Conservationists Honor Local Champions of Children's Health & Clean Air

by Judy Silberstein with Adiel Gavish from the WCFC

(October 13, 2005) They generally mix like oil and water, but on Saturday, October 1, local environmentalists and Big Oil mingled as friends when the Federated Conservationists of Westchester County (FCWC) met to honor achievements of three area leaders: oil refiner Sprague Energy; world-renowned pediatrician, Dr. Philip J. Landrigan; and long-term county Department of Health official, Mary Landrigan. The Landrigans live in Mamaroneck and Steven Levy, who accepted on behalf of Sprague Energy, resides in New Rochelle.

FCWC selected the 2005 honorees for their work in children’s and environmental health, and for advocating a cleaner, healthier diesel fuel that could help reduce harmful diesel emissions by up to 90%.

At the award reception: WCFC Program Director Adiel Gavish; Honorees Mary Landrigan, Phil Landrigan and Steven Levy; and FCFW President Oreon Sandler.

Mary and Philip Landrigan: Environmental Power Couple

“All their neighbors and friends have long admired their distinguished work in the fields of public health and environmental protection, locally, nationally and internationally,” noted, Robert Funicello, a WCWC board member and former Mamaroneck neighbor of the Landrigans. The organization considers the couple to be “superheroes for a healthy tomorrow,” he said.

“We’ve lived in Mamaroneck for 20 years and have been delighted to see the enthusiasm of residents for preventing environmental hazards,” said Mary Landrigan, who specifically noted the work of the Coastal Zone Management Commission on which she served two terms. She is the current Director for Health Education and Information at the Westchester County Department of Health and has been instrumental in devising county responses to such environmental health threats as West Nile virus and hazardous chemical spills.

Dr. Philip Landrigan’s clinical and academic focus has been on children and their environment. "Children, in general, are much more vulnerable to toxic chemicals in the environment than are adults,” he explained. He mentioned the way children breathe, eat, drink, and play as factors in their greater vulnerability. Dr. Landrigan is professor and chair of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, among other academic and research positions, and was a pioneer in linking environmental toxics, such as airborne lead, to children’s health.

"Protection of the health and the future potential of our children is in my mind the strongest reason for taking sensible steps to clean up our environment - for establishing idle-free school zones, for using the cleanest burning diesel fuel with strong particulate filters, for reducing pesticide use in schools and playgrounds and, when possible, for eating ‘organic,’” he stressed.

The Landrigans raised three children in Mamaroneck and co-authored the 2001 book Raising Healthy Children in a Toxic World, which provides guidance to parents on protecting children from a range of environmental health threats.

"We wrote the book out of concern for the health of children in a world that has toxic materials in it,” said Mary Landrigan. “We wanted families to have practical, easy ways to keep their children from being exposed to toxic and environmental hazards, even while we are all looking to remove these from the environments,” she said.

Big Oil

Sprague Energy, located in White Plains and a member of the Axel Johnson Group of Stockholm, Sweden, was recognized for its promotion and support for clean fuels, including the ultra low sulfur diesel fuel used in Westchester County’s Bee-Line bus system. Steven J. Levy, who pioneered Sprague Energy’s clean diesel program in 1998, accepted the award on behalf of the company. S

FCWC is not-for-profit coalition of hundreds of individuals and over fifty local environmental organizations. For more information, see: www.FCWC.org

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