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Toxins: A Global ThreatFriday, March 11, 2011 at 6:00 PM - Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 4:00 PM (ET)New York, NY |
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Event Details
FRIDAY, MARCH 11 2011
Screening of the Academy Award Nominee, Gasland | 6:00pm
& Introduction by Actress/Activist Debra Winger and Webcast Q&A with Director, Josh Fox
"...one of the most effective and expressive environmental films of recent years." - Variety
"GASLAND just might be the best film of the year." - The Huffington Post
Academy Award Nominee 2011 for Best Documentary Feature
Winner of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize
"The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a "Saudia Arabia of natural gas" just beneath us. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown."
Film Director, Josh Fox
Josh Fox is the founder and Artistic Director of International WOW Company, a film and theater company that works closely with actors and non actors from diverse cultural backgrounds, including members of the US Military, activist communities in sustainable energy and design and actors, dancers, designers and filmmakers from around the world to create new work that addresses current national and global social and political crises. Josh's work is known for its mix of gripping narrative, heightened imagery and its commitment to socially conscious themes and subjects.
Most recently, Josh wrote and directed Gasland his first documentary feature, which premiered at the Sundance film festival and won the Special Jury Prize in the US documentary competition. The film is about the largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. What is uncovered is truly shocking--water that can be lit on fire right out of the sink, chronically ill residents of drilling areas from disparate locations in the US all with the same mysterious symptoms, huge pools of toxic waste that kill cattle and vegetation well blowouts and huge gas explosions consistently covered up by state and federal regulatory agencies.
Actress and Activist, Debra Winger
Debra Winger is a three-time Academy Award Nominated Actress, and has received awards for acting in Terms of Endearment and in A Dangerous Woman. More recently, she was seen on the big screen in Rachel Getting Married.
Winger divides her time between her home in Irvington, NY and a country retreat she and husband, fellow actor Arliss Howard, share with their blended family in upstate New York. She has been a part of that Catskills community for more than 20 years, so when she began to hear about a threat to the area’s pristine beauty, Winger, who is considered something of a maverick in the film industry, began to sit up and take notice.
“I came to realize that living on the Marcellus Shale formation was going to be a responsibility,” Winger told the Rivertowns Enterprise. In response to that sense of responsibility, she signed on as one of the executive producers of Gasland. Winger herself has led the charge to convince New York lawmakers to impose a moratorium on hydrofracking.
SATURDAY, MARCH 12 2011
Registration, Coffee, Networking | 9:30am
Opening Remarks | 10:00am
"Remediating Toxic Waste Sites in the Developing World" | 10:10am
Presentation by : Richard Fuller, President of the Blacksmith Institute
Richard Fuller is the Founder/President of the not-for-profit Blacksmith Institute. Born in Australia, Mr. Fuller graduated with a degree in engineering from Melbourne University and was employed by IBM. He left Australia in 1988 to work directly on global environmental issues. For two years in the rainforests of Brazil with the United Nations Environmental Programme, he created forest reserves promoting the preservation of both the rainforest and its inhabitants. He then headed to New York city, establishing Great Forest Inc., now one of the most successful sustainability consulting companies in the U.S. Great Forest was one of the first to bring sustainability practices to the business world, helping to pave the way for the rise of corporate social responsibility. Mr. Fuller founded the not-for-profit Blacksmith Institute in 1999.
On a global scale, Mr. Fuller believes that pollution is still one of the most serious problems the earth faces--and developing countries bear the brunt of it. Up until now, very little support has been given to local institutions to solve these problems in their communities, a crucial gap Blacksmith is filling. Behind Mr. Fuller's driving determination is the know-how to solve these problems and save lives at risk. Working with scientists, public health experts, environmental engineers, academics and other experts from local and governmental agencies, Mr. Fuller has assembled a comprehensive database of knowledge and information that is being used by Blacksmith's network of project managers around the world to clean up the worst polluted sites efficiently and effectively.
