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May 10, 2022
Over 100 faith leaders and organizations sent a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan today, urging the agency to strengthen and expand its Risk Management Plan (RMP) rule, which is intended to prevent chemical disasters at high-risk facilities nationwide and is currently being updated. Chemical releases, fires, and explosions are shockingly common in the United States. In just ten years, there have been over 1,500 reported chemical releases or explosions at facilities regulated under the RMP rule, causing 17,000 reported injuries and 59 reported deaths. But deadly chemical incidents could be prevented if RMP facilities were required to transition to safer processes, faith leaders state in the letter. Their calls echo those of health professionals, security experts, and members of Congress who have also demanded meaningful reforms to the RMP rule in recent months. Read More
April 26, 2022
Pressure is mounting on EPA to strengthen oversight of chemical facilities to better prepare them for disaster risks at the sites. Experts, former agency leaders and lawmakers are calling on EPA to tighten loopholes and beef up its risk management plan, or RMP, which instructs certain facilities to develop contingency plans in case of a crisis. Those sites, which handle high-risk chemicals, are vulnerable to climate impacts and other events that can imperil their surrounding communities and environment. EPA Administrator Michael Regan said last month that the agency plans to update the RMP and issue a new rule by this September. Now, EPA is seeing an uptick in calls for the regulations to address a range of concerns, stemming from environmental justice to national security. Read More
April 22, 2022
In the seven years since the Campaign for Healthier Solutions published their initial report on toxic chemicals in dollar store products, Bravo has seen “light years” worth of progress in addressing the issue. While 53 percent of products tested still contained chemicals of concern in 2022, that number was 80 percent of 164 products tested in 2015. Further, when the campaign has gone back and tested items that previously tested positive for lead, they have found that they tested negative the second time.“They are not going to claim that it was us,” Bravo said, “we’ll claim that it was us.”
April 21, 2022
Discount retailers often promise shoppers they can buy household necessities for under a dollar, but too often there’s a toxic price to pay, according to a report released last week. More than 225 products — from baby toys to microwave popcorn to non-stick cookware — purchased from so-called “dollar stores” in 2021 were tested for adverse chemicals. Researchers with the Campaign for Healthier Solutions and the Ecology Center’s Healthy Stuff Lab found chemicals of concern in more than half of them. Since 2015, the Campaign for Healthier Solutions has been testing dollar store wares for chemicals like lead, which can damage children’s brains and harm their growth and development, and phthalates, which are endocrine-disruptors that can harm reproductive and cognitive development and have been linked to higher rates of childhood cancer. Read More
April 21, 2022
A coalition of more than 20 climate, labor and social justice groups is planning a nationwide mobilization to push Congress to pass robust climate legislation before Memorial Day, according to details shared exclusively with The Climate 202. Manchin, who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in late December that he could not support the roughly $2 trillion package amid rising consumer prices and growing federal debt...But Michele Roberts, national co-coordinator of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform, urged lawmakers not to let Manchin strip any of the climate provisions from the version of the bill that passed the House in November. "All of these pieces in totality … must be voted on and passed and not negotiated at all," Roberts told The Climate 202. "Enough is enough." Read More
April 20, 2022
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is updating the Risk Management Plan (RMP) Rule, a policy meant to protect community members who live and work near high-risk chemical facilities. In a new letter, hundreds of health professionals are calling on EPA to set the strongest possible standards, demanding reforms that bring chemical-safety rules in line with the demands of both science and justice. While more than 200 million people in the U.S. live, work, or attend school near an RMP-covered facility, the threat these facilities pose is more severe for low-income households and communities of color, who are more likely to live near the fence line of one or more hazardous facilities. Read More
April 12, 2022
A new product screening report released today by the Campaign for Healthier Solutions and the Ecology Center Healthy Stuff lab found hazardous chemicals of concern in children’s products sold by the leading dollar store brands in the US. “Many families rely on dollar stores for affordable toys and other products for kids. With their high profit margins, dollar stores must do more to ensure that all of these products are safe,” said José Bravo, National Coordinator of the Campaign for Healthier Solutions. Tests revealed the presence of lead, phthalates, toxic flame retardant chemicals, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) components in colorfully-labeled children’s products at Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Dollar General, and Five Below. Lead was found in Disney and Marvel themed kids’ headphones at Five Below and Dollar Tree, a plastic baby toy at Dollar Tree, and 99 Cents Only Stores’ private-label earbuds. Ortho-phthalate plasticizers were found in children’s hair accessories and toys at Five Below. Fake teeth and lips sold at Dollar Tree and Dollar General were found to contain PVC, a dangerous plastic that can leach multiple hazardous chemicals, such as phthalates and heavy metals. Read More
