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Sustainability

Tours and Events

The folowing events are FREE but you MUST register in advance.

We will be hosting a three-hour Houston Community and Environmental Health Bus Tour on Saturday, March 17, 2007, from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm, with a one-hour break for lunch at the Immaculate Conception Parish Hall, at 7250 Harrisburg Boulevard in the heart of several Ship Channel communities, where the acclaimed play, Blood Diamonds / Diamantes de Sangre, will be performed with an introduction by Sister Margaret Bulmer Villa de Matel about the Church's view on spirituality and earth stewardship. John Sullivan, MA, of the NIEHS Center in Environmental Toxicology and Sealy Center for Environmental Health & Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and Juan Parras, director of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (tejas), are organizing this exciting community-driven event and will lead the post-performance discussion. The bus tour will begin and end at Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, by the circular fountain.

The bus tour will visit approximately 30 sites, including the Houston Ship Channel, Latino barrios, the 6th ward, Project Row Houses, the MDI superfund site and neighborhoods disproportionately affected by environmental hazards. The tour will feature commentary by pollution experts as well as community members who will speak not only about community concerns but of the energy and pride that define them and cultural aspects critical for environmental health initiatives.

For the lunchtime performance of Blood Diamonds / Diamantes de Sangre , we will also be inviting community members to join us. The play has been described as exploring "the power dynamic that exists between vulnerable community members immersed in what they believe to be life-threatening disease outcomes of toxic exposures, and scientists from some safer elsewhere who must remain objective in their attempts to demonstrate definitive cause and effect." For more information about the play, please see a recent article in the public online journal, Cell 2 Soul: The Journal of Humane Medicine and the Medical Humanities (Summer 2005, volume 1), or download the flyer for Saturday's performance.

In addition, we will be offering a one-hour walking tour of a LEED-certified healthcare building, the University of Texas School of Nursing and Student Community Center, on Saturday, March 17, 2007, at 3:00 pm. The tour will be led by Rives Taylor, one of Houston's most acclaimed architects, who specializes in sustainable building practices.

RESERVATIONS are required. Space is extremely limited for each of these events (bus tour 50; lunch and play 100, including the 50 bus tour participants; walking tour 20). All events are free, pending sufficient funding (there may be a small charge for lunch). To make reservations for any or all of these events, please email your contact information (name, affiliation, phone, email, and, if your are attending lunch, whether you prefer a veggie or a meat-based sandwich, to ehh@bcm.edu. If you have any questions about the Saturday events, please contact Helen Ho (713-798-2223, hho@bcm.edu) or Dr. Winifred Hamilton (713-798-1052, hamilton@bcm.edu).

Click on the above image to view descriptions to be visited on March 17, 2007.

Click on the above image to view the March 17, 2007, Houston Community & Environmental Health Tour map. The site of the lunch-time production of Blood Diamonds is shown.