HRI - Working toward a fishable, swimmable river since 1992.

                General Electric says
      “Don’t Destroy the River to Clean It”

The Housatonic River Initiative invites you to a  a community

forum on PCBs and the Risks To Wildlife

Thursday April 5th, 7-9:30 PM, Lenox Town Hall

Why Does the USEPA want to clean  the PCBs from Housatonic River?
What is the scientific  peer reviewed Housatonic River Ecological Risk Assessment?
What are PCBs doing to the global environment?
Why are environmental agencies cleaning up PCBs around the globe?
Learn why PCBs are widely distributed in soil, water, air, wildlife, and humans

Panel Members

Biography:.      Dr. David Carpenter, a neurotoxicologist  is a professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Toxicology in the School of Public Health at State University of New York, Albany. He previously served as director of the Wadsworth Laboratory of the New York State Department of Health. He has worked successfully with many communities across the country to help them assess the degree of human exposure to a range of contaminants, including vast experience with PCBs. Carpenter, who received his doctorate from Harvard Medical School, has 220 publications, 37 reviews and book chapters and 12 other publications to his credit.

*Dr. Peter L. deFur* has extensive experience in ecological risk assessment regulations, guidance and policy. He has been chair of the Board of the Science and Environmental Health Network (SEHN), President of the Association for Science in the Public Interest, and recently completed a term on the National Research Council Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology (BEST). He also served on EPA’s Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Advisory Committee. He received his  Ph.D. in Biology (1980) from the University of Calgary, Alberta. He was a postdoctoral fellow in neurophysiology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Calgary. Peter has extensive experience in risk assessment and ecological risk assessment regulations, guidance and policy. He served on the National Academy of Science Risk Characterization Committee, numerous scientific reviews of EPA ecological and human health risk assessments, and EPA’s Ecological Risk Assessment Guidelines. He has also served on three federal advisory committees for EPA’s Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Program.

Thomas Tyning is a professional naturalist and writer. He is currently a Professor of Environmental Science at Berkshire Community College. Recently he was the Field Herpetologist with the Massachusetts Audubon Society where he has worked for 24 years. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Springfield College and Antioch New England Graduate School where he teaches Amphibian Biology, Herpetology, Field Entomology, Field Ornithology and other courses. For the past 24 years he has written a weekly newspaper column about nature for the Springfield (MA) Union-News and Stokes Nature Guides series (Little, Brown and Co.). Tom leads natural history tours to such places as Galapagos Islands, Costa Rica, Venezuela, the Amazon River Basin, South Florida’s Everglades, Newfoundland and eastern Canada, and the desert Southwest. His graduate work from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) focused on the biology and conservation of the Timber rattlesnake.

For more info call 413-446-2520 or email  housriverkeeper@gmail.com