WASHINGTON -- March 3 -- News Advisory:

WHAT: On behalf of African American residents in Mossville, Louisiana, organized as Mossville Environmental Action Now ("MEAN"), lawyers with Advocates For Environmental Human Rights ("AEHR") will file a petition with the Organization of American States' Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C. on Monday, March 7, 2005. AEHR alleges that the unhealthy and hazardous conditions that result from the U.S. authorizations of toxic industrial operations in very close proximity to communities like Mossville violate fundamental human rights to life, health, and racial equality.

WHERE: National Press Club, 529 14th Street, NW, Washington, DC -- 202-662-7500

WHEN: Monday, March 7, 2005 at 1 p.m.

WHO:

• Mossville, Louisiana Residents: Dorothy Felix, vice-president of MEAN
  
• Delma & Christine Bennett, MEAN members
  
• Destinee Jackson, MEAN member

AEHR Attorneys: Monique Harden and Nathalie Walker

The historic Mossville community is surrounded by fourteen industrial facilities that emit millions of pounds of toxic chemicals into the air, water, and land each year. The U.S. environmental regulatory system actually sanctions the dumping of these industrial pollutants, which have severely damaged the environment and are associated with the pervasive and serious health problems suffered by Mossville residents. These health problems include cancers, respiratory ailments, reproductive disorders, and other diseases associated with the industrial pollutants spewed into the Mossville community on a daily basis. The Mossville human rights petition that will be filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights seeks medical care for Mossville residents, relocation to healthier environs, and health-based reforms to the environmental regulatory system. The Inter-American Commission defends human rights laws and standards that are binding on the United States, and has the authority to investigate complaints of human rights abuses in the United States and other membership countries. In prior cases, the Commission has found that a country's failure to adequately protect the environment can constitute a human rights violation.

VISUALS: Short video presentation of the Mossville community.

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