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Safe Fields & Food
Protecting our health, environment, and those who feed us.
Safe Products & Stores
Defending customers and our families from toxic chemicals in products.
Safe Chemicals & Facilities
Protecting fenceline communities and facility workers from chemical disasters.
Building Power
Grassroots organizing and leadership for just and effective chemical policies.
Latest News
September 26, 2022
We're hiring a Development Associate!
The nonprofit environmental health network, Coming Clean, is seeking to hire a full-time Development Associate to join our team. The Development Associate’s primary role and responsibility is actively supporting the resourcing strategy, goals, and objectives of Coming Clean including managing donor tracking, outreach, reporting systems, and activities for the organization. Read More
September 21, 2022
Qualco chemical plant lacked federal oversight at time of giant Passaic fire
Despite housing millions of pounds of hazardous chemicals, the Passaic chlorine plant that was almost engulfed in a massive fire earlier this year was not required to register its stockpile with the federal government or develop a special safety plan, according to a report released Tuesday by a watchdog group. The Qualco chlorine plant falls outside the purview of the Environmental Protection Agency's Risk Management Plan and its most recent revisions designed to prevent chemical disasters like the one that nearly unfolded in January. "A stronger rule is needed to ensure that hazards are removed, or we will continue to see more chemical disasters," said Steve Taylor, a director at Coming Clean, an environmental nonprofit group based in Vermont. Elias Rodriguez, an EPA spokesman, confirmed that Qualco is not in the EPA's program because it "does not meet threshold quantities of RMP-regulated substances." Read More
September 21, 2022
Report recommends safety measures to prevent chemical disasters
(KPLC News) Some think more needs to be done to reduce risk from chemical leaks and explosions from industries. The explosion at Westlake Chemical in January is one of three featured in a report profiling explosions and safety measures that authors said EPA can require right now to prevent future chemical disasters. Authors of the report wrote six workers were injured and 7,000 students in a dozen schools had to shelter in place. Steve Taylor said their report includes three case studies of serious chemical incidents, including Westlake. “That happened within two weeks of each other, in January of this year, and each of those incidents and the failures that led up to them provides important insights for how EPA needs to strengthen this rule to prevent chemical disasters,” Taylor said. Read More
September 20, 2022
EPA’s proposed changes to its chemical disaster prevention rule don’t do enough to protect Louisiana communities
Today, Coming Clean and the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform released a report that profiles three chemical incidents that occurred within two weeks this January, and recommends specific safety measures that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should require in order to prevent future chemical disasters. On August 31, 2022, the EPA published proposed revisions to the Risk Management Program (RMP), which regulates approximately 12,000 high-risk facilities in the U.S. that use or store highly hazardous chemicals. EPA was specifically directed by Congress to use this program to prevent disasters, yet more than 140 harmful chemical incidents occur on average every year. On January 26, 2022, an explosion at the Westlake Chemical South plant caused 7,000 students to shelter in place in the Lake Charles area, and sent a plume of foul-smelling smoke into the air. This facility has reported at least 14 other chemical incidents to the EPA. But under the agency’s newly proposed RMP rule, it would be exempted from requirements to consider and document safer technology and chemical alternatives, and it would not require that safer chemicals or processes be implemented. Read More
September 20, 2022
EPA takes no steps to prevent future ammonium nitrate explosions in proposed changes to its chemical disaster prevention rule
On January 31, 2022, a fire at the Winston Weaver Fertilizer plant in Winston-Salem North Carolina caused 6,500 people to evacuate, emitted unsafe levels of air pollution, and nearly triggered a deadly ammonium nitrate explosion. Ammonium nitrate is not currently covered under the RMP rule, and EPA’s newly proposed changes do not expand the Program to cover any new chemicals, ignoring the recommendations of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board and the National Fire Protection Association. Read More
September 20, 2022
EPA’s proposed changes to its chemical disaster prevention rule don’t do enough to keep New Jersey communities safe
Today, Coming Clean and the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA) released a report that profiles three chemical incidents that occurred within two weeks this January, and recommends specific safety measures that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should require in order to prevent future chemical disasters. On January 14, 2022, a fire at a warehouse in Passaic, New Jersey came dangerously close to igniting the adjacent Qualco Inc. facility where an estimated 3 million pounds of hazardous chemicals were stored. According to fire officials, this could have caused “one of the most catastrophic chemical disasters in the region in recent history.” Facilities like Qualco Inc. are not currently covered by the EPA’s Risk Management Program despite storing large chemical stockpiles. The facility was therefore not required under the RMP rule to report the hazardous chemicals on site to EPA, conduct a worst-case release scenario analysis, coordinate incident planning with local first responders, or consider measures to prevent a chemical disaster. Read More
September 20, 2022
EPA’s proposed changes to chemical disaster prevention rule don’t do enough to keep communities safe
Today, Coming Clean and the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform released a report that profiles three chemical incidents that occurred within two weeks this January, and recommends specific safety measures that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should require in order to prevent future chemical disasters. Preventing Disaster offers actionable recommendations the EPA should include in its final rule that could prevent similar incidents from happening in the future, including: requiring all RMP facilities to consider, document, and implement safer chemicals and technologies; expanding the Risk Management Program to cover ammonium nitrate and other hazardous chemicals which remain excluded in the proposed rule; requiring RMP facilities to not only consider the risks posed by natural hazards, as proposed in the draft rule, but to take meaningful steps to prepare for those risks, such as implementing backup power for chemical production and storage processes. Read More
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.