Commission on Disability Access (CODA)
Meeting Minutes for the 18th of February,
2004 / CODA office / 2 3:00pm
Persons Present Scott T, Elisabeth K, Chris H, Jeremy J, Eric R, West L, Sam M, Ali
S, Lucy (CALPRIG rep), Jim M
Our email addresses:
coda@as.ucsb.edu goes to
all members
codainfo@as.ucsb.edu goes
to Chris
codaexecs@as.ucsb.edu goes
to all executives
Overview of discussion (not necessarily in order of occurrence)
1)
Welcome and approval of the previous meeting minutes 2 -2:05
2) Lucy from CALPIRG talked to us about
mercury that is emitted from coal plants.
The mercury gets into the fish and then affects the humans that ingest
them. The mercury causes birth defects,
disabilities, etc. The Bush
administration wants to soften a regulation that is currently in place. These regulations target Power plants. Lucy requests we write a letter to the
administration utilizing the draft that CALPRIG has provided. See letter below.
2) with the permission of the group...a
reading of the CODA mission...a moment of reflection Chris 2:05 - 2:10
3) Disability
Awareness Week (DAW) update Ali 2:10- 2:30
a) DO WE HAVE A DATE? 4th week. April 19th
to the 23rd
b) Create a DAW calendar.
c) We have an invitation for one of the nights to be hosted
and sponsored at Manzanita compliments of Professor A.
These rooms are
like classrooms.
d) Evening events
- disability in the media, Chris to
contact Dr. Singer
- whether pigs have wings, 22nd,
Chris to contact Janet Shapiro
- community panel,
- adapted sports exhibition Sam to
contact Judith Dale.
e) Ali makes a request for materials,
promotional ideas, tabling ideas, hand outs
4) Web
productions and design update, Eric 2:40-2:45 Updated the website
yesterday. Added the minutes. Some ideas for content
- advertise disability awarness week
- officers list and contact info
(not personal addresses)
- reference links for community
- peer mentorship links
- current issues
6) ADA
proposals update, Ali and Chris 2:45- 2:50
- all of our issues will be heard. Some projects will be submitted for the ADA
Cell site monies, all of the rest will be submitted to raise awareness among
the committee members. Proposals
include striping on stairs, dont walk your bike sign restoration, rear
access to the UCen, universal signage in all buildings, support for the DAW,
compensation for undergrad and grad reps, resource library, centralized testing
center, scholarship for learning disability testing,
- The pit area of the library is a problem area and a good
candidate for the warning strips.
7)
Sedgwick Reserve trip First Sunday in April, the 4th. West to contact Sedgwick.
9) RESOURCE: The Independent Living Center has an
empowerment team that meets the 2nd Monday of each month from
2:00
3:30. The next meeting will be March 8th. 423 W Victoria St.
Action:
-
Sam contact Judith
Dale regarding adaptive sports exhibition nigtht
-
Ali prepare budget
for DAW and send to Jeremy
-
West contact Sedgwick
Reserve, discuss coming up on the 4th
-
Jeremy identify
funding possibilities for DAW
-
Chris contact Singer
re: Media event, Contact Shapiro re: Speaker event
-
Scott follow up with
AS proposal for an operating budget.
-
Elisabeth develop
promotional materials for DAW. Outreach.
- Eric manage web site
Some
ideas for content
- advertise disability awarness week
- officers list and contact info
(not personal addresses)
- reference links for community
- peer mentorship links
- current issues
-
Everybody consider
how you would like to contribute to DAW.
Brainstorm activities, collect resource hand-outs.
________________
Begin Mercury Letter
Draft. Any questions, call:
Lucy Hellier UCSB Calpirg x8319
Letter to be printed out and mailed to:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
___________________________________________________________________________
SAMPLE MERCURY RULE COALITION LETTER
(January, 2004)
Date
Dear President Bush:
In December, 2003, the Environmental Protection Agency, under your
direction, proposed to weaken protections from mercury emitted by
power plants. The proposal would reclassify mercury as no longer a
toxic chemical and allow six times more mercury pollution over the
next decade. The proposal also would leave local communities
vulnerable to dangerous levels of mercury pollution by allowing the
biggest polluters to escape emissions limits buy purchasing
pollution credits. We urge you to reverse course, drop these
proposals, and instead require polluters to install the strongest
available pollution controls.
The EPA estimates that roughly 60% of the total mercury deposited in
the United States comes from human-made air emission sources. Power
plants account for the largest source of these emissions. This
mercury ends up in our food chain by accumulating in fish, a staple
of the American diet. The problem is widespread: 44 states and
territories have posted mercury advisories warning people to limit
consumption of fish from more than 12 million acres of lakes and
400,000 miles of rivers.
For those who eat mercury-tainted fish, the health risks are
serious, especially for developing fetuses and very young children,
whose neurological systems are developing. Mercury‘¦s effects on the
central nervous system are comparable to those of lead. These
effects include attention and language deficits; impaired memory;
inability to process and recall information; and impaired visual and
motor function.
The number of children exposed to mercury is alarming:
-A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control Prevention
estimates that eight percent of women of child-bearing years in the
U.S. have unsafe levels of mercury in their blood from eating
contaminated fish.
-As many as 322,000 children are born in the United States
each year with a heightened risk for health effects related to
mercury exposure.
As mercury contamination becomes a more pressing public health
issue, businesses in the recreational fishing industries stand to
lose. The sport fishing industry alone contributed $116 billion to
our economy and supported more than one million jobs last year.
This figure does not even begin to calculate the risk of mercury
contamination to American businesses that depend on a robust market
for fish sold in the grocery stores or at restaurants all across the
nation, nor does this number count the loss of fish as a source of
food for those who rely on it for their families or their way of
life.
After years of research, EPA concluded in 2000 that it was necessary
and appropriate to set mercury standards under Section 112 of the
Clean Air Act for power plants, the largest industrial source of
mercury. This proposal, which would have required power plants to
install the strongest existing pollution control technologies, would
have reduced the amount of mercury emitted from smokestacks by as
much as 90 percent and brought the national power plant mercury load
down to roughly five tons per year by 2008. This level of protection
is not only possible but absolutely warranted by the health concerns
and economic threat posed by mercury pollution.
However your administration rejected these steps, mandated by the
Clean Air Act, to protect the public health. We strongly urge you
not to weaken protections against mercury and instead faithfully
implement the Clean Air Act to reduce mercury emissions from power
plants by 90% from existing levels.
Sincerely,
end mercury letter draft
Compiled by:
------------------------------------
codainfo@as.ucsb.edu
Please let me know if I
missed or misrepresented anything.