The Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ) has a long history of championing environmental health, from its roots in the Love Canal fight to national campaigns against toxic chemicals. From the beginning, CHEJ focused on everyday threats to children’s health – including dangerous cleaning chemicals in schools and toxic plastics in consumer products. For young people passionate about environmental justice, CHEJ’s story shows how community activism can spur big changes. Two signature initiatives – the Green Cleaning and PVC-Free campaigns – stand out for their hopeful victories in reducing

By Leila Waid. Without water, there is no life. It is a human right to have access to safe drinking water, free from harmful chemicals. However, not everyone gets access to the same safe drinking water. The Safe Drinking Water Act (SWDA), signed into law in 1974, helped bridge some of the inequities around drinking water by setting standards regarding water quality. However, many chemicals are not being enforced by SWDA. Environmental justice advocates worry that certain communities are being harmed more than others by these unregulated chemicals than others.

By Sharon Franklin. As climate change drastically increases the frequency and severity of wildfires, utility companies say they’re facing growing risk for payouts that could bankrupt them or require massive rate hikes on customers.  Across the West, electrical utilities are pushing state lawmakers to grant them legal immunity or limit damage payouts if their equipment sparks a blaze.  State legislators in at least eight states over the past few years have passed legislation or have proposed legislation, that would require the utility companies to follow plans to limit their risks

Every day, people facing threats to their health and environment call CHEJ for help. They are looking for proof that all landfills leak, health studies linking incinerators to cancer, or the environmental record of a company that wants to build a plant in their community. CHEJ tries to provide those facts. But we also help people through the terrible realization that simply speaking the truth about landfills, incinerators, or previous violations won’t stop the poisoning. The truth is only a start. In order for things to change, the truth has

By Leila Waid. A recently published systematic review article analyzed effective methods for increasing heat literacy. A systematic review summarizes the current scientific literature by synthesizing multiple studies and providing the lessons learned. In this case, the authors focused on analyzing community-based health adaptation programs – defined as “interventions focus[ed] on local engagement, offering culturally tailored resources and information designed to enhance individual knowledge and adaptive behaviors related to heat-related illness prevention.” Instead of utilizing a top-down approach to address climate change, these programs focus on empowering communities by affecting

By Juliet Porter. At the start of April, devastating storms swept across parts of the Midwest and Southeastern United States, bringing tornadoes, violent winds, and catastrophic flooding. Millions of Americans were affected as rivers overflowed, homes were damaged or destroyed, and lives were lost. The National Weather Service warned early on that this would be a “multi-day catastrophic and potentially historic” event, with a “barrage of life-threatening” conditions, including powerful tornadoes and widespread flash flooding. The Kentucky, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers rose to historic levels, inundating communities and dismantling local