sunscreen

In the early 90’s I served as general counsel for my brother, Bobby, who was growing the Banana Boat Company into one of the top sun care companies in the world.

The original owners were basically running the company out of a garage. They sold it to my brother for a small amount of money. I helped Bobby incorporate the company, served as his legal counsel, and helped him connect with an accountant.

When we were in high school, our father started to make a fortune in real estate by working for companies that sold land in central Florida to people from out of state, primarily in a community known as Lehigh Acres. Dad’s job often involved meeting and greeting potential customers in the lobbies of Miami Beach hotels; because of his various hotel contacts, Dad knew many of the hotel owners and was able to get Bobby and me jobs as lifeguards during the summers when we were in our teens.

Bobby often heard people complaining about greasy suntan lotion while life guarding, so he started mixing different ingredients—everything from coconut and fruit to baby oil and iodine—to see if he could create a more effective tanning formula. Although he had no formal education in chemistry, Bobby was creative and risk tolerant, and he possessed the instinctive gift to sell. Imagine this young, eccentric guy, experimenting with all kinds of ingredients like a mad scientist: that was my brother.

Up until the mid-eighties, sun care products were developed to help people tan, but by the time Bobby bought Banana Boat, there was evidence linking sun exposure to skin cancer.

This prompted him to research and develop high-SPF sun blocks. Bobby remembered the western TV shows we’d both loved as kids, and how gunshot wounds were often treated with aloe plants. He decided to research skin care products using aloe to help heal sun-damaged skin.

When Banana Boat brought Aloe After Sun Gel to the market, Bobby saw his company boom as the gel became the best-selling skin care product. With him as CEO, Banana Boat grew to become the second-largest sun care brand in the world.

Most personal care products with synthetic fragrances contain toxic chemicals, so remember that when purchasing sunscreen. It is possible to find a sunscreen that isn’t toxic. Several Banana Boat products, while not perfect, are rated at 3 by the EWG (1 is the best and 10 is the worst).

Learn how to find the best non-toxic sunscreen.

Most sunscreens are chemical-based and those should never be used. Buy sunscreens containing zinc oxide as their active ingredient.

Read labels and avoid products that include the following:

      Words ending in “paraben”
     DMDM hydantonin
      Imidsazolidinyl urea
     Methylchloroisothiazolinone
      Triclosan
      Triclocarban
     Triethanolamine (TEA)

Use the EWG for quick reference. Reference their tips to wear clothes to avoid UV rays, find shade, and plan around the sun. 

Due Diligence: Why Pesticides Are The Number One Villain

In the United States, chemicals are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Anybody who wants to come up with a new chemical can add it to places where we are most vulnerable—like in baby bottles—and have no repercussions until decades later when people have come forward with the same illness.

We presume just because it’s on the shelves that it’s safe for us.

Unfortunately,  governmental requirements are limited to food and drugs and we have no regulations to list ingredients on other products, which means that even the stores that we trust aren’t always aware of what is in the products they are selling.

Companies can research what they choose to sell, and it simply depends on how much due diligence they want to do, to determine what they stock.

Stores like Whole Foods engage in more due diligence to make sure that the products they offer are safer than if you buy them at a traditional grocery store. Health and well-being is no longer just about diet and exercise. It’s also about toxicity, and Whole Food recognizes that.

The number of people who want to protect themselves is growing exponentially. All of the companies who are generating safe products are growing because people want to know how to protect themselves and their families. The industry growth of  Whole Foods is an example of how this kind of thinking is exploding.

But, like I’ve said before, you have to take control of your own life. You can’t expect other agencies to do this job for you.

Sometimes, people share with me that they feel overwhelmed and think that they can’t do much, so choose not to worry about it and take their chances. If that’s your mindset, I want to encourage you that lifestyle modifications aren’t that tricky. It’s actually not that complicated and it’s not rocket science to make a few simple shifts. You should be able to go to the grocery store without feeling overwhelmed.

Pesticides are the number one villain on the grocery store shelves.

Regardless of where you shop, eat organic fruits and vegetables, because non-organic fruits and vegetables have pesticides sprayed on them. Pesticides are essentially nerve gas.

It’s not common knowledge that pesticides started all the way back in WW2. Nazis had these stockpiles of nerve gas, and when they lost the war they didn’t know what to do with them. They figured out that if they sprayed it on the crops or in their houses it would kill all the bugs. So, they diluted it and didn’t notice any acute effects on humans. That was the birth of pesticides as we know it today.

If you can’t afford to buy anything else organic, then prioritize buying organic fruits and vegetables. There is rhyme and reason for what has worked for thousands of years, and we need to go back to those things. Reference the 2017 “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean 15” lists here. 

Join Me on Monday for a Live Webinar and Q&A

Learn how to protect yourself and your family by attending a LIVE webinar I’m hosting on Monday, May 8th at 8pm EDT!

