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Community organizers hold press conference outside of Listening Session on Chemical Security in Houston, TX. Photo Credit: Bryan Parras |
Breaking news and news coverage of the campaign activities of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform and affiliate organizations.
April 1, 2020
Groups Petition EPA Over Reckless Non-Enforcement Policy
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Coming Clean, the Environmental Justice Health Alliance, and The Climate Justice Alliance call on the EPA to protect public health and overburdened communities from pollution during the coronavirus pandemic. Read the full press release and petition on NRDC's website.
March 27, 2020
Release: Numerous Groups Denounce EPA’s “Free Pass” for Polluters
Environmental justice advocates, scientists, public health experts, affected community members and others joined forces Friday to declare their outrage that the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a sweeping suspension of its enforcement of environmental laws under cover of the coronavirus pandemic.
March 13, 2020
Release: Court Approves Settlement Requiring EPA Rules on Most Dangerous Chemical Spills
New York, N.Y. – The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York approved a consent decree between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a coalition of community and environmental organizations, including the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA), Clean Water Action, and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
Washington, D.C. — Today, the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform, Coming Clean and the Center for American Progress released a new video highlighting the story of Christine and Delma Bennett, longtime residents of Mossville, Louisiana, who have suffered from years of exposure to toxic pollution and environmental racism.
Se reunieron manifestantes afuera de la sede de 99 Cents Only Stores hoy en Commerce, California, exigiendo que la cadena de tiendas de descuentos deje de vender productos con sustancias químicas toxicas ligadas a anomalías congénitas, el cáncer, las discapacidades del aprendizaje y otras enfermedades serias. Las comunidades en donde operan 99 Cents Only Stores son primordialmente personas de color y de bajos ingresos, mismos que ya se encuentran expuestos en un nivel desproporcional a daños ambientales y sufren de disparidades económicas y de la salud.
Protesters gathered outside 99 Cents Only Stores headquarters today in Commerce, California, demanding that the discount chain stop selling products with toxic chemicals linked to birth defects, cancer, learning disabilities, and other serious illnesses. The communities served by 99 Cents Only Stores are predominantly people of color and low-income, already disproportionately
exposed to environmental harm and suffering from economic and health disparities.
November 21, 2019
Release: EPA Touts Weakened Public Safety Measures Established Following West, TX Disaster
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced action to weaken the Risk Management Plan program (RMP) for chemical facilities that pose a risk of catastrophic explosion or poison gas release. The RMP program is a set of safety measures that seek to prevent and mitigate chemical disasters at over 12,000 high-risk industrial and commercial facilities across the nation. EPA estimates that over 177 million residents face daily risk of a chemical disaster emanating from one or more of these facilities.
November 19, 2019
Report Card: Dollar General Adopts New Chemical Policy, Dollar Tree Improves Grade, and 99 Cents Only Scores an ‘F’
Shortly before Black Friday, the Campaign for Healthier Solutions, Coming Clean, and the Mind the Store campaign released our annual report card grading retailers on the actions they have taken to protect customers from toxic chemicals in consumer products and food packaging.
Our 2019 report card has revealed substantial progress by some dollar stores. For the first time, Dollar General is taking action by implementing a policy to ban eight toxic chemicals in private-label beauty, personal care, and household cleaning products over the next three years. Dollar General has also committed to expanding its action on toxic chemicals in the coming years. Dollar Tree has committed to removing 17 highly-hazardous chemicals from products it sells by the end of the year and recently joined the Chemical Footprint Project, a system that helps companies assess their market risk from toxic chemicals and opportunities for safer alternatives. 99 Cents Only Stores earned an ‘F’ grade and scored zero points for the second year in a row.
October 17, 2019
Report: What's in my Baby's Food?
A national investigation finds 95 percent of baby foods tested contain toxic chemicals that lower babies’ IQ, including arsenic and lead.
This new report covers safer choices for parents, manufacturers and retailers seeking healthy foods for infants. Learn more about how to protect your child's health from arsenic and lead in baby foods.
September 24, 2019
Report: Watered Down Justice - Sociodemographics and Violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act
While the Safe Drinking Water Act guarantees all Americans access to clean, drinkable water, it hasn’t worked out that way in practice. Coming Clean and the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA) partnered with NRDC to analyze nationwide violations of the law from 2016 to 2019. We found a disturbing relationship between sociodemographic characteristics—especially race—and drinking water violations. Read the report here.