April 12, 2022
Products sold at dollar stores may be inexpensive, but a new report from the Campaign for Healthier Solutions also found high rates of toxic chemicals in the budget brands, raising questions of environmental justice. The consumer advocacy group purchased 226 products from Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Dollar General, Five Below and 99 Cents Only Stores in seven states and Ontario, Canada, and tested a total of 635 product components for toxic metals and endocrine-disrupting chemicals like flame retardants, bisphenol A and its substitutes, phthalates and PFAS, also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.The results showed that half of the items had one or more chemicals of concern.“Many families rely on dollar stores for affordable toys and other products for kids,” said José Bravo, national coordinator of the Campaign for Healthier Solutions. “With their high profit margins, dollar stores must do more to ensure that all of these products are safe.” One of the more surprising products where tests revealed the presence of toxic chemicals was children’s headphones. Read More
April 12, 2022
An alarming number of products purchased at US dollar stores, including many children’s toys, contain harmful chemicals, according to a report released today. Researchers tested 226 products purchased at five popular retailers for chemicals, including phthalates and lead, and found that 120, or more than half, had at least one chemical of concern. Among the products that tested positive were colorful baby toys and Disney-themed headphones.“As a parent, I should be able to buy a product without expecting to poison my child,” said Jose Bravo, national coordinator at the Campaign for Healthier Solutions, a coalition that calls on dollar stores to phase out hazardous chemicals from their products. Read More
April 8, 2022
The Environmental Justice for All Act (EJ for All Act) is an essential federal legislative effort to begin remedying the long history of environmental racism and injustice in the United States, including the cumulative and disproportionate pollution burdens threatening communities of color, low-income communities, and Native/Indigenous nations and communities across the country. Importantly, this landmark bill has been developed in close partnership with leaders in the environmental justice movement. The extensive public input process that informed the EJ for All Act’s creation has produced legislation uniquely shaped by the same people and communities that will benefit directly from its policy improvements. Accordingly, the EJ for All Act recognizes that meaningfully improving the lives of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color requires transformative change led by those on the frontlines. As described by Michele Roberts, National Co-Coordinator of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform, “This is legislation that our affiliates see themselves in.” Read More
April 4, 2022
JTA is seeking a self-motivated and committed Program Assistant to join our team. The Program Assistant will play a key administrative support role, supporting our programs and providing general administrative support. Strong candidates will demonstrate exceptional time-management and enjoy working within a small, team that is mission- and results-driven and community oriented. This is a full-time position that can be remote or based in San Diego, CA. Read More
March 31, 2022
Environmentalists and state regulators are clashing with industry over the legality of EPA’s plan to reaffirm a stringent risk assessment for the solvent ethylene oxide (EtO) in a chemical sector air toxics rule, with environmental groups defending the assessment and warning industry’s preferred use of a weaker Texas alternative would be unlawful....The IRIS analysis found health risks from EtO far greater than previously thought... The Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform in its March 24 comments also supports use of the IRIS risk assessment, but further presses EPA to address issues it has placed outside of the scope of the current rulemaking.“It is time for EPA to fully follow the science and strengthen the MON emission standards to finally protect communities who live, work, worship, go to school, and breathe air near these chemical plants as the Clean Air Act requires,” the group says. EPA should tighten the rule “by reducing flaring, leaks, and other fugitive emissions to eliminate unacceptable cancer risk and provide an ample margin of safety to protect public health from the cumulative health risks and impacts caused by MON and collocated and nearby chemical and petrochemical sources,” it says. The group also urges EPA to update its “outdated cancer risk policy benchmark and the risk assessment approach to account for the real-world cumulative health harms experienced by communities.”
