ABSTRACT
Every day we learn more about how the environment can impair our health. For example, the toxic soup of Hurricane Katrina’s fl oodwaters, childhood lead poisoning from older neglected housing, potential danger from pesticides and herbicides applied to agricultural land and residential lawns, and the spread of tropical diseases as the globe warms (Steingraber, 1998). Understanding the risks we face and how we might respond to them as individuals and as members in a community is crucial to our well-being, and, as such, provides an excellent opportunity to involve students in examining and aff ecting local governments. However, environmental health issues are rarely included in the social studies curriculum.
