At EJHA, we stand for environmental justice for all!

"We cannot afford to go backward. The stakes are too high. Our planet is in crisis, and so are our communities. We need policies moving us toward a future where environmental protection and justice go hand in hand." - Richard Moore, co-chair of the White House Environmental Justice Council and co-coordinator of Los Jardines Institute.

Expanding the list of chemicals to bring more facilities under federal oversight has become a priority for environmentalists, explained Maya Nye, the federal policy director at Coming Clean, an environmental health nonprofit focused on chemical industry oversight. Being subject to Risk Management Program requirements, Nye said, “would have required [BioLab] to think about, ‘What is the emergency response plan? What may lead to a chemical disaster?’” Environmentalists fought hard to strengthen the EPA’s Risk Management Program to account for the impacts of extreme weather on chemical accidents. Thanks to the regulations finalized this year, facilities covered by the program will be required to consider, and map out, the potential hazards posed by climate change. But BioLab’s facilities, which fall outside of the program, will not.

A challenge to a federal assessment of the cancer risk for a chemical produced in Louisiana used to manufacture goods ranging from antifreeze to detergents has been rejected by a U.S. court of appeals. The challenge of the Environmental Protection Agency cancer risk assessment for ethylene oxide by a Texas petrochemical manufacturer, the American Chemistry Council and the Louisiana Chemical Association was rejected on Tuesday by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. It ruled that EPA correctly rejected an alternative study by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that found less cancer risk. Among the environmental groups that intervened in the legal challenge on behalf of EPA are the New Orleans-based Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Louisiana Environmental Action Network, and RISE St. James, as well as national groups the Environmental Integrity Project, Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform, Sierra Club and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Coming Clean and EJHA's General Strategy Meeting to Advance the Louisville Charter for Safer Chemicals was held in Los Angeles, California July 16-18, 2024, co-hosted by Physicians for Social Responsibility LA. Over over 45 Coming Clean and EJHA member organizations attended, focusing on the need to center our strategies on deeply principled collaboration and solidarity with the most impacted communities.