Teresa speaks out on environment and healthcare

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The campaign doesn't seem to have changed Teresa'a agenda at all. I'm glad that she is doing exactly what she has done for almost 40 years...working towards a better, HEALTHIER world.

http://www.johnkerry.com/news/clips/news_2003_1024a.html

Campaign trail draws Kerry's wife to campus


October  24,  2003
Publication
By Andrew Kaplan

While her husband courts the nation for the presidency, Teresa Heinz Kerry has her own ambitions to think of. A philanthropist, environmental advocate and educationalist, her professional agenda complements - but does not duplicate - the political program of her spouse, U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who is vying for his party's nomination in the 2004 presidential election.

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Brought up in politically-riven Mozambique by a father who practiced medicine, Heinz Kerry said she learned at a very young age the effects the environment had on public health. She added that her acquired consciousness nurtured an interest in environmental protection, a cause for which she has lobbied since she came to the United States in the early 1960s.

"I grew up in Africa in a third world country - and in those worlds if you don't prevent, you die," Heinz Kerry said, referring to widespread disease in east Africa during the 1940s and '50s. "My dad, being a physician, took me around with him a lot. And even as a child he didn't have to tell me anything - I could just see. ... As a child where I grew up, it was by the ocean, and you could not go in at sunrise or sundown" because of environmental hazards such as snakes and malaria, she added.

Referring to her husband's pledge for universal health care and lower prices for prescription drugs, Heinz Kerry said she has also sought to promote wellness among families and workers. Among her initiatives, she hosts annual conferences on Women's Health and the Environment, helped found initiatives to monitor freshwater pollution levels and encouraged the inspection of potentially hazard chemicals in consumer products.
"Most people in the world can't afford to get sick, and I don't mean just in terms of care, but because medications or time doesn't permit it," Heinz Kerry said.
"There are 75,000 chemicals in our country, 4,000 of which have been tested thoroughly. Of course we do very strict (tests) on medications and pesticides, but not that much."
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