Summary Template for Community Conversations Word Version

REVISED BY Curran 7-9-10

Community Conversation Summary Template

Use this template to record the major topics and ideas discussed during the Community Conversation.

Within 1 week of the event, the convener should

1.  Download the electronic copy of the summary template, available at: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/nationalconversation/community_conversations.html.

2.  Fill out the summary template using the notes from the meeting.

3.  Send the summary to . All summaries are due by June 30, 2010.

Convener contact information:

Name: ___Amanda Sears______

Email address: ______

Phone: ______(207)-699-5797______

Address:____565 Congress Street, suite 204, Portland, ME 04101______

______

Convening organization(s) (if applicable):___Environmental Health Strategy Center ______

Meeting location (city, state): ___565 Congress Street, suite 204, Portland, ME 04101

Meeting date: ___6/17/10______

Number of participants: __18____

Brief description of participants and community:

The participants were members, friends, or heard about the conversations through the Environmental Health Strategy Center.

Topic 1: Concerns

Participants’ main concerns included:

·  Frustration with scientists always disagreeing, which seems to stop policy change.

·  Corporations have too much influence in stopping dangerous chemicals from being taken off the market.

·  Government decisions on what chemicals to ban include the economic bottom line and often result in considering corporations needs before human health.

·  The view that many consider environmental health anti-business.

·  How to sort through the huge amounts of information on what is most safe to buy to protect our family from dangerous chemicals.

·  There is so much information but it is hard to find clear concise reliable information on what chemicals are safe to use and which may not be.

·  Feeling overwhelmed with too much information, then giving up on figuring out what is safe, and instead buying what is cheap or convenient.

Topic 2: Values

List several values that participants thought were important:

·  Most participants agreed that the list of values where not mutually exclusive and they agreed with many values at once, for example: transparency, prevention, and justice.

·  Some participants were concerned with the convenience and personal responsibility values because they do not address root problems such as:

o  producing harmful chemicals can pose danger to people before they even reach the shelf for consumers to buy.

Topic 3: Roles and responsibilities

Participants noted key steps that certain groups could take, including:

·  Become part of a group advocating for policy that reviews chemicals that are in consumer products, and requires safe chemicals to replace dangerous chemicals.

·  Advocate for the government to be a part of testing chemicals in consumer products before they are allowed to be sold, similar to how the FDA works.

·  Push for more labeling so that consumers can know what chemicals are in the products they buy.

Topic 4: Learning from accounts of success and failure

The main lessons we can learn from the discussion of successes and failures include:

·  Not even clear science ensures that policy change will happen, for example asbestos is still not banned on a Federal level.

·  Cannot assume the government is protecting us from dangerous chemicals in products we buy. We must do our own research.

·  Change happens not only with good science but there also needs to be enough public education and concern to make change a priority.

·  Need a combination of both educated consumers making healthy decisions, and citizens working together to push for stronger policy to ensure that people can only buy products with safe chemicals in the future.

·  When a group of citizens work together to make change it can work, for example parents pushed for a school to be cleaned with safe chemicals and they succeeded.

·  Increased government monitoring can lead to policy change, for example in Sweden the government monitors breast milk and found high levels of flame retardants. In response, the government banned the flame retardant and the levels of flame retardants in breast milk went down.

Follow up

Did the group make any plans for a follow up meeting about local action?

There was no specific meeting date planned for follow up.

Please list the email addresses of participants who noted on the sign-in sheet that they want to receive National Conversation updates.

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