Thank you for reading my blog and joining me in this journey as I’ve tried to put a face on this issue and make people aware of hidden environmental dangers in order to PREVENT others from becoming another statistic. Your support, along with hundreds of others, made my book, Poisoned; How a Crime-Busting Prosecutor Turned His Medical Mystery into a Crusade for Environmental Victims , a #1 bestseller on Amazon! I’m humbled and proud, but most of all happy that word is getting out about environmental illness and injury from unseen toxins that surround us daily.

Those who pre-ordered Poisoned were invited to a webinar, and I’d like to invite my blog readers to attend as well. I’m hosting a free webinar on Monday, May 8th at 8 pm Eastern (5 pm Pacific).

Register here .

In this webinar, I will address:

Lifestyle tips to keep yourself and your family healthy
Your questions answered, live!

Dr. Lance Morris, a Naturopathic Physician from Tucson, Arizona, who treats chronically ill patients worldwide will join the webinar to review how he helped during my time in the “bubble”.  Dr. Morris will provide  perspective from a medical practitioner who witnessed my plight as it was happening and joined in to save my  life. He also  offers alternative, naturalistic, homeopathic approaches to those who have chronic diseases and have nowhere else to turn.

After the presentation, Dr. Morris and I will take your questions, live! I hope you’ll join us.

WHY OUR EPA’s DIRECTION IS BAD FOR AMERICA AND HOW YOU CAN PROTECT YOURSELF

Trump’s appointee Scott Pruitt as the director of the EPA, is a move in the wrong direction.  

I’m a liberal, tree hugging, granola chewing Democrat, right? Wrong! Ironically, I’m a right leaning, conservative, former organized crime prosecutor. The most unlikely face to oppose the direction our EPA is heading. But I have my reasons.

Why Mr. Pruitt is the wrong choice:

Since 1950, over 85,000 chemicals have been introduced into our environment (source: NY Times); and few have been tested for their toxic effects on humans.
More Americans die from toxic exposure than all those affected by AIDS, war, and crime combined.
The NIH reports that 75 million Americans become ill each year because of indoor air pollution.
7 of every 10 cases of cancer are caused by environmental exposure (NIEHS).
The health of over 90% of our world’s population is adversely affected by air pollution, creating a global emergency, (World Health Organization).
Aside from crime, war, and accidents, all human disease and premature death are caused by the genes we are born with and the environment we are exposed to.

A Silent Epidemic

Our environment’s impact on human health has become the Silent Epidemic of the 21st century. No one is immune to environmentally linked disease, regardless of social, financial, or ethnic status. There are no geographic, ethnic, political, economic or religious borders. We all breathe the same air, drink the same water, eat the same food and are equally at risk in our own homes, schools, workplaces and neighborhoods.Most Americans trust our Government protect us from toxic environmental exposures. That means a Mother trusts that the shampoo used on their baby’s head, or the bed she sleeps in is safe for their health.  Yet, chemicals are pouring into our environment before they are proved safe. The powerful chemical lobby is fighting against regulation because it adversely affects their bottom line profits.

Our new EPA director, Mr. Pruitt is a self-described “leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda.” As Oklahoma’s Attorney General since 2011, he sued the agency and other governmental entities 13 times over environmental rules and regulations, at times in direct cooperation with fossil fuel companies. Nearly half of the contributions given to a federal political action committee closely tied to Mr. Pruitt’s Attorney General campaign came from the energy industry, according to Federal Election Commission documents. And, after winning his election, Pruitt dissolved the Environmental Protection Unit in his Attorney General’s office.

As a prosecutor, I learned to obtain criminal convictions by ‘following the money’. He’s now the fox in charge of guarding the EPA chicken coop.

A Backlog of Chemicals

Pruitt’s EPA is currently finding ways to speed up the new chemical review process. That means more toxic chemicals will be released into your home, school, workplace and neighborhood because the EPA is looking for ways to allow them into your lives.

A backlog of chemicals needing EPA approval has doubled in the past eight months—a jam chemical manufacturers say is significant to an industry whose profits depend upon distributing new products. The backlog of industry requests to the EPA to manufacture new chemicals has doubled from 331 to 658. The EPA has allowed only 33 new chemicals to enter commerce since the law was amended. However, under Pruitt’s leadership, the EPA is now catering to industry to increase their profitability at the expense of our citizens’ exposure to more disease-causing toxins.

The EPA is now ‘considering how to reinterpret the requirements of Toxic Substances Control Act’, which was amended in June 2016. Their objective is to find ways to allow more chemicals into our lives. To date, chemical manufacturers have been required under the original and amended TSCA to submit a premanufacture notice to the EPA before they make, distribute or sell a new chemical in the U.S.



