Tanya Murphy
Environmental & Human Health Activist
Tanya Murphy is a concerned mother of two children who lives in Westport, Connecticut. She serves on several local boards in her community. Her entrée into the subject of human health and the environment came when a close family member was diagnosed with an environmental illness. After having worked closely with her family’s environmental health physician while pregnant with her first child, it became clear that the positive changes being made for the family member would no doubt be very positive for her unborn fetus, as it initially proved to be for their pets. Shortly after the birth of her first child and a move to the Northeast, she learned about Healthy Child Healthy World and immediately became an advocate our message.
"In the last several years, hundreds of synthetic turf athletic fields have been installed around the country for our children to play on. You've probably seen them—roughly a three-inch thick carpet of ground-up recycled tires over Astroturf. I'd read online about how two professors had taken samples from one such field in New York City and identified worrisome levels of irritants, heavy metals and known carcinogens.
One day, while driving through the Connecticut town next to ours, I noticed one of these fields. I got out of my car, walked toward the field and right away noticed the smell of tires. I knelt down, scooped up a handful of little granules and they left a stain on my hands. Kids are playing on this? I thought. But now, thinking about the new fields, I couldn't help but ask: How might something like ground-up tires affect human beings, especially children?"
From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.To read more from Tanya and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today.
