David A. Baker is an American activist. A former union organizer, Baker is the founder and director of Community Against Pollution.

Background

Baker is from

Anniston, Alabama Anniston is a city and the county seat of Calhoun County, Alabama, Calhoun County in Alabama, United States, and is one of two urban centers/principal cities of and included in the Anniston–Oxford metropolitan area, Anniston–Oxford Metropo ...

. As children, he and his younger brother Terry would play in ditches and cross the water in the ditches that were used for the

Monsanto The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best-known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed ...

plant run-off. In 1970 his brother died of

brain The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...

and

lung The lungs are the primary Organ (biology), organs of the respiratory system in many animals, including humans. In mammals and most other tetrapods, two lungs are located near the Vertebral column, backbone on either side of the heart. Their ...

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

at the age of 17. Baker believes that this was caused by

PCBs Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are organochlorine compounds with the formula C12 H10−''x'' Cl''x''; they were once widely used in the manufacture of carbonless copy paper, as heat transfer fluids, and as dielectric and coolant fluids f ...

in the environment. Since then he has been instrumental in getting lawyers to represent the people who appear to be the victims of PCB poisoning. In 1995 while he was working for an environmental company, he accidentally discovered that the presence of PCB's had been covered up for 50 years.

Recent & current

He is the founder and Executive Director of the organization Community Against Pollution. He was also active in the organisation of a team of workers going to help in the clean-up of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Organization membership

* Community Against Pollution (Founder / Director) * Environmental Working Group (Board of Directors) * Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (Member) * Calhoun County Chapter of the NAACP (Vice-President)

Video

* The GMWatch video collection ... (Contributor) *

The World According to Monsanto ''The World According to Monsanto'' is a 2008 film directed by Marie-Monique Robin. Originally released in French as ''Le monde selon Monsanto'', the film is based on Robin's three-year-long investigation into the corporate practices around the w ...

... (Himself)

Awards

* EPA 1st Assistant Administrator's Environmental Justice Incentive Award 2003 * CARAT Team Awardhttp://www.aceforg.org
EXECUTIVE TEAM

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, David Living people African-American trade unionists NAACP activists American environmentalists People from Anniston, Alabama Trade unionists from Alabama Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century African-American people