The Collaborative on Health and the Environment – Washington

A Partnership Network for Environmental Health
Established and Coordinated by the Institute for Children's Environmental Health

Overview

The Collaborative on Health and the Environment – Washington (CHE-WA), established originally as CHE-Northwest in 2003, is a state network of over 330 researchers, healthcare providers, members of health-affected groups, environmental health and justice advocates and other concerned citizens committed to addressing environmental health issues linked to chronic health concerns in Washington State. Our overarching goal is to promote the cross-pollination of ideas and opportunities between different sectors concerned with environmental contributors to chronic health problems in order to create a safe and healthy future for all in the Northwest.

CHE-WA began as CHE-Northwest, a regional offshoot of CHE National. With our Oregonian colleagues starting their own state CHE in February 2005 (CHE-OR), CHE-NW became CHE-WA. CHE-WA and CHE-OR will be working closely together. An umbrella CHE-NW website with sections for each of the state sites is being developed to facilitate information sharing and collaboration on regional issues.

CHE-WA holds regular, face-to-face meetings. During these meetings, we highlight emerging science in the environmental health field, share information on our respective activities, incubate new ideas and opportunities, and invite partners to present on a particular environmental health theme. To access meeting notes and documents, please visit our Meetings page.

CHE-WA has hosted several working groups:

1. the Children's Environmental Health Working Group is working to eliminate children's harmful environmental exposures during their most critical developmental years: pre-conception to age eight. This is the only one of CHE-WA's working groups that is currently active.
2. the Climate Change and Health Working Group, which worked to raise awareness of the impacts of climate change on human health and bring health issues into the discussion.
3. the Environmental Justice Working Group, which worked to develop opportunities to create stronger alliances between environmental justice and environmental health and to instill a broader understanding that environmental health and justice are inherently linked.
4. the Precautionary Principle Working Group, which focused on incorporating precautionary language in the comprehensives plans for King County and Seattle.
5. the Research and Information Working Group, which analyzed data on environmental contributors to chronic health problems and on the environmentally attributable health care costs in Washington State.

CHE-WA also supports the emergence of other working groups that promote activities for the benefit all organizational efforts whether in research, education and/or advocacy.

In addition, CHE-WA publishess a biweekly bulletin where new research, upcoming events and policy/regulatory initiatives related to environmental health issues in Washington State are posted. Though CHE-WA does not speak on behalf of all members nor take a stance as a coalition on a specific policy or regulatory issue, members are encouraged to share information on their programs and projects to increase collaboration on relevant initiatives.

We welcome all individuals and organizations that share CHE's mission and values. Though our meetings are in the Seattle area and a number of CHE-WA members are based in eastern Washington or as far as Montana, we try to make all meetings accessible via speaker phone. For more information about CHE, please see www.healthandenvironment.org/ and/or contact Aimee Boulanger, coordinator for CHE-WA, at aboulanger@iceh.org or 360-331-7904.

Become a Member of CHE-WA

Please send inquiries about membership to info@healthandenvironment.org.

Members are invited to participate in the CHE-WA meetings and listserv, receiving our biweekly email bulletins. Members of CHE-WA are also members of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE), which sends no more than four email messages per month. There are no other membership obligations.

To join the Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE) and CHE-Washington, please complete the form at www.healthandenvironment.org/roles/register?&phase=registerform. Be sure to mark that you want to join the Washington State Regional Group at the bottom of the application.