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Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform

Coming Clean is a nonprofit environmental health collaborative working to transform the chemical industry so it is no longer a source of harm, and to secure systemic changes that allow a safe chemical and clean energy economy to flourish. Our members are organizations and technical experts — including grassroots activists, community leaders, scientists, health professionals, business leaders, lawyers, and farmworker advocates — committed to principled collaboration to advance a nontoxic, sustainable, and just world for all. Learn more

Coming Clean and the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA) have worked in strategic partnerships for over 20 years. EJHA is a network of grassroots organizers from communities that are disproportionately impacted by toxic chemicals from legacy contaminations, ongoing exposure to polluting facilities, and health-harming chemicals in household products. Visit their website to learn more

Our Work

  • SAFE FIELDS & FOOD

    Protecting farmworkers from harmful chemicals and supporting sustainable local food systems.

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  • SAFE PRODUCTS & STORES

    Defending customers and our families from toxic chemicals in products.

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  • SAFE CHEMICALS & FACILITIES

    Protecting fenceline communities and facility workers from chemical disasters and toxic chemical exposure.

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Highlights

  • LIFE AT THE FENCELINE

    Watch the video: Roughly 40% of the population live within 3 miles of chemical facilities that could leak, spill, or explode.

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  • THE LOUISVILLE CHARTER

    The Louisville Charter for Safer Chemicals is our shared platform for transforming the chemical industry, endorsed by 125+ organizations.

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  • PREVENTING CHEMICAL DISASTERS

    Watch the video: We're calling on the EPA to strengthen the rules for hazardous facilities.

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Latest News

October 25, 2024

‘Permitting Reform’ Threatens Environmental Justice

"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.

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October 16, 2024

These three states have already passed laws to reduce cumulative impacts

Over 125 organizations in the Coming Clean network agree that reducing cumulative impacts on environmental justice communities is one of our collective policy goals, as outlined in the Louisville Charter for Safer Chemicals. We know that environmental justice communities are not exposed to only one polluting facility or one health-harming pollutant at a time. When reviewing permits for polluting facilities, regulators should have to take into account the combined harm of existing industry on community health, and should have the authority to deny permit applications from facilities that add to disproportionate pollution burdens and existing health stressors. Passing cumulative impacts legislation at the state and local level is one promising way to make this possible. In 2021, Coming Clean released a policy brief by Drs. Nicky Sheats and Ana Baptista on state cumulative impacts legislation that passed in New Jersey, which we hoped would serve as a model for other states and cities. Since then, New York, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Connecticut have also passed cumulative impacts laws. Cities and counties are also pursuing creative ways to assess and reduce cumulative impacts, while involving impacted community members in decision making. Could your state or city be next? Read our Community Guide to Cumulative Impacts! 

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October 16, 2024

“Community Guide to Cumulative Impacts” breaks down the science and organizing needed for stronger pollution-prevention policies at the state and local level

On October 16, 2024, Coming Clean and the Union of Concerned Scientists published The Community Guide to Cumulative Impacts, a resource to drive policy changes at the state and local level to protect overburdened communities from cumulative chemical and pollution harms. The Guide is available in English and Spanish. The Guide was co-developed with over eight local organizations across the country, including Los Jardines Institute, Clean + Healthy, and COPAL (Communidades Organizando el Poder y la Acción Latina), that have long advocated for holistic policies that can reduce stressors on community health. The Guide defines cumulative impacts as “the combined chemical and non-chemical stressors on a community’s health, well-being, and quality of life.” It compares various metrics and mapping tools that can help environmental justice communities show policymakers that their community is experiencing multiple, reinforcing health stressors, such as proximity to many highly polluting facilities releasing multiple chemicals, lack of access to affordable healthcare and housing, and language barriers.

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October 4, 2024

The Toxic Loophole Behind A Chemical Plant Disaster

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.

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Coming Clean is a nonprofit collaborative of environmental health and environmental justice experts working to reform the chemical and energy industries so they are no longer a source of harm. We coordinate hundreds of organizations and issue experts—including grassroots activists, community leaders, scientists and researchers, business leaders, lawyers, and advocates working to reform the chemical and energy industries. We envision a future where no one’s health is sacrificed by toxic chemical use or energy generation. Guided by the Louisville Charter, Jemez Principles of Democratic Organizing, and the Principles of Environmental Justice, we are winning campaigns for a healthy, just, and sustainable society by growing a stronger and more connected movement.