Release: Communities of Color More Likely to Suffer Drinking Water Violations For Years
Race bears the strongest relationship to slow and ineffective enforcement of the federal drinking water law in communities across the nation, according to a new report released today. Watered Down Justice is a new analysis of EPA data that confirms there is unequal access to safe drinking water, based most strongly on race, a scientific conclusion that mirrors the lived experience of people of color and low-income residents in the United States. Read the full release.
August 22, 2019
Release: Trump's EPA Ignores Threat of Hazardous Spills
Washington, DC – The Environmental Protection Agency made clear today that it will continue ignoring its responsibility to curtail chemical spills from industrial facilities, a decision that is in blatant disregard of the Clean Water Act and a settlement the agency agreed to in court. Read the full release.
July 18, 2019
Watch: Introducing the Equitable and Just Climate Platform
For too long, systemic racism and injustice have left economically disadvantaged communities, tribal communities, and communities of color particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. A coalition of environmental justice and national climate organizations are proud to announce the Equitable and Just National Climate Platform, a commitment that advances the goals of economic, racial, climate and environmental justice to improve the public health and well-being of all communities, while tackling the climate crisis. Environmental justice advocates and national environmental organizations have committed to advocate this historic, bold platform that lays out our shared vision and goals. Watch the video here.
Washington, D.C. — To confront the widening dangers of our climate crisis, leading U.S. environmental justice and national environmental groups today are advancing for the first time an Equitable and Just National Climate Platform. This bold and historic platform highlights a shared vision and calls for national climate action that confronts racial, economic, and environmental injustice as it enacts deep cuts in climate pollution and accelerates a pollution-free energy future that benefits all communities. Read the release here.
June 13, 2019
Chesapeake, VA — Today, customers and parents attended the annual shareholder meeting of Dollar Tree, Inc. and urged executives to tell the public what progress they are making toward their commitment to remove 17 highly-hazardous chemicals from products it sells. They also asked executives to move toward selling fresh fruit and vegetables in its 'snack zone' concept rather than just junk food. Dollar Tree executives did not announce new policies to protect customers, but said they are listening to shareholder concerns and trying to do the right thing. They also said they plan to issue another sustainability report before the end of this year which will summarize the company's progress on efforts to address toxic chemicals in products. Read the release here.
Chesapeake, VA — Hoy, consumidores y padres de familia asistieron a la junta anual de accionistas de Dollar Tree, Inc. e instaron a ejecutivos a hacer público los avances que han logrado hacia su compromiso para eliminar 17 sustancias químicas altamente peligrosas de los productos que vende. También les solicitaron a los ejecutivos que tomen medidas para vender frutas y verduras frescas en sus ‘zonas de snack’ en lugar de pura comida chatarra. Los ejecutivos de Dollar Tree no anunciaron nuevas políticas para proteger a sus consumidores, pero indicaron que están escuchando las preocupaciones de los accionistas y tratando de hacer lo correcto. También dijeron que planean emitir un informe de sostenibilidad corporativo actualizado antes de que termine el año, lo cual incluirá los esfuerzos corporativos para abordar el tema de las sustancias químicas en los productos.
June 12, 2019
Blog: Campaign Pushes for Fresh, Local Food at Dollar General
On May 29, 2019, a delegation from the Campaign for Healthier Solutions’ non-toxic dollar stores project attended the annual Dollar General shareholder meeting in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. We were there to insist that Dollar General phase out toxic chemicals from its consumer products and source locally grown, fresh produce to better protect the health of their consumers, workers, and frontline communities. With more than 15,000 stores, Dollar General is the largest retail chain in the United States and more than 75 percent of people in this country live within five miles of a store. Read the blog post here.
March 18, 2019
Watch: For too long, systemic racism and injustice have left economically disadvantaged communities, tribal communities, and communities of color particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. A coalition of environmental justice and national climate organizations are proud to announce the Equitable and Just National Climate Platform, a commitment that advances the goals of economic, racial, climate and environmental justice to improve the public health and well-being of all communities, while tackling the climate crisis. Environmental justice advocates and national environmental organizations have committed to advocate this historic, bold platform that lays out our shared vision and goals. Watch the video here.
