My guest today is Charles Levenstein, Ph.D., MSc , an economist,  policy analyst and co-author of The Toxic Schoolhouse. We’ll be talking about chemical hazards endangering students, teachers, and staff in the education system of the United States and Canada. Dr Levenstein is Professor Emeritus in Department of Work Environment, retiring from teaching in 2003.  He is adjunct professor of occupational health at Tufts University School of Medicine and one of the leading researchers concerned with social factors in occupational and environmental health. For several years he was co-director of the Organized Labor and Tobacco Control Consortium, funded by the American Legacy Foundation at Dana Farber Cancer Institute.   He subsequently became a consultant to Dr. Edith Balbach’s NCI-funded research on tobacco industry relations with trade unions.  He has served as member and chair of the environmental health and safety committee of the Massachusetts Teachers Association.  He has been engaged in intervention research in immigrant communities and in the economic evaluation of occupational health and safety interventions. Until recently, Dr Levenstein chaired the advisory committee for United Steel Workers Federally-funded health and safety projects; he continues to chair the advisory board of The New England Consortium, an NIEHS-funded collaboration of health and safety advocacy groups, trade unions and academics.  He is Editor Emeritus of New Solutions, a quarterly peer-reviewed journal of occupational and environmental health policy and is co-editor of the Baywood series on Work, Health and Environment. Dr. Levenstein is a recipient of the American Public Health Association’s award for lifetime contribution to occupational health.