Communication With Policy Makers

The California Interfaith Partnership for Children's Health and the Environment, California
Interfaith, with Jewish participation

[Besides focusing on public education, the California Interfaith Partnership for Children’s Health and the Environment facilitates communication with policy makers – through face-to-face meetings, letters, and calls. The following is an example of the type of letter facilitated by the Interfaith Partnership.]

April 7, 2005

The Honorable Jerome E. Horton
One Manchester Boulevard
P.O. Box 6500
Inglewood, CA 90306

Dear Assemblymember Horton:

As active leaders of the Los Angeles Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women, we urge you to support legislation to make our children safer from troubling chemicals in their everyday environment, such as AB 908 and SB 484.

The Council of Catholic Women helped start the California Interfaith Partnership for Children’s Health and the Environment, due to concern about negative health effects from children’s exposures to harmful chemicals.

In this Interfaith Partnership, we are joined by Women of Reform Judaism, the California Council of Churches, Presbyterians for Restoring Creation, and Orange County Interfaith Coalition for the Environment. While these faith traditions are diverse, they all call us to care for the vulnerable, and in today’s world, some of the most vulnerable are children whose health is compromised by exposures to toxic chemicals.

The Catholic community has long been concerned about these issues. A few years ago it formed the Catholic Coalition for Children and a Safe Environment (“CASE”). In part, CASE members include Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Health Association of the U.S., Catholic Healthcare West, National Catholic Educational Association, National Catholic Rural Life Conference, National Council of Catholic Women, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Since WWII there has been a large increase in synthetic, manmade chemicals, to which people are exposed. Research indicates that exposures to certain synthetic chemicals contribute to development of cancer, asthma, learning disabilities, Parkinson’s disease, endometriosis, birth defects, infertility, and other diseases. We need to do our best to protect children and their families from the health and economic consequences associated with such diseases and disabilities, all of which are on the rise.