Mary Brune, Author at Center for Environmental Health

Mrs. Brune Goes to Washington – My Story from the Stroller Brigade

Jun 4, 2012Mary BruneChildren's Health, Environmental Justice, Laws & Regulations

Crossposted from Making Our Milk Safe (MOMS) blog. On May 22nd, I traveled to Washington D.C. to participate in the National Stroller Brigade for Safe Chemicals. It’s difficult to put into words how it felt to be surrounded by hundreds of other people (mothers, cancer...

Stand in Solidarity with Sofia Gatica

May 16, 2012Mary BruneEnvironmental Justice, Food

Sofia Gatica, this year’s recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize for South & Central America, is fighting the battle of her life in Argentina against some of the most powerful forces imaginable: corporate greed and desperate poverty. Sofia’s village of...

Lessons from New Jersey: Mary Brune’s mom

May 8, 2012Mary BruneChildren's Health, Laws & Regulations, Personal Stories

Crossposted from Safer States blog I grew up at the Jersey shore, on a tiny barrier island called Ocean City. My father was a fireman; my mom a waitress, then later a factory worker for Lenox China, and later still for Wheaton Plastics. I was six years old when my...

Mr. Tortorello: Stop the Toxic Insults;They Aren’t Helping

Mar 15, 2012Mary BruneLaws & Regulations, Tips

Crossposted from Making Our Milk Safe (MOMS) blog Reading Michael Tortorello’s recent piece published March 14th in the New York Times (“Is It Safe to Play Yet? Going to Extreme Lengths to Purge Household Toxins”), evoked in me the same reaction the writer...

NY Advocates Win PCBs Right-to-Know Battle

Jan 10, 2012Mary BruneChildren's Health, Environmental Justice, Laws & Regulations

By Mary Brune, crossposted from the Making Our Milk Safe (MOMS) blog A few weeks back I wrote about MOMS member Penelope Jagessar-Chaffer joining dozens of other concerned citizens at a press conference on the steps of NY City Hall to urge the NY City Council to pass...

EPA Mercury Limits, a Health Victory for Moms!

Dec 22, 2011Mary BruneChildren's Health, Environmental Justice

Yesterday, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced historic nationwide protections from mercury and other toxins from dirty power plants. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that poisons the air we breathe, the fish we eat and presents great risks to pregnant women and...

A Lesson in Toxics – Why Banned PCBs are Cause for Concern in Schools

Dec 20, 2011Mary BruneChildren's Health, Environmental Justice, Laws & Regulations, Tips

Crossposted from Making Our Milk Safe (MOMS) blog. When she first set out to learn what chemicals might be lurking in her body, mother-of-two Penelope Jagessar-Chaffer had no idea what she would discover. She was horrified to learn that PCBs, a group of flame...

Sleeping with the Enemy: Are There Toxins in your Tot’s Crib?

Nov 8, 2011Mary BruneChildren's Health, Flame Retardants, Laws & Regulations, Tips

Crossposted from Making Our Milk Safe (MOMS) blog. Even though my son is now three years old, I can still recall how nervous I was around his sleep habits when he was a newborn. If he slept longer than the expected 3-4 hours at a stretch, I would hover over his crib,...

What my daughter wants (and deserves) for her birthday: A toxic-free future

Aug 10, 2011Mary BruneChildren's Health, Laws & Regulations, Personal Stories

Tomorrow, August 11th, is my daughter Olivia’s birthday. My almost second-grader, who just finished reading the second Harry Potter book, is turning seven. It’s hard to believe. Tomorrow we’ll celebrate this milestone in the presence of family, give her gifts, and...

Hitting the Bottle

Jun 1, 2011Mary BruneChildren's Health, Laws & Regulations, Tips

Since last week was full of celebrations in honor of Memorial Day, and the “unofficial beginning of summer” (although you’d never know it from where I’m sitting; it hailed this morning), you might have missed another cause for celebration: The passage of AB 1319 last...