Lois Gibbs, founder of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ), is coming to Pratt as part of a statewide speaking tour of NY colleges this April. Lois founded CHEJ after winning the nation's first community relocation of 900 families due to a leaking toxic waste dump in Love Canal (Niagara Falls), New York.

Lois is a dynamic and inspiring speaker. At the event she'll be discussing how her experiences at Love Canal connect with CHEJ's new PVC-free schools campaign. Learn about PVC, the most toxic plastic for our health and environment. Find out how the PVC industry is poisoning environmental justice communities in Louisiana, and where PVC may be hiding on your campus. Learn how chemicals such as phthalates and Dioxins are released by PVC and are linked to breast cancer, reproductive health problems, asthma, and learning disabilities. Find out how you can kick PVC off your campus by starting a new PVC-Free Schools Campaign at your University and stand in solidarity with environmental justice communities impacted by PVC's toxic lifecycle.

At the event, Lois will be releasing CHEJ's new student activist toolkit. Accompanying Lois on the tour will be Betty the Be Safe Ducky, an inflatable 25-foot rubber ducky that's been making headlines coast to coast in support of a PVC-free and toxic-free future.

Learn more bout the dangers of PVC in schools:  CHEJ's PVC-free schools campaign is encouraging schools to ditch the poison plastic in favor of safer alternatives. We need your help to make it a success!
http://www.besafenet.com/pvc/

Here's the Top Ten Reasons Your School Should Go PVC-Free
http://besafenet.com/pvc/documents/2009/Fact-Sheets/110909%20Top%20Ten%20Reasons.pdf

This event is sponsored by LEAP and the Center for Health, Environment & Justice's Greening Schools Inside & Out Campaign.

Location: Pratt University - Higgins Hall North, Room 308, 61 St. James Place. Brooklyn, NY 

To learn more, please contact:
Tyler Caruso at LEAP, tylercaruso@gmail.com or Mike Schade at CHEJ, ike@chej.org, 212-964-3680.
Directions:
• Take the G train to the Clinton Washington stop, walk on Lafayette and make a right on St. James Place.  The address is 61 St. James Pl.
• Take the C train to the Clinton/Washington stop, walk along Washington Ave. to Lafayette, make a right onto Lafayette and then a right onto St. James Pl.  The address is 61 St. James Pl.

About Lois Gibbs:
In 1978, Lois founded the Love Canal Homeowners' Association and led a campaign with her neighbors to relocate over 900 families from the contaminated Love Canal community. Lois went on to found the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ), where her vision has guided CHEJ's efforts to provide critical organizing and technical assistance to communities engaged in their own environmental struggles. Lois has been recognized extensively for her leadership role in the grassroots environmental justice movement. Lois is an inspiring and dynamic speaker who has appeared on many television and radio shows including 60 Minutes, 20/20, Oprah Winfrey, Good Morning America, The Morning Show and the Today Show. She is the recipient of an honorary Doctorate from SUNY at Cortland, New York, the 1990 Goldman Environmental Prize, the 1998 Heinz Award, and the 1999 John Gardner Leadership Award from Independent Sector.

Read more: http://www.chej.org/about_lois.htm