Give the Public and Workers the Full Right-to-Know and Participate
The Louisville Charter discusses the importance of involving the public and workers in decisions on chemicals. For me, the most important of this highlight of the Louisville Charter is the disclosure of chemicals and harmful materials to the public.
The Louisville Charter allows references a paper by Paul Orum (2005) titled "Give the Public and Workers the Full Right-to-Know and Participate. Orum discusses the importance of immediate disclosure of environmental health hazards. Orum (2005) defines the, "Right to Know" as the "routine, systematic, mandatory, public reporting of toxic chemicals or other environmental hazards, rather than access to government documents through the Freedom of Information Act." The underlying importance behind the "Right-to-Know" is an increase in transparency. It is important for the public to engage in meaningful discussion with anyone whom they may choose. Most importantly this information has to be easily accessible to the public. Websites that we have been using like, toxnet or what's on my food?, are integral in bridging this information gap between consumers and suppliers.
The only reason why we know about these chemicals is because of Dr. Sattler and this environmental course, it takes a Master of Public Health at USF to learn about these websites that provide information on chemicals that we have to search, otherwise, we may not know about it. The Right to Know campaign, educating the public and providing healthier alternatives is needed.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the sites we've used in this course have been incredibly useful resources. The general public should be introduced to these sites so that they can take better control of what they are consuming and their health, consequently. Even if there is a Right to Know Act, it doesn't serve its purpose well if people are unaware of it.
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