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Joel Tickner works as a research associate for Lowell's Center for Sustainable Production. "I love my job," Tickner says, "it's about trying to solve problems. It's about trying to make the world a better place for children."
In fact, that's exactly what Tickner does. Tickner works closely with different communities, labor unions, environmentalists, businesses, and governments around the area to create and promote safer forms of production and consumption. Tickner directs a project called the Chemical Science and Policy Project. His project consists of two parts: The first part incorporates the important concept of environmental law. "It's called the precautionary principle, which is just the common sense, look before you leap act." "You need to take that concept and say, what does that mean in science and in public policy decision making?" "How do you take a very good idea and put it into practice?" The other part of this project involves chemical regulations. "We're taking some very forward looking ideas from Europe, which are about dangerous chemicals, and should they be replaced with safer alternatives?" "We then put that into saying what would this mean for the United States?" In simpler terms, Tickner is trying to make sure the products we use and buy at the store are safer and more environmentally friendly. "Many people think that the chemicals at the store have been tested; that some government agency has said that they are safe to be used-- that's just not the case." "Most chemicals we don't know a lot about what they do and they're considered safe until someone proves that they can cause harm to people." What we're trying to do is reshape that, so they'll see that it's really about seeking safer alternatives to meet particular needs and developing and promoting innovation." Tickner's main concern with his work isn't so much about raising awareness as it is about finding solutions and solving problems. "My interest has always been really about how do we fix the problems that we've had? Rather than just study how bad everything is. You know, what are the solutions to that?" Tickner's interest and concern about the environment and safety began back when he was in college. "During my senior year in college, I took two environmental courses and just loved them and realized that was what I wanted to do." Tickner's love of the environment is something that is still very important to him today. "It's our environment, and the health of our environment is critical to our own health, and what we need, is people who are practitioners who can go out there and understand the underlying causes of problems." "There are certain diseases on the rise and those diseases have links to environmental contaminants and this is a preventable cause of disease, and we should be doing what we can to prevent diseases." The environment and public health and safety are issues we should all be concerned about, and as Tickner says "We can't just put band aids on problems." |