 |
 |
make mothering.com your home page |
| shopping guide | ||
editorial columns
family tools
community features
 |
activism alerts march
2005 |
- Spring Clean With a Conscience by Donating a Phone to Save a Life
- Senate Bill 3 Challenges State Vaccination Rights
- Goal Attained!
- Clean Vaccine Legislation Reintroduced
Spring Clean With a Conscience by Donating a Phone to Save a Life
Recycle your old cell phone to help domestic violence and family abuse victims. Phones are being collected by The Body Shop at any of over 300 retail locations through August 31, 2005. Donated phones will be sold, refurbished or recycled, with proceeds benefiting the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence(hyperlink to www.ncadv.org) and the Wireless Foundation www.wirelessfoundation.org (a non-profit organization that oversees a number of programs designed to put wireless technology to work addressing the challenges of society). Additionally, a number of phones will be distributed to approximately 200 women's shelters for dissemination to at-risk women who need access to a personal safety system when domestic violence strikes.
The "Donate a Phone, Save a Life" campaign hopes to gather 100,000 of the estimated 65 million unused cell phones in the US between now and the end of summer. Collecting cell phones can be an individual or collective effort. Click here www.thebodyshop.com/bodyshop/global/content.jsp?page=cellphone for more information.
Source:
www.thebodyshop.com
Senate Bill 3 Challenges State Vaccination Rights
Vaccine activists are railing against a new Senate bill (S.3) entitled "Protecting America in the War on Terror Act of 2005". Sponsored by Senators Bill Frist (R-TN) and Judd Gregg (R-NH), S.3 has the following provisions:
- Eliminates a state's right to more strictly regulate vaccines and drugs, and more fully inform its citizens about vaccine and drug risks than does the federal government. Laws already passed in California and Iowa limiting mercury content in vaccines would be repealed.
- Gives comprehensive liability protections to drug companies. Eliminates a citizen's right to seek justice in state courts for drug and vaccine injuries and deaths, and limits awards in federal courts. Gives tax credits, grants, and patent extensions to the drug industry.
- Allows the Department of Health and Department of Justice, the defendants in the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, to write the terms of their own defense in order to further limit awards to vaccine injured children.
- Creates and funds a mandatory, national electronic tracking system operated by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to monitor vital records of citizens relating to both notifiable and non-notifiable diseases, and new trends and patterns in public health. Creates penalties for states and healthcare providers not reporting in a timely manner to the national tracking system. There are no provisions for mandatory reporting of serious health problems following vaccine and prescription drug use or punishments for not reporting serious side effects.
S.3 is being promoted by sponsors as a military veteran benefit bill because it increases the death benefits and other financial support for the families of soldiers who lost their lives in the Iraq war.
To view the actual bill, click here to download the PDF document: www.nomercury.org/science/documents/S_3_War_on_Terror_Act_2005.pdf
To express opposition to S.3:
Call and fax the bill's sponsors Senator Bill Frist, voice: 202.224.3344 / fax: 202.228.1264 and Senator Judd Gregg, voice: 202.224.3324 / fax: 202.224.4952.
Call and fax Chairman of the Finance Committee Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), voice: 202.224.3744 or fax 202.224.6020.
Call and fax members of the Finance Committee:
Republicans on Finance Committee
Orrin Hatch (R-UT), voice: 202.224.5251 / fax: 202.224.6331.
Trent Lott (R-MS), voice: 202.224.6253 / fax: 202.224.2262.
Olympia Snowe (R-ME), voice: 202.224.5344 / fax: 202.244.1946.
Jon Kyl (R-AZ), voice: 202.224.4521 / fax: 202.224.2207.
Craig Thomas (R-WY), voice: 202.224.6441 / fax: 202.224.1724.
Rick Santorum (R-PA), voice: 202.224.6324 / fax: 202.228.0604.
Gordon Smith (R-OR), voice: 202.224.3753 / fax: 202.228.3997.
Jim Bunning (R-KY), voice: 859.341.6480 / fax: 859.341.6482.
Mike Crapo (R-ID), voice: 202.224.6142 / fax: 202.228.1375.
Democrats on Finance Committee
Max Baucus (D-MT), voice: 202.224.2651 / fax: 202.224.4700.