March 7, 2022
Chemical companies are required by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Risk Management Plan rule, or RMP rule, to develop programs that help reduce the risk of accidents. There are 10,420 facilities nationwide that are required to submit plans under the rule. A growing threat to these facilities is coming into focus: climate change. More than 3,200 of these sites are in areas where natural hazards like storm surges, wildfires, and flooding are being exacerbated by global warming, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, the U.S. Congress’ investigative arm. In January, more than 70 state and local officials sent a letter to the EPA administrator citing these facts and calling for stricter RMP rules. Read More
February 22, 2022
The Center for Earth Energy and Democracy (CEED) and Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA) welcome the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)'s release of the beta version of the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST). This tool is an important step towards ensuring that environmental justice communities are able to receive real benefits from federal programs under the Administration’s Justice40 Initiative. Read More
February 15, 2022
28 organizations today joined Coming Clean and the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform in expressing strong support for the Environmental Justice for All Act (H.R. 2021), sponsored by Representatives Raúl Grijalva and Donald McEachin. In a letter, they urged the U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee to “advance this important legislation quickly to begin remedying the long history of environmental racism and injustice, and cumulative and disproportionate health and environmental impacts, that affects communities across the country.” Read More
February 3, 2022
When Dora Williams started wearing a mask last spring to stop the spread of the coronavirus, she noticed a side effect: She could breathe more easily. The 73-year-old retiree has spent most of her life in a 5-mile stretch of Delaware known as the Route 9 corridor. Home to several historic African American communities, the area is circled by interstate highways, a chemical manufacturing plant and other industrial facilities, which residents like Williams say have contributed to persistent health problems. “My granddaughter said to me, ‘When Covid is gone, we’ll still be wearing masks.’ I said, ‘Yeah, we will,’” said Williams, a soft-spoken community activist with Delaware Concerned Residents for Environmental Justice. Last year, President Biden’s home state became the first in the country to set up a committee to carry out the Justice40 Initiative, the president’s signature environmental justice policy calling for 40 percent of federal benefits from climate and energy programs to reach disadvantaged communities. How Delaware implements the plan may set a national precedent, considering that the fate of Justice40 — which was announced through an executive order — and its effects on the energy sector hinge in part on states. Read More
January 29, 2022
More than 70 elected officials from 16 states and territories are urging the US Environmental Protection Agency to toughen and issue a stalled regulation intended to protect communities, workers, and chemical companies from chemical disasters. The risk management plan (RMP) regulation requires 12,000 high-risk chemical producers to examine and institute safe manufacturing processes to prevent accidents and aid emergency responders. The RMP provisions were modified by the Barack Obama administration but weakened by the Donald J. Trump administration. Read More
January 28, 2022
We grew up in or near predominantly Black communities surrounded by heavy industry. As children in Louisville, Kentucky, and Claymont, Delaware, we knew something was amiss when so many friends and family members developed dense coughs, asthma, cancer, and other diseases. What we didn’t know at the time is that we were among many low-income communities of color across the country suffering from toxic chemical exposure. For decades our constituents have lived under the constant threat of explosions or toxic releases in our neighborhoods, never knowing what or when the next disaster will be. Parents must weigh the benefits of allowing their children to go outdoors with the risks of being exposed to harsh chemicals. We recently saw air pollution in our communities lead to disproportionate rates of severe illness and death during this pandemic, a trend that has been observed across the country. Read More
January 27, 2022
Elected officials in Louisville are joining lawmakers from around the country in calling for stronger federal rules to prevent disasters at high-risk chemical facilities. The Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing Risk Management Plan (RMP) rules for more than 12,000 high-risk facilities around the country. The facilities covered by the rules contain highly corrosive, explosive and toxic chemicals that present a danger to the public when disasters strike. Kentucky has more than 200 RMP facilities, according to a Houston Chronicle database. Around two-thirds of Louisville residents live within three miles of one, according to a 2018 study from the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform. Read More
January 27, 2022