What’s new in the amended law, is that the EPA must review that notice and make an “affirmative finding” before the new chemical can enter commerce. The EPA’s affirmative finding could conclude the new chemical would not pose an unreasonable risk. The EPA also could find, for example, that a possible health or ecological risk was addressed through data the would-be manufacturer provided or the agency could place restrictions on. These TSCA amendments require the EPA to determine whether a new chemical’s “conditions of use” may present an unreasonable risk to potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations including infants, children, women of childbearing age and workers. Under the law, the EPA’s review must consider both intended and reasonably foreseen uses of new chemicals. Pruitt’s EPA is trying to find ways to go around the law and circumvent its protective mechanisms in order to increase chemical industry profits.  

The bottom line, is currently, we can’t depend upon industry to self-police themselves given their huge financial incentives to ‘look the other way. And, we can’t depend on our doctors to cure us of environmentally-linked disease because many are incurable. However, most are preventable, and you can take back your power to protect yourself and your family.

Here are three things you can do to take action:

Contact your Congressman and demand that new legislation requires industry to test their chemicals and PROVE they are safe before they are introduced into our marketplace.
Support the production and consumption of Non-Toxic products creating a win-win situation for us: healthier consumers, a healthier workforce, healthier businesses, a healthier economy, and a healthier America. Consumer demand for non-toxic products drives supply. The ‘green’ movement has taken off. Billions of dollars are being invested into ‘green’ business which is booming.
Arm yourself with valuable knowledge to protect yourself and your family by modifying your lifestyle and minimizing your risk. Avoid breathing, eating, drinking and touching toxins found in your home, school, workplace and neighborhood. Many safe alternatives exist in our marketplace. The educated consumer is the best customer. People don’t need to suffer from much chronic illness and premature death; most are preventable.  

Concern about global warming affecting future generations is important. Likewise, saving the whales, birds, and trees in distant places is critical.  However, saving us humans takes the environmental movement to its most basic, fundamental concern: how it affects you and me, here and now.

Especially now, in today’s political climate, we can’t depend on our government to protect us through strict regulation of products, or fund research to find treatments and cures. So now, more than ever we must take back our own health.

 

The Worst of Lead Poisoning

I wrote a post back in February about lead poisoning and how to protect your family, but I came across a concerning article in the Chicago Tribune this week, Kids poisoned by lead in CHA housing; landlords still got paid.

While the family wasn’t personally responsible for paying the landlord, the taxpayers of Chicago did pay the bill. As the article cites, “Young kids remain at risk in part because the Chicago Housing Authority inspectors only check visually for cracked and peeling paint, rather than confirming hazards with dust swabs or hand-held scanners.” We have the technology to be more thorough, but these agencies lack accountability and funding and sometimes greed is a strong motivator for maintaining the status quo.

Situations like these —the worst of lead poisoning are part of the reason I jumped back into the legal arena to fight for environmentally injured victims in court, collaborated  with top attorneys, and why I wrote my book, Poisoned.

This article in the Chicago Tribune reminds me of a specific case I fought in 2004:

In 2003, two year-old Neveah Lair was hospitalized several times near her home in Bakersfield, California, for flu-like symptoms. Before then, Neveah had been a happy, healthy child. Doctors couldn’t find any cause for the little girl’s recurring illness.

Her mother, Jessica, believed Neveah’s problems sprang from the black mold that plagued their apartment complex. Jessica told the complex’s property manager about her concerns several times, but the management company refused to address the problem.

On the morning of February 29, 2004, Jessica walked into her daughter’s room to get her ready for the day. Neveah was dead. The coroner listed the little girl’s cause of death as pneumonia. Jessica, however, didn’t believe that was true. She vowed to prove that the mold in the apartment was responsible.                 

I visited the apartment complex for a meeting with the residents, and most of the people in attendance were single mothers with young children. They were hardworking and lived on modest means. Many lived in the apartments under Section 8 housing (legislation that allows tenants to pay only 30 percent of their incomes for rent). In short, they lived in those particular apartments not by choice, necessarily, but because they lacked the resources to go anywhere else, despite their worries about adverse health effects.

As I questioned them, they told me who had gotten sick in their families, what doctors they’d seen, and why they believed black mold was making them ill. I looked into their eyes and saw myself mirrored back. Mother after mother, they were desperate, all of them fighting to save their families from illness and even death.

Clearly, these people were too sick to stay, but too poor to leave. I made the decision right then that I would fight for them.

It didn’t take long to confirm the residents’ fears: toxic black mold existed in the apartment complex where Neveah had died, and where many others became sick.

While I was eventually able to help the young families in Bakersville, much more needs to be done to help families in situations like the one I fought and the one cited in this article.

In my previous article, I mentioned ways you can protect your family against lead poisoning, but I’ve also encouraged the readers of this blog to educate themselves so that they can advocate for better regulations and engage with their elected officials.

This article is a resource to help you better educate yourself about the necessary accountability for local housing authorities. Call and write to your elected officials. Let’s fight together for families experiencing the worst of lead poisoning.