Our Work

This summer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it was expanding its list of “alternative test methods” that could be used to assess the health risks of chemicals, including pesticides, that end up in our air, water and food. Without frameworks in place to prevent backsliding, this  will result in weaker health protections from harmful chemicals. Scientists within the Coming Clean network, allied with environmental health professionals and farmworker groups, have been sounding alarm bells about the irresponsible use of NAMs for many years. Now, scientists across our organizations must form a united front against expanded use of NAMs to replace proven science, before more regulatory protections disappear.

“Today’s Supreme Court decision is more proof that pesticide corporations have too much influence in government. Bayer made over 11 billion dollars from pesticide sales in 2023, and last year alone, spent over 9 million dollars on lobbying for policies that protect pesticide profits instead of basic human health. If you use a product that fails to warn about its ingredients' documented links to cancer, reproductive harm, or neurological conditions, and you develop health complications after using that product, you deserve your day in court. Especially since EPA has approved hundreds of pesticide active ingredients that likely or possibly cause cancer. Congress has the power to protect consumers’ right to sue over pesticide harms. The people have had enough of agrochemical corporate influence in Washington.”

“The fatal and shocking incidents communities have faced in recent days demonstrate the urgent need to implement and build on existing regulatory safeguards so communities near chemical facilities are protected from chemical disasters. But, instead of protecting workers and families from death, injury, and illness, Trump’s EPA is putting communities at greater risk of harm by weakening the nation’s primary defense against chemical facility incidents. The Risk Management Program (RMP) protects against catastrophic industrial chemical releases, fires, and explosions through preventative safety measures. The Trump administration is attempting to weaken this rule. Every chemical incident, every life lost, and every evacuation is one too many. Each chemical emergency makes clear the need to strengthen, not dismantle, protections against chemical disasters before more workers, families, and communities are harmed.” 

For a year now, the Chemical Safety Board, a small independent agency that investigates chemical spills and other disasters has faced elimination under President Trump’s budget cuts.That hasn’t stopped the board from taking on the Trump administration. The agency is now opposing an attempt to roll back new chemical disaster rules that were introduced under former President Joseph R. Biden and aimed to prevent accidents at thousands of industrial facilities. The Chemical Safety Board has been taking the lead in investigating accidents, including a chemical leak at a plant in West Virginia last month that killed two people. Maya Nye, who grew up about a mile from the plant and whose family was forced to shelter in place as the emergency unfolded, described the accident as one of many over the years across the industrial corridor along the Kanawha River near Charleston, a hub for chemical manufacturing that residents call “Chemical Valley.” “We’ve been kicking and screaming for years calling for improvements, protections under these rules. And now it feels like we’re taking 10 steps back,” said Dr. Nye, who is federal policy director for Coming Clean, a nonprofit organization that advocates for policies to prevent disasters and reduce toxic pollution.

Wayne County, Mississippi, in a quiet southeast corner of the state, is home to about 20,000 people surrounded by forest and farmland. But Wayne distinguishes itself in two ways: it is home to a Sipcam Agro plant that processes the toxic herbicide paraquat. Within the U.S., the plant is the largest single emitter of paraquat. Wayne County also sees high rates of Parkinson’s disease deaths, in the top 7% of all U.S. counties that reported Parkinson’s deaths between 2018 and 2024. Troves of evidence have long linked paraquat to Parkinson’s, the world’s fastest-growing – and incurable – neurodegenerative disease. In March, Syngenta announced it would stop producing paraquat. But Syngenta’s exit doesn’t mean paraquat will stop entering the U.S. Instead, other companies and other facilities – like the one in Wayne County – will fill the gap, likely increasing the amount of paraquat they handle.

Workers, lawmakers and environmental advocates gathered  this week to speak out against a proposed federal rule that would roll back protections for people who live near hazardous facilities across the country. “This is just the latest example of how this administration will do whatever it can to put industry profit over the health and safety of workers, first responders and communities that allow those companies to exist in the first place,” US Rep. Paul Tonko, a Democrat from New York, said during a March 25 press event on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The event was organized by the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters, an alliance of community, environmental, and labor organizations working to strengthen federal regulations to prevent chemical disasters.