News and Media

More Than Half of Dollar Store Items Tested Contain Toxic Chemicals

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.” 

  Read More

The cost of toxic products? Just $1

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

Groups push Congress to pass climate package before Memorial Day

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

Harmful chemicals found in toys and canned food at US discount stores

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

The Promise of the Environmental Justice For All Act: NRDC Expert Blog

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