"Importance of Toxicologic Research in Global Health " | 11:00am
Presentation by : Lewis Goldfrank , MD
Dr. Goldfrank has worked at Bellevue Hospital Center and New York University Medical Center for the last quarter century. He is currently the first Chairman and Professor of the newly established academic Department of Emergency Medicine at New York University. He is also the Medical Director of the New York City Health Department’s Poison Center. Educated at Clark University, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the University of Brussels, Belgium; he graduated from the University of Brussels, Medical School in 1970. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center in 1973.
His efforts have led to the development of NYU's Emergency Medicine and Medical Toxicology residencies. He has served as the Chairman of American Board of Emergency Medicine’s subboard on Medical Toxicology, the American Board of Medical Toxicology and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. His entire career has been spent working in the public hospitals of New York City emphasizing the role of Emergency Medicine in improving access to care, public health, public policy and medical humanism. He is senior editor of Goldfrank's Toxicologic Emergencies, a standard text in medical toxicology, the eighth edition of which was published in 2006.
Dr. Goldfrank is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine (IOM) and chaired the IOM Committee on Responding to the Psychological Consequences of Terrorism, the IOM Committee for Evaluation of the Metropolitan Medical Response Systems Program, the IOM Committee on Preparing for an Influenza Pandemic: Personal protective equipment for Healthcare Workers. He is currently the Chairman of the IOM Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Catastrophic Events.
His investigations in preparedness include developing and leading a consortium on preparedness with the NYC Department of Health, leading the New York University School of Medicine Consortium on Preparedness, being the principal investigator for a DHS Large Scale Emergency Readiness grant and a Department of Defense Risk Management in the Healthcare Sector grant, and being a co principal investigator on a CDC Public Health Research grant – Health Protection Research Initiative.
Hydrofracking and Advocacy Panel Discussion | 11:50am
Panelists include:
Albert F. Appleton, Former Commissioner of the NYC Department of Environmental Protection
Albert F. Appleton (Al Appleton) is an international infrastructure and environmental consultant with interlocking expertise in water resource and water utility management, infrastructure economics and public finance, land use and landscape preservation, the economics of sustainable development and the use of financial strategies such as Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) to achieve mutually supporting economic development and environmental protection goals. His current work, all of which is proceeding to implementation, includes advising the Queensland, Australia, bulk water supply company on establishing a watershed protection program for Brisbane's principal water supply, assisting the United States Forest Service in developing and carrying out an ecosystems service strategy to fund the ecological restoration of nine million acres of California's national forests, advising a network of Mid-Atlantic environmental and civic groups on insuring the use of hydrofracking to obtain natural gas from shale formations is done in a sustainable fashion, and developing a new generation of water resource management institutions for the Province of Alberta. Since the mid-1990s, Mr. Appleton has consulted on strategies for sustainable water resource and infrastructure management and development, and the creation of ecosystem services programs, in numerous foreign countries as well as the United States.
Mr. Appleton is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Cooper Union in New York City teaching a senior seminar on the challenge of sustainability, with an emphasis on its economics. He is also a Senior Fellow at the new Cooper Union Institute for Sustainable Design (CISD), focusing on strategic approaches to green energy and region wide programs of environmental restoration and green jobs.
During the first half of the 1990s, Mr. Appleton served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Director of the New York City Water and Sewer system, where he developed and implemented groundbreaking innovations that saved New York City billions of dollars while markedly improving water utility operational and environmental performance. These included the world renowned Catskill watershed protection, a pioneering urban-rural partnership that successfully preserved the pristine quality of New York City drinking water; New York's comprehensive water conservation program, one that permanently reduced New York City's water use by nearly 400 million gallons of water a day, or 30% of total consumption, without significant impact on water users; and New York's innovations in the use of natural infrastructure such as the Staten Island Bluebelt System. He increased the rate of water and sewer infrastructure construction activity by 50%, earning for DEP the Infrastructure Institute's designation as the City's best construction management agency. He obtained full funding for long neglected maintenance needs, introduced new concepts of asset optimization into Department management, and carried out a fundamental restructuring of New York's water and sewer tariffs which, through a combination of financial reforms and provisions for better social equity in tariff structures, ended a decade of annual double digit water and sewer tariff increases and acrimonious political controversy.
