The Center for Health, Environment and Justice has been on the front line in the fight for environmental health for 40 years. We train and support local activists across the country and build local, state and national initiatives that win on issues from Superfund to climate change.
We Can Help You Win
CHEJ has the tools to help residents fight against toxic threats in their community. We can provide scientific information to make your case, leadership training to build your organization and organize your community, and ongoing coaching throughout the process.
Whether you are starting a new initiative from scratch with volunteers or have been working together for years, CHEJ is there for you. Contact us to find out more.
Love Canal
Our story began in Love Canal, NY, where Lois Gibbs led her neighbors to be protected from 20,000 tons of hazardous waste buried in their backyards. Love Canal was national news and the catalyst for the federal Superfund program.
Armed with lessons about the power of organizing, education and the bold voice of local residents defending their families, Lois launched CHEJ in 1981. We’ve been fighting for a healthier environment ever since.
A Network For Change
Our nationwide network of more than 300 local community groups works locally and at the regional, state and national levels to achieve critical policy impacts around issues like fracking, release of toxic chemicals, climate change, industral waste and more.
The communities we serve are largely rural, low-wealth or working class—the places that typically bear the brunt of environmental degradation. Together, we make a difference.
Toxic beauty products contribute to health inequity
Toxic chemicals in beauty products commonly used by and marketed to Black people and other people of color could be contributing to racial health inequities. So say researchers and community [...]
‘We will not stop’: pipeline opponents ready for America’s biggest environmental fight
As the sun set, more than a dozen young people carried a wooden bridge toward a narrow section of the Mississippi River. The bridge allowed the group to cross more [...]
Biden must stop methane pipelines to deliver on climate change and environmental justice
Four years of President Donald Trump have cost America dearly. We lost our global leadership on addressing climate change and saw the struggle for environmental justice thwarted here at home. [...]
Keystone XL Oil Pipeline and the Rhetoric of Jobs
By: Simone Lewis, Communications Intern After years of activism from Indigenous, environmental, and community groups, TC [...]
Environmental Justice is Racial Justice
By: Anabelle Farnham, Communications Intern Just over one week ago, on May 25th, activists gathered to [...]
The Fight for Equal Protection
By Judith Eppele, Community Organizing Intern Have you ever wished you were a tomato? Probably not, [...]
No More Sacrifice Zones!
“No More Sacrifice Zones!” is our campaign to organize people who are poisoned by corporate greed and at high risk for Covid-19 complications to lead a national effort that ends the sacrificing of their families, and our planet.
Every day, people in America become exposed to a toxic mixture of chemicals in the air we breathe. They are released in unknown quantities by energy plants, dirty factories and CO2-emitting vehicles.
These foul chemicals are not found equally everywhere in our country’s air: They are highly concentrated in areas where people have lower incomes and are part of racial minority groups.
These have become known as America’s “Sacrifice Zones.”
We are uniting people suffering from cancer, moms whose kids are born with physical impairments, and residents who simply can’t afford to live anywhere else to share their stories, name the solutions they need and build the power necessary to enact change.
Will you join us?
