2017 Drinking Water Advocacy – MA Citizens Action Needed

Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition (MBCC) has requested funding from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for its sister organization, Silent Spring Institute. The funding will be used to study exposure to toxic chemicals in drinking water throughout Massachusetts and provide online tools for residents to learn about their drinking water quality. MBCC needs your help to support the passage of the bill, filed by Representative Paul K. Frost (7th Worcester), Bill H.2919 An Act Relative to Drinking Water and Ground Water Research, to establish a research trust fund. If you have not already done so, we urge you to:

1) Contact the Chairs of the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture to request support of Bill H.2919.  In addition, ask for their support to find funding for this trust fund.

Senator Anne M. Gobi, 617-722-1540; email: anne.gobi@masenate.gov

Representative Gailanne M. Cariddi, 617-722-2210; email: gailanne.cariddi@mahouse.gov

2) Also, please contact your State Legislators to support clean water research funding for Silent Spring Institute. You can find the contact information for your legislators at https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator or call 617-722-2000

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Pictured: Dr. Laurel Schaider, Research Scientist, Silent Spring Institute; Representative Paul K. Frost, 7th Worcester; Cheryl Reeve, MBCC Volunteer Event Chairwoman; Margo Simon Golden, President, MBCC Board of Directors; and, Justine Dymond, MBCC Board of Directors Member

This advocacy effort follows the forum MBCC co-hosted on January 25th with Representative Frost at the State House. Over 60 Massachusetts state legislators and aides came to learn about drinking water quality at the Educational Forum on Water Quality Research in Massachusetts.

Representative Frost and Margo Simon Golden, President of MBCC’s Board of Directors, explained the need for water quality research and shared their motivations for protecting water quality and public health in Massachusetts. Dr. Laurel Schaider, Research Scientist at Silent Spring Institute, provided an update on Silent Spring Institute’s ongoing research on hormone disruptors and other unregulated chemicals of emerging concern in drinking water and groundwater on Cape Cod, as well as priority areas for water quality research in other parts of the Commonwealth.