Mr. Appleton is a graduate B.A. (Honors) of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington (Political Science and Mathematics) and of Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut.
Tracey Carluccio
Tracy Carluccio is Deputy Director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN), where she has been employed as an environmental advocate since 1989, working throughout the Delaware River Watershed in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware. Delaware Riverkeeper Network is a nonprofit membership organization working throughout the entire length and breadth of the Delaware River Watershed – speaking and working for both its protection and its restoration. The organization’s offices are located in Bristol, PA.
Recently, she co-authored two publications for Delaware Riverkeeper Network "Stormwater Runoff, Lost Resource or Community Asset?" and "In Defense of Watersheds" and presented papers at various scientific and advocacy conferences. She serves on the New Jersey Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council, appointed to by the Governor of New Jersey in 2004; the Council developed and is now implementing the Highlands Regional Master Plan for Northern New Jersey, a region covering 88 municipalities and over 850,000 acres. She has also headed up other environmental organizations, directed a regional water resource authority, and served on numerous boards and community organizations, including the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissioners’ Regional Board, the Sourland Alliance and the Sourland Planning Council in Central New Jersey. Carluccio's educational background includes a B.A. in Sociology from the University of North Carolina and courses at Rutgers Univ. Cook College, NJ and Villanova University, PA, in Environmental Science and Stormwater Management.
Vincent Pedre, MD
Dr. Vincent M. Pedre, Medical Director of Pedre Integrative Health and President of Dr. Pedre Wellness, is a Board-Certified Internist in private practice in New York City since 2004. His practice spans the scope from Western medicine to Eastern philosophy. He is a Clinical Instructor in Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and certified in yoga and Medical Acupuncture. His unique combination of medicine is best described as integrative or defined by a functional, systems-based approach to health. With his holistic understanding of both sides of the equation, he can help each patient choose the best course of action for their ailments to provide both immediate and long-term relief.
Dr.Pedre's is a sought-after speaker and writer on sustainable health, prevention, and integrative & functional medicine. This has taken him beyond the bounds of his private practice to appearances on the Martha Stewart Show, where he highlighted the Top Medical Screening Tests everyone should have, and to features on Sirius XM Radio's Doctor Radio, the Gary Null Show on Progressive Radio Networks, and guest blogs on Ecomii and Yahoo! Green, Yahoo's leading wellness blog platform. He is also an activist on the issue of hydraulic fracturing and its potential health impacts, including water contamination and air pollution.
Dr. Pedre's posts on Ecomii.com Food and Health Blog:
Natural Gas Drilling Threatens Safe Drinking Water http://bit.ly/bAILEP
Ten Tips to Clean Living in a Toxic World http://bit.ly/9WmVdz
Follow This Easy Plan for a Cleansing Fall Detox http://bit.ly/aPKoF2
Diabetes and Pesticides: Could Exposure Make You Sick? http://bit.ly/cb0gcJ
Potential Health Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing http://bit.ly/fopuIk
CNN appearance on Jane Velez Mitchell, talking about fracking and potential dangers to clean drinking water: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1012/13/ijvm.01.html
Dr. Sheffield is a Board-certified Pediatrician trained in the Pediatric Environmental Health Fellowship at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine where she is now faculty in the Departments of Pediatric and Preventive Medicine. She graduated from the Medical College of Georgia and completed a residency in Pediatrics in the Harriet Lane Program at Johns Hopkins University. She conducts research on the health impacts of climate change, climate-sensitive health risks, and health professionals' understanding of these issues with a particular focus on children. She co-instructs the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health course "Public Health Impacts of Climate Change" with Dr. Patrick Kinney.