John D. Rockefeller, IV. (D-WV), voice: 202.224.6472 / fax 202.224.7665.
Kent Conrad (D-ND), voice: 202.224.2043 / fax: 202.224.7776.
James Jeffords (I -VT), voice: 202.224.5141 / fax: 202.228.0776.
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), voice: 202.224.5141 / fax: 202.224.5521.
John Kerry (D-MA), voice: 202.224.2742 / fax: 202.224.8525.
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), voice: 202.224.4843 / fax: 202.228.1371.
Ron Wyden (D-OR), voice: 202.224.5244 / fax: 202.228.2717.
Charles Schumer (D-NY), voice: 202.224.6542 /fax: 202.228.3027.
Click here http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ to contact your Senators and Representatives in Congress.
From "A Dragon by the Tail" by Lisa Reagan, published in byronchild magazine, www.byronchild.com
Also thanks to Barbara Loe Fisher at the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC). For a point by point examination of the bill, visit NVIC's site www.nvic.org/ActionAlerts/S3Article.htm
Mothering is pleased to report some exciting news from the soccer field. No, it does not involve thrilled American women stripping down to their sports bras and leaping joyfully in a breakthrough win - nor does it feature the celebrity of high-profile footballer David Beckham (who, with wife Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham, welcomed a third son in February) - but it IS a solid victory:
Parents, child advocates, environmental activists and soccer fans have defeated corporate interests and inappropriately aggressive marketing tactics. As Mothering reported in a September activism alert the US Youth Soccer (USYS) sponsorship agreement with TruGreen/ChemLawn was recently up for renewal. Under the agreement, ChemLawn used USYS member address lists to send mailings clearly designed to get soccer players to nag their parents for ChemLawn's potentially toxic products.
Our September alert called on readers to send letters of concern to USYS, urging them not to renew the deal. It worked. Hundreds of letters were sent to USYS, and they are no longer sponsored by ChemLawn. Congratulations to all who pitched in and cried foul.
www.commercialfreechildhood.org
Clean Vaccine Legislation Reintroduced
US Reps. Dave Weldon, M.D. (R-FL) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) have reenacted a move to assure the removal of childhood mercury exposure through vaccines. The pair recently presented H.R. 881, the "Mercury Free Vaccine Act of 2005" to the House of Representatives. In 2004, Mothering reported on an earlier version of the bill - which eventually gained 50 sponsors but did not make it past the committee stage. According to Rep. Weldona's office, reintroduction of legislation is common as "it often takes time for a bill to gain momentum." The Weldon-Maloney bill responds to increased scientific research from respected institutions such as Columbia University, University of Arkansas, Northeastern University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which clarify that the ethyl mercury in thimerosal (a vaccine preservative) can be harmful to the brains of developing fetuses and young children.
"Our bipartisan legislation is necessary to stop CDC from rolling back the clock when it comes to eliminating this mercury exposure to for infants and pregnant women," said Rep. Weldon, a physician. "Our bill sets in place a law giving vaccine manufacturers and public health officials a realistic but firm timetable for elimination of mercury."
"It's a simple concept: kids shouldn't be given anything that's toxic. The pharmaceutical industry is starting to get the mercury out, but we need to know that it's gone without any doubt," said Maloney.
The Legislation:
- Requires that beginning with the 2006/07 flu season, the flu shots for children under age three and pregnant women may not contain more than 1microgram (mcg) of mercury
- Requires that beginning with the 2007/08 flu season, the flu shots for children under age six and pregnant women may not contain more than 1mcg of mercury
- Requires by July 1, 2006, all other routinely administered childhood vaccines, may not contain more than 1mcg of mercury and on Jan 1, 2009, all pediatric, adolescent and adult vaccines that contain more than 1mcg of mercury are banned
- Expresses the Sense of the Congress that the CDC should incorporate into its vaccine promotion messages, a recommendation against administering a mercury-containing vaccine to pregnant women.
Please contact your representatives and urge them to support H.R. 881 Click here to access email addresses for your elected officials.
Sources:
http://www.autism-society.org
http://weldon.house.gov
Featured Product
Find Your Moby Wrap
Offering the widest selection of colors and styles of wrap-style baby carriers.
