In July, AHT kicked off “Project 300,” a campaign to get 300 doctors, nurses and allied health professionals to sign a letter expressing their support for replacing toxic chemicals with safer alternatives.   

Letters signed by academics, health professionals, and other experts are helpful tools to convince legislators that toxic chemicals in our everyday products are a hazard.  In the past we have collected letters from professors, scientists, economists, parents, cancer survivors, teachers and others.  By virtue of their scientific knowledge and their respected status in society, health professionals are in an important position to influence laws and regulations that limit the use of these toxins and help industry to find safer alternatives.  The Project 300 letter will be sent to all 200 Massachusetts legislators urging them to pass An Act for a Healthy Massachusetts: Safer Alternatives to Toxic Chemicals (H-783 & S-558).  The “Safer Alternatives bill” will establish a pragmatic, gradual approach to reducing health impacts from many of the toxic chemicals that we are exposed to in everyday life. While the bill currently enjoys great support in the legislature – 112 legislators cosponsored it this winter – this letter will help firm up that support by making it clear that replacing toxic chemicals in products is not only good policy, it is good for our health.   

A growing body of evidence now links a variety of child and adult illnesses - including cancer, asthma, infertility, learning disabilities and behavioral disorders - to environmental toxins. While much remains to be known and confirmed, there is agreement within much of the medical community that getting potentially harmful chemicals out of our environment is prudent and appropriate public health practice.   

Organizers from several AHT member organizations are reaching out to health professionals from around the state, asking them to sign onto the letter and encourage their colleagues to sign on as well.  We are making progress but need your help to reach our goal of having 300 health professionals sign the letter.   

Here is what you can do to help:  

1.      If you are a health professional please click here to read the letter and then sign on by contacting Margaret Byrne at mbyrne@cleanwater.org. 

2.      If you are not a health professional, please click here to read the sign-on letter and then print it out and bring it to any doctors, nurses dentists, or other health professionals you know who could sign on.  Think about your pediatrician, your general practitioner, your obstetrician, your physical therapist, your neurologist, etc.  Click here to print the letter, give it to them, and ask them to complete and return the form at the bottom of the letter. 

3.      If you work for a health-related organization, company, hospital or other healthcare setting, please click here to print out the letter, pass it around to your colleagues, and have everyone complete the form to sign on.  

Having 300 health professionals speak up about the importance of getting toxic chemicals out of our products will make a huge impact on passing legislation to protect our health.  Reaching 300 signatures takes a lot of work, and we won’t get there without your help.     

If you have questions or comments, contact Margaret Byrne at mbyrne@cleanwater.org.