Release: Environmental Justice and National Environmental Groups Advance a Historic Joint Climate Platform - To confront the widening dangers of our climate crisis, leading U.S. environmental justice and national environmental groups today are advancing for the first time an Equitable and Just National Climate Platform. Read the release here.
March 12, 2019
Release: Victory for Environmental Justice Communities as Court Orders Disclosure of Emissions from Chemical Facility Incidents. Read the release here.
November 27, 2018
WHYY Delaware news story: Croda gas leak highlights risks to poorer Delaware communities. Read the full story here.
November 7, 2018
Delaware Online news story: 'It's our turn': Southbridge residents say they're tired of being a dumping ground. Read the full story here.
August 17, 2018
Federal appeals court orders Trump's EPA to implement chemical disaster protections. Read the story here.
September 27, 2018
Black and Latinx Families Live, Go to School and Grocery Shop Near Chemical Facilities. Get more information here.
June 14, 2018
Customers Urge Dollar Tree to Act on Toxic Chemicals in Products, Junk Food "Snake Zones" at Annual Shareholder Meeting. Read the news release here.
May 30, 2018
Customers Urge Dollar General Executives to Act on Toxic Chemicals in Products at Annual Shareholder Meeting. Read the news release in English or Spanish.
March 28, 2018
Educational Video Highlights Toxic Chemicals Found in Microwave Popcorn. Read the news release in English or Spanish.
December 14, 2017
As Congress continues its consideration of the Trump Administration’s proposal to slash funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a coalition of community environmental justice and health groups issued a volley of letters urging appropriators to maintain funding for vital health and safety programs. Read the news release here for more information.
December 5, 2017
Shoppers, Parents and Health Experts Visit 80+ Dollar Tree and Family Dollar Locations Asking for Toxic Chemical Safety this Holiday Season. Read the news release in English or Spanish.
November 14, 2017
Major Retailers Graded on Toxic Chemicals in Products and Packaging - Dollar General and Dollar Tree Falling Behind Competition Regarding Safer Products. Get more information here.
October 24, 2017
The Environmental Justice Health Alliance Commends Senator Booker's New Bill to Address Environmental Injustices. Read the news release here.
October 19, 2017
Studies show that people in poverty are exposed to more environmental pollution, and our own research shows Blacks and Latinos are far more likely to live next to hazardous facilities which are often its source of this pollution--but these studies simply confirm the experiences of exposure, illness, and death that too many people living in the shadow of industrial chemical pollution know so well. That's why Coming Clean worked with Delaware community groups and the Union of Concerned Scientists to issue a new report showing that all seven 'environmental justice communities' we studied in Wilmington face dramatically higher risk of developing cancers or respiratory illnesses linked to this pollution. Read the press release here, the executive summary here, or go straight to the report, here.
October 18, 2017
We teamed up with NRDC and Breast Cancer Prevention Partners to get toxic phthalates out of children's toys--and we won! The Consumer Product Safety Commission listened to our scientists and advocates, and just took decisive action to protect the health of our kids! Read more here.
Consumer Agency to Ban Harmful Chemicals in Children’s Toys. Read the news release here.
September 20, 2017
Victory! The Consumer Product Safety Commission took much-needed action to ban a class of bio-accumulative halogenated flame retardants - linked to endocrine disruption, cancer and more. Read the news article here.
September 1, 2017
Harvey's Cleanup List: Toxic Plumes, Dead Animals, Debris. Read the news article here.
If You Think the Government Will Do Something About Chemical Explosions in the Wake of Houston, Think Again. Read the news article here.
August 30, 2017
A Toxic Storm: Hazardous Facilities, Failed Chemical Safety Policies, and Extreme Weather Leave Houston Residents Swimming in Toxic Soup
In response to the devastation and suffering created by Tropical Storm Harvey, and the toxic hazards posed to health and the environment by dozens of hazardous industrial and commercial facilities concentrated in the Houston area, Michele Roberts, Co-Coordinator of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance (EJHA), issued a statement. Read the statement here.
August 24, 2017
Coming Clean, a network of 200 community, state and national organizations working to reduce the disproportionate suffering toxic chemicals impose on people of color and the poor, is deeply saddened and disappointed by the recent racist, hateful actions in Charlottesville, Virginia. Our hearts are with the victims of these attacks—whether they died or were injured directly by white supremacists, died in an accident while seeking to protect the public, or were one of the millions among us who felt the chill and horror intended by this terrorist attack. We condemn racism and all supremacist ideologies everywhere they appear, be they in the streets of Charlottesville, our institutions of government and criminal justice, and in the daily lives of those who continue to suffer their impacts. Read our statement here.