EPA is under renewed pressure to significantly strengthen protections under its chemical facility safety rule for communities living near industrial facilities, with state and local lawmakers from more than a dozen states citing environmental justice (EJ) concerns and urging measures beyond those established by the Obama administration. In a Jan. 26 letter, more than 70 state and local lawmakers urge EPA Administrator Michael Regan to revamp EPA’s Risk Management Program (RMP) rule in order to better protect communities near chemical facilities. “As elected officials representing many communities across the U.S., we are writing to urge [EPA] to adopt a strengthened [RMP], or chemical disaster prevention rule, to protect communities across the United States,” the legislators from 16 states, territories and local governments write. Stephanie Herron, national organizer with Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA) -- which is an advocacy group that organized and distributed the lawmakers’ letter -- told Inside EPA in response to a question that the lawmakers are weighing in now in order to influence EPA before it proposes the rule. “Now is a critical time to weigh in with EPA on these key provisions” needed to make the rule more stringent, she said. Read More
January 27, 2022
Today is the one-year anniversary of Justice40, President Biden’s landmark environmental justice commitment to funnel an unprecedented level of federal investment to communities injured by decades or centuries of neglect. In an executive order released only one week after he took office, the president promised that disadvantaged communities would see 40 percent of the total benefits of climate and infrastructure spending — an influx of capital that would go toward redressing past imbalances that have left marginalized communities without basic services and disproportionately exposed to harms from pollution and climate change. “It’s still a work in progress,” said Michele Roberts, National Co-Coordinator at the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform. “But the thing is that it has been created, and you have credible people working on that.” Roberts credited Biden’s creation of a senior CEQ position devoted to environmental justice as an encouraging step. Read More
January 27, 2022
More than 70 elected officials in states including Colorado are urging the Environmental Protection Agency to strengthen the chemical disaster prevention rule in order to protect communities from toxins at high-risk facilities, like the Suncor oil refinery in Commerce City. The EPA’s “Risk Management Plan,” or RMP, rule is meant to prevent disasters at chemical facilities across the country — more than 200 exist in Colorado — but advocates say the rule is lacking. “Chemical releases, fires, and explosions occur across the United States almost constantly,” the letter said. “In just ten years, there were over 1,500 reported chemical releases or explosions at RMP facilities nationwide. These caused over $2 billion in property damages; evacuation or ‘shelter in place’ of half a million people; over 17,000 reported injuries; and 59 reported deaths.” Read More
January 26, 2022
A letter was sent today by over 70 elected officials from 16 states and territories, including 5 from Delaware, to EPA Administrator Michael Regan urging meaningful reform of the federal policy that is intended to prevent chemical disasters.“As a New Castle resident, it is terrifying to hear about huge releases of cancer-causing chemicals in our backyard. Even worse, we don’t find out about them until hours or weeks later due to lack of community notification, so we can’t take action to protect our families,” said Miss Dora Williams, a volunteer with Delaware Concerned Residents for Environmental Justice. "The EPA must do more to hold companies like Croda accountable and prevent chemical disasters from happening again." Williams lives along the Route 9 corridor, an area in New Castle, Delaware that is overburdened by the cumulative impacts of pollution from several industrial facilities, legacy contamination and a history of disinvestment due to racism. Read More
January 26, 2022
A letter was sent today by over 70 elected officials from 16 states and territories, including Representative Judy Amabile from Colorado, to EPA Administrator Michael Regan urging meaningful reform of the federal policy that is intended to prevent chemical disasters. Unfortunately, explosions and toxic leaks occur regularly at high-risk chemical facilities, which disproportionately affect workers, communities of color and low-income communities nationwide, making this a key environmental justice issue.“We and our constituents are unwilling to continue living with the constant threat of chemical disasters that could destroy our neighborhoods, businesses, and communities, when safer chemicals and technologies exist,” reads the letter. “ Injuries, death and disease are not acceptable risks, and our communities are not sacrifice zones.” Read More
January 26, 2022
A letter was sent today by over 70 elected officials from 16 states and territories, including 14 representing Pennsylvania, to EPA Administrator Michael Regan urging meaningful reform of the federal policy that is intended to prevent chemical disasters. Unfortunately, explosions and toxic leaks occur regularly at high-risk chemical facilities, which disproportionately affect communities of color and low-income communities nationwide, making this a key environmental justice issue. “The EPA has an important opportunity right now to prioritize environmental justice and stop chemical disasters,” said Representative Mary Jo Daley, Pennsylvania House District 148. “We hope Administrator Regan will do the right thing to protect the health and safety of low-income communities and communities of color across the country by updating the RMP in a meaningful way.” Read More
January 26, 2022
