The Eco(A)Ware Project ia designed to create a grass-roots initiative organized by local an activist consumer-right-to-know network, especially in neighborhoods located near Superfund Sites and areas of known contamination. The campaign focuses on the toxicities in our common household and personal care products in our local communities and provides not only practical information but also "big picture" understandings of what is happening on our planet and why some groups are more disproportionately affected by global toxification. The project was initially funded by the Unity Avenue Foundation.
In 2009, WEI’s Eco-Aware staff person Connie Minowa worked with the Early Childhood and Family Education (ECFE) program last spring to give EcoAware presentations to a total of sixty parents in Linström and North Branch, explaining the impact of toxic chemicals on their children’s health and giving the parents information to help them choose non-toxic cleaning and personal care products for their homes.
Connie and Emily Moore also worked with a Women’s Group at Little Earth of United Tribes over a series of months to offer information about non-toxic products and information on how make changes in their homes and the administrative offices at Little Earth. The Women’s Group is taking a leadership role in WEI’s Growing Power/Little Earth initiative in teaching the community about preparing healthy foods and working on the composting project already underway and on the urban farming project planned to begin in the summer of 2010.
The Eco-Aware project has also joined in collaborative efforts with the Healthy Legacy Coalition,, a coalition of over 30 health and environmental groups committed to chemical policy reform in the state and federal governments. Healthy Legacy (www.healthylegacy.org) gives consumers the information they need to purchase non-toxic products for their homes, engages businesses to offer non-toxic products, and works with local, state, and federal governments to effect policy change so that green chemistry will be implemented throughout industry and non-toxic products will be the norm. Last legislative session Healthy Legacy helped support legislation to ban the sale in Minnesota of baby bottles and sippy cups containing the chemical bisphenolA (BPA) – and Minnesota became the first state in the union to ban BPA. The other bill Healthy Legacy supported was the Toxic-Free Kids Act. It's designed to get ahead of the federal government on chemicals used in consumer products. It requires the Minnesota Department of Health to assess chemicals used in consumer products and publish a list of those with known human health risks. This year Healthy Legacy will help draft a bill that supports the economic development of green chemistry projects. Healthy Legacy is supporting federal legislation to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and is working with the federal advocacy group Safer Chemicals. See their website (www.saferchemicals.org) or the database Healthy Stuff (www.healthystuff.org) for more information..
To catch a glimpse of where we will be going in the next two years, click here.
If you are interested in becoming an intern or trained volunteer for this project, contact WEI.