She serves as the Deputy Director of the Federal Region II Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) based at Mount Sinai. This region includes New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. This PEHSU team has been following the status of hydraulic fracturing in New York for the past two years and has provided testimony to the EPA and the New York City Council as well as public presentations and education regarding the potential risks to children's health emphasizing the need for a precautionary approach.
Lunch & Student Poster Session | 12:40pm
**LUNCH IS INCLUDED WITH ADMISSION.
Attendees are encouraged to participate in the student poster session. Students from participating institutions in the NYC region will be invited to display posters describing research or interventions related to the health of local or domestic underserved populations.
"Asbestos: Exporting hazardous waste around the world " | 2:00pm
Presentation by Barry Castleman, ScD
Barry Castleman is a chemical engineer who has spent his career working with public interest groups both in the United States and internationally on issues involving asbestos exposure, control and asbestos-related diseases.
He has investigated the history and global aspects of the asbestos issue; the history of corporate influence in setting occupational exposure limits; the export of hazardous industries to developing nations; and corporate efforts to manipulate international scientific organizations.
Dr. Castleman holds a Doctorate in Science from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
"Plastics, Pesticides and Global Health" | 2:50pm
Presentation by " Philip J. Landrigan, MD, M.Sc., Dean for Global Health, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Dr. Philip J. Landrigan is a pediatrician, epidemiologist, and internationally recognized leader in public health and preventive medicine. He has been a member of the faculty of Mount Sinai School of Medicine since 1985 and Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine since 1990. He was named Dean for Global Health in 2010. Dr. Landrigan is also the Director of the Children's Environmental Health Center.
Dr. Landrigan’s landmark studies in the early 1970s of children exposed to lead near a lead ore smelter in El Paso, Texas were among the first to show that lead can cause brain damage to children at levels too low to cause clinically evident signs and symptoms – a phenomenon now termed “subclinical toxicity.” This work was critical in persuading the EPA to remove lead from gasoline and paint, actions that resulted in a 95% decline in lead poisoning in US children. This success has been emulated in nations worldwide.
The 1993 National Academy of Science report on Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children that Dr. Landrigan led provided the blueprint for the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996, the major law governing pesticide use in the US, and the only federal environmental law that contains explicit provisions for the protection of children’s health.
Dr. Landrigan has been a leader in developing and implementing the National Children's Study, the largest study of children's health and he environment ever launched in the United States. He has been centrally involved in the medical and epidemiologic studies that followed the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He has consulted extensively to the World Health Organization.
In the News
http://www.mountsinai.org/profiles/philip-j-landrigan
Poster Award Presentation and Closing Remarks | 3:45pm
The Mount Sinai Global Health Training Center is proud to present its 9th Annual Global Health Conference. This year the theme of the conference is Toxins: A Global Threat and will be held in the Stern Auditorium at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Sponsored by: The Milton B. Rosenbluth Foundation & the Mount Sinai Master of Public Health Program
CONTINUING MEDICAL EDUCATION (CME) CREDITS
CME CREDITS INCLUDED IN REGISTRATION! Eligible participants may receive up to 4.25 CME Credits
Goals and Objectives
At the conclusion of the conference, the participant should be able to:
Target Audience
Accreditation Statement
The Mount Sinai School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Credit Designation Statement
The Mount Sinai School of Medicine designates this educational activity for a maximum of 4.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)TM. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Disclosure Policy Statement
It is the policy of Mount Sinai School of Medicine to ensure objectivity, balance, independence, transparency, and scientific rigor in all CME-sponsored educational activities. All faculty participating in the planning or implementation of a sponsored activity are expected to disclose to the audience any relevant financial relationships and to assist in resolving any conflict of interest that may arise from the relationship. Presenters must also make a meaningful disclosure to the audience of their discussions of unlabeled or unapproved drugs of devices. This information will be available as part of the course material.
When & Where
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
1468 Madison Avenue
STERN AUDITORIUM (Annenberg Building Ground Floor)
New York,
NY 10029
Friday, March 11, 2011 at 6:00 PM - Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 4:00 PM (ET)
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