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The Media and the Mirror: How Media & Beauty Products Impact Your Teen's Health

WELLESLEY, Mass., The Wellesley Cancer Prevention Project invites the public to a forum at the Wellesley Free Library’s Wakelin Room, Tuesday May 8th, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. This free event, co-sponsored by the Wellesley Free Library, is open to the public and includes informational resources. Coffee and dessert will be served.  

Dr. Michael Rich, Mediatrician® and Director of the Center on Media and Child Health (CMCH) at Children’s Hospital Boston, will offer insights and practical advice for how to optimize adolescent health in a media-saturated world. As a pediatrician, researcher, former filmmaker, and father of four, Dr. Rich is cognizant of how powerfully media affect child development, health, and behavior in both positive and negative ways.

In 2002, Dr. Rich founded the Center on Media and Child Health (CMCH), an interdisciplinary center of excellence in research, clinical interventions, and education on the effects of media on the physical, mental, and social health of children and adolescents. CMCH is developing and evaluating interventions to help children protect themselves from negative aspects of media, while still using and enjoying them.

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In addition to conducting, coordinating, and compiling scientific research on the health effects of media use on young people, CMCH provides resources for parents through Ask the Mediatrician®. This online Q&A blog offers research-based, balanced, actionable answers to parents’ questions.  

Following Dr. Rich’s presentation, Sara Frost Azzam, the President of Wellesley Cancer Prevention Project (WCPP), will address concerns and provide guidance regarding personal care products, chemicals and teenage health.  In Europe over 1100 chemicals are banned from cosmetics.  In the United States only 11 are. 

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Beauty may cost your teen more than you think.  On any given day, we may use as many as 25 cosmetics or personal care products that contain more than 200 chemicals.  Sara’s presentation will help you learn about the safety of the products your teenager uses and how to find safer alternatives.  Sara Frost Azzam, the mother of two teenage children herself, teaches at the Wellesley Middle School and has become an expert on safe cosmetics, lecturing most recently at Wellesley College. 

The Wellesley Cancer Prevention Project (WCPP) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that studies the relationship between illnesses and the environment with the goal of reducing health risk factors for residents of Wellesley and surrounding communities.  More information can be found about WCPP on http://www.wcpponline.org 

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