June 22, 2017
Dollar Tree says it's protecting consumers from toxic chemicals - Group wants proof. Read the article here.
June 23, 2017
A Force for Nature, and for New Mexico. Read the feature NRDC wrote on EJHA leader Richard Moore.
June 15, 2017
Dollar Tree Customers Confront Executives At Shareholder Meeting Asking For Nontoxic Products - But Receive No Answers. Read the news release.
May 31, 2017
Trump must not block efforts to prevent chemical disasters. Read the OpEd by Pamela Nixon featured on The Hill.
May 11, 2017
The Power of Collaboration for Environmental Health and Justice. Read about the power of our collaborative in this article by Carolyn Fine Friedman featured on Grantmakers In Health.
April 18, 2017
EPA Administrator Pruitt Delays Safety Measures, Puts Workers and Fence-line Communities in Further Danger of Chemical Disasters. Read the news release here.
February 27, 2017
25 EJ Groups Urge Congress: Don't Meddle with Chemical Plant Safety Improvements. Groups Say Congress will be Blamed if New Safety Updates are Blocked and Disaster Strikes. Read the news release here.
February 10, 2017
The Environmetal Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform sends a letter to congressional leaders regarding the Risk Management Plan (RMP) rule and program. Read the letter here.
August 7, 2016
On July 15 and 16 Coming Clean and the Environmental Justice Health Alliance hosted a Clean Power Plan "101" Training event in collaboration with the Building Equity and Alignment for Impact and the Delaware Concerned Residents for Enivronmental Justice. Watch a short video of the training here.
July 12, 2016
New Op-Ed by David Levine of the American Sustainable Business Council: EPA should do more to prevent chemical disasters that threaten local economies
"Unfortunately, EPA’s proposed changes focus almost entirely on addressing facility safety after catastrophic chemical releases and explosions have already occurred. ... EPA’s proposal lags behind what the business community wants, which is good rules and actions that prevent these disruptions to their businesses by transitioning the most hazardous facilities to safer chemicals." Read more.
April 27, 2016
'On the Ground’ Show with Michele Roberts on behalf of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance. Speaking on Earth Day, fighting for justice in Flint, Michigan and how has the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement impacted the environmental justice movement? Listen the first hour here, featuring voices from Jose Bravo and Richard Moore. Lisen to the second hour here, featuring Rev. David Bouie and Dr. Monica Unseld.
March 21, 2016
Hackensack University Medical Center is taking steps with American Sustainable Business Council to eliminate toxics and replace them with safer alternatives. Take a look here.
Febuary 17, 2016
News Release: Environmental Justice Advocates Celebrate Victory as Lawsuit Settlement Directs EPA to Protect Communities from Chemical Spills.
February 4, 2016
New report shows that 63 million Americans are endangered by chlorine bleach plants despite availability of safer alternatives.
January 25, 2016
Dollar store deals: Study shows many bargain items may be hazardous to your health.
January 18, 2016
Important new CNN OpEd on race, poverty, and chemical disasters co-authored by Coming Clean Board Member and Environmental Justice Health Alliance Co-Coordinator Richard Moore.
October 8, 2015
EJHA and other members of the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters release new public opinion research showing bipartisan national support for strong rules to prevent chemical disasters, call on President Obama and EPA to act.
January 24, 2015
Two Day Summit on Chemical Safety in WV Comes to a Close
January 23, 2015
Chemical Safety Summit Held in WV Addressing Community Concerns
Chemical Safety Advocates Want Accident Prevention Plan Enacted
September 30, 2014
Kids in Danger Zones: One in Three Schoolchildren Face Risk of Chemical Catastrophe
August, 1, 2014
National Journal: Chemical Disasters Pose Risk to Communities of Color
July 21, 2014
Al Jazeera: Opinion: How Industrial Disasters Discriminate
June 13, 2014
Tavis Smiley Radio: Who's in Danger: Race, Poverty and Chemical Disasters
April 15, 2014
Chemical Spill in West Virginia Offers Opportunity to Improve Chemical Safety