As I have looked more into what resources are available to support people seeking to reduce environmental toxins in their lives or more broadly, I’ve been encouraged by the number of organizations doing great work. Here are a few of them to consider as resources or even places where you might want to get involved in some way to help them advance their good work.
Guides for Chemical and Risk Reduction
- Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit environmental group and nationwide community that provides access to the information needed to make smart, healthy choices. They seek to protect public health through advocacy, spotlighting harmful industry standards, speaking out against outdated government legislation, and empowering consumers with breakthrough education and research. They offer consumer guides that include:
- Tap Water Database – a database continuing data for every zip code in the U.S. that highlights any contaminants in the local water supply that are over and beyond the legal limit, as well as beyond any limits recommended by EWG.lk
- EWG VERIFIED – a set of personal care, cleaning products, and baby and diaper products that meet their strict standards for being free of harmful chemicals.
- Skin Deep – a guide that rates products on how safe they are, based on their chemical composition.
- Guide to Sunscreens – a guide to sunscreens that they deem safest and effective for use based on their chemical composition.
- Silent Spring, an independent research and advocacy group dedicated to uncovering the links between chemicals in our everyday environment and women’s health, with a focus on breast cancer prevention. They have developed a free mobile app, called Detox Me, that draws on 20 years of research for practical advice on everyday chemical reduction.
- Pediatric Environment Health Toolkit was developed by the University of California San Francisco, a leading research institution on environmental health, to help parents understand exposure risks and prevention tips. The guide is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical organizations.
- Healthy Babies, Bright Futures is an alliance of non-profits, scientists and donors that develops programs to reduce babies’ chemical exposure. The group offers guides for parents to limit chemicals in the first few years of a child’s life, beginning before pregnancy.
- MADE SAFE® is a program of Nontoxic Certified, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We provide America’s first comprehensive human health and ecosystem-focused certification for nontoxic products across store aisles, from baby to personal care to household and beyond. The MADE SAFE® (Made With Safe Ingredients™) seal literally means that a product is made with safe ingredients, without toxic chemicals known to harm our health.
- Think Dirty® empowers and educates the consumer on the cosmetics industry by allowing them to make an informed decision on what products to purchase.
Other Organizations Advocating to Reduce Environmental Toxins
- Center for Environmental Health (CEH) protects people from toxic chemicals by working with communities, consumers, workers, government, and the private sector to demand and support business practices that are safe for public health and the environment.
- Toxic Free Future – Toxic-Free Future is creating a healthier tomorrow by advocating for the use of safer products, chemicals, and practices through advanced research, grassroots organizing, corporate and government education and advocacy, and consumer engagement.
- Green Science Policy Institute is an organization of scientists, educators, and policy experts who develop and communicate peer-reviewed research about chemicals of concern to key decision-makers in order to change policy and purchasing to reduce harmful chemicals in products, people, and the environment. They educate and build partnerships among business, government, academia, and nonprofits to find innovative solutions to reduce the use of toxic chemicals.
- Getting Ready for Baby is a joint effort of over 95 organizations listed below working to ensure all products made and sold for babies and young children in the US are made free from harmful chemicals that can disrupt healthy development and contribute to diseases and disorders. The Getting Ready for Baby campaign urges baby product retailers to create policies that prevent products made with toxic chemicals from appearing on their store shelves. Simply put: every baby product should be a healthy product.
- Women’s Voices for the Earth is WVE drives action towards a future free from the impacts of toxic chemicals rooted in gender justice alongside those historically and presently ignored by the environmental health movement by leveraging an intersectional solidarity approach based on their expertise in research, advocacy and organizing.
Examples of State-Level Organizations Making a Difference
Safer States is an alliance of diverse environmental health organizations and coalitions from across the nation committed to building a healthier world. By harnessing place-based power, the alliance works to safeguard people and the planet from toxic chemicals and sparks innovative solutions for a more sustainable future. This site is neat because you can drill into the details of what is being done at the state level across the country.
Clean and Healthy New York is a New York State-based advocacy group advocating on both federal and state levels to bring enduring policy and market reform, chemical regulation, and transparency.
Coalition for a Safe & Healthy Connecticut leads statewide and local campaigns to reduce and eliminate toxic chemical exposures in our everyday lives- in buildings, schools, and workplaces, air, water and food, and in consumer products.