Nearly 100 people attended an panel discussion on "Women's Health and the Environment" yesterday-- and they were the ones applauded.

U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) thanked the ARCO Forum audience for their efforts in supporting and lobbying for health research, especially for cancer.

She also urged them to "come together, to insist on regulation so that we can find the answers. We will not take no for an answer."

"Without outside mobilization [our past success] would have been impossible," Pelosi added. "Know thy power."

Pelosi and the rest of the panel called for an approach to women's health that combined the efforts of government environmental agencies with private health laboratories.

"There is a chasm between health people and environmental health," said Richard Jackson, director of the government's National Center for Environmental Health. "The connections have got to start at a local level."

According to Jackson, 87 percent of Americans said they consider the environment important to human health.

The speakers cited the work of pioneering environmental activist Rachel Carson. They said Carson was able to bridge the gap between science and public perception.