A letter was sent today by over 70 elected officials from 16 states and territories, including 4 representing Kentucky, to EPA Administrator Michael Regan urging meaningful reform of the federal policy that is intended to prevent chemical disasters. “For decades our constituents have lived under the constant threat of explosions or major toxic releases from industrial facilities in our neighborhoods, never knowing what or when the next disaster will be,” said Representative Attica Scott of District 41. “Disaster prevention, common sense emergency response and management, and effective enforcement are three of the most important measures that go directly to keeping neighborhoods like mine safer,” said Eboni Cochran, Louisville resident and organizer with Rubbertown Emergency ACTion.” Our families need strong protections and the EPA must step up to the plate to do what they know is right. Our communities are under chemical assault daily and just one malfunction away from catastrophe.” Read More
January 26, 2022
A letter was sent today by over 70 elected officials from 16 states and territories, including 7 representing West Virginia, to EPA Administrator Michael Regan urging meaningful reform of the federal policy that is intended to prevent chemical disasters. Unfortunately, explosions and toxic leaks occur regularly at high-risk chemical facilities, which disproportionately affect communities of color and low-income communities nationwide, making this a key environmental justice issue. “It’s time that the EPA implements these protections that many people in my home community have been seeking for decades,” said Kathy Ferguson, a spokesperson for People Concerned About Chemical Safety, an environmental justice organization in the Kanawha Valley dedicated to the protection of health and safety to all who reside, work, and study in the vicinity of local chemical plants producing highly toxic chemicals. Read More
January 26, 2022
A letter was sent today by over 70 elected officials from 16 states and territories, including Senator Michael Moore of Massachusetts, to EPA Administrator Michael Regan urging meaningful reform of the federal policy that is intended to prevent chemical disasters. In Massachusetts alone there are 81 RMP-registered facilities. In January 2016, five people were injured following an explosion of a reactive chemical at the Dow Chemical facility in North Andover, Massachusetts. Although such facilities are not currently covered by the RMP, the letter call. Read More
January 26, 2022
A letter was sent today by over 70 elected officials from 16 states and territories to EPA Administrator Michael Regan urging meaningful reform of the federal policy that is intended to prevent chemical disasters. Unfortunately, explosions and toxic leaks occur regularly at high-risk chemical facilities, which disproportionately affect communities of color and low-income communities nationwide, making this a key environmental justice issue. Read More
January 25, 2022
It’s been over 75 years—we can’t wait anymore,” states Tina Cordova, cofounder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. The group, which came together in 2005, is seeking environmental justice for the victims and survivors, called Downwinders, who were contaminated by the testing of the world’s first nuclear bomb on July 16, 1945. Its goal is to extend and expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). The RECA, which passed in 1990, will sunset in July of 2022. Read More
January 18, 2022
Have you ever watched somebody shake a can of soda, and then get ready to crack open the top? You know it’s going to explode, but you don’t know when, or how bad it will be. That’s what it’s like living near a chemical plant. Except the consequences can be deadly. As a lifelong resident of Kanawha County, West Virginia — an area that has been home to dozens of industrial facilities making everything from pesticides to plastics — I know this uncertain feeling all too well. For the past several decades, I’ve listened to emergency sirens go off in my community, indicating that we need to shelter in place, while virtually no information is shared about what happened or how dangerous it might be. The Environmental Protection Agency can help protect millions of people who live near industrial facilities — but only if it works now to strengthen an important federal chemical policy. Read More
January 13, 2022
The Biden administration's commitment to the advancement of environmental justice is the target of fresh doubt Thursday following departures in recent days of two key officials focused on the issue. The administration's top environmental justice official, Cecilia Martinez—who served as senior director for environmental justice at the Council for Environmental Quality—announced her resignation last week. As such, the need to work to defend those "on the fencelines of environmental injustices" is as clear as ever, said the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA) and Coming Clean, two groups focused on racial justice and health issues. Read More
January 12, 2022
The Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA) and Coming Clean are deeply grateful to Dr. Cecilia Martinez for her service as Senior Director of Environmental Justice to the Council for Environmental Quality (CEQ). Dr. Martinez's profound commitment to the many legacy communities living on the fencelines of environmental injustices is undeniable. As the Biden Administration moves forward, it remains essential to deliver on the promises made to these communities and make certain that no community is left behind. Read More
January 11, 2022
JTA's Internal Support & Projects Coordinator works closely with the Executive Director to carry out the organization’s workplan, the organization’s campaigns, and other special projects. This is a full-time position that requires you to be located in the San Diego, CA area and have the ability to travel significantly for in-person meetings, conferences, and other events locally and nationally, Read More
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