2023
What’s new
Chemicals in building materials: Disproportionate impacts on people of color
Building products and materials that make up our indoor spaces can cause long-term harm to human health. This much we know.
We also know that while chemicals and air pollutants don’t discriminate, generations of systemic inequalities have caused racial injustices and disproportionate exposures of people of color to hazardous chemicals. What deserves more consideration is where there are building product opportunities to improve the health of people of color. . . .
2023
What’s new
Another painful reminder of PVC plastic’s toxic lifecycle
CHE is cross-posting blogs from various experts responding to the tragic train derailment in Ohio on February 3, 2023. The following is an excerpt from a Toxic Free Future blog posted on February 17. You'll find the full version here.
The vinyl chloride train derailment in Ohio is a modern environmental disaster playing out in real time. Sadly, this is yet another painful reminder of the dangers of making, transporting, using, and disposing of chemicals in plastics, especially polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic. . . .
2023
What’s new
Past and future of environmental health research
While the potential impact of the environment on our health has been recognized for thousands of years, the need to use a multi- and trans-disciplinary approach has only been recognized relatively recently. Exposures must be broadly defined and inclusive – the environment includes social and economic factors, as well as natural stressors, pollutants, infectious agents, and nutrition. . . .
2023
What’s new
Because Health
The public’s knowledge of environmental health issues has changed tremendously over the past few decades, with CHE playing a critical role. In 2018, while I was Director of CHE, we launched Because Health, an environmental health educational campaign for the general public. Because Health is now a part of the Center for Environmental Health, a nonprofit leading the nationwide effort to protect people from toxic chemicals. . . .
2023
What’s new
Scientists recommend changes to chemical regulatory process
This blog is excerpted from a blog posted today by UCSF's Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE). See the complete posting from PRHE here.
With chemical production and use on the rise, and continued evidence that many chemicals in everyday products are linked to health problems such as cancer, infertility, and neurodevelopmental conditions, an interdisciplinary group of scientific experts said changes are urgently needed to better protect people from harmful chemicals. . . .
2023
What’s new
Impacting US chemical policy & environmental health
This article was co-authored with Dr. Tracey Woodruff, see bios of both authors below.
Chemical pollution threatens the health of our planet and everyone who lives on it.
Despite this, the manufacture and production of chemicals has continued to increase; 350,000+ chemicals and chemical mixtures registered worldwide have led to extensive and disproportionate exposures, and generations of children being born pre-polluted.
. . .
2022
What’s new
A Perspective from Alaska
In the early years of CHE, the staff of Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT) would eagerly join the monthly teleconferences and huddle together around the conference speaker phone in the early morning darkness of Alaska. . . .
2022
What’s new
Climate Health Activism: Twenty Years Out and Counting
The dawn of CHE came at a cusp of our environmental health movement, when health professionals moved beyond efforts to reduce pollution emanating from the healthcare sector, toward transforming healthcare to respond to our climate crisis. . . .
2022
What’s new
Celebrating CHE’s Legacy & Future
Last Saturday afternoon, longtime environmental health leaders gathered in the Commonweal gallery in Bolinas, California to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE).
What an amazing roomful of people. . . .
2022
What’s new
Two Decades of Progress in Environmental Health & Science Communication
After Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski and I published Our Stolen Future in 1996, we got “slapped” by one of the most prominent science journalists of the day, Gina Kolata writing for the New York Times. Among her criticisms was that one chemical can’t cause a plethora of diseases. It was one chemical, one disease, like asbestos and mesothelioma. . . .
