Policy, Prevention & Protection: How states are leading on toxic chemicals & plastics

As concern grows over toxic chemical exposures, plastics pollution, and weakening federal safeguards, state and local governments are increasingly stepping forward to protect public health and the environment. A recent CHE Alaska webinar examined how prevention-focused policies, community-driven advocacy, and strong cross-state coalitions are shaping the future of chemical safety in the United States.

Policy, Prevention & Protection: Opportunities for states to lead on toxic chemicals & plastics policies featured Pamela Miller, Executive Director of Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT), and Gretchen Salter of Safer States, a national alliance working to eliminate toxic chemical exposures and advance safer solutions. Together, they highlighted how states are acting as laboratories for innovation, demonstrating that proactive, health-centered policy can reduce toxic exposures, protect vulnerable communities, and shift markets toward safer materials.

State policy as a tool for prevention

Salter, a longtime leader in the environmental health movement, outlined how state-level action has become one of the most effective tools for reducing toxic chemical exposures and protecting health.

Drawing on nearly two decades of organizing and policy experience (including her work advancing landmark chemical safety programs in California), she described how Safer States supports state-based organizations in moving policy forward, and highlighted several key trends shaping state chemical policy today:

• Transparency and disclosure, which give the public and policymakers critical information about chemicals in products and supply chains.
• Hazard-based regulation, which focuses on a chemical’s inherent harms rather than attempting to define “acceptable” levels of exposure.
• Chemical class-based approaches, such as regulating entire groups of chemicals like PFAS to avoid cycles of regrettable substitution.
• Accountability mechanisms, including “polluter pays” strategies that shift cleanup costs from communities and governments to manufacturers.

These approaches, Salter emphasized, are not only effective but widely supported by the public across political lines. State policies have already driven nationwide market changes, removing PFAS, BPA, flame retardants, and other hazardous substances from consumer products.

Alaska & the Arctic: A frontline of exposure

Miller grounded the discussion in Alaska’s unique realities, emphasizing that Alaska (and the Arctic more broadly) experiences disproportionate impacts from toxic chemicals and plastics.

Persistent pollutants travel long distances via wind and ocean currents, accumulating in Arctic ecosystems through a process known as global distillation. Climate warming is intensifying this problem by releasing chemicals long trapped in sea ice, glaciers, and permafrost, contaminating waters, wildlife, and traditional food sources relied upon by Indigenous communities.

Miller highlighted ACAT’s community-based participatory research, including studies documenting widespread PFAS contamination in Alaska’s drinking water, lakes, and soils. With hundreds of known contaminated sites across the state, she underscored the urgent need for health-protective, enforceable standards that reflect current science.

She also outlined some Alaska policy priorities aimed at prevention, including but not limited to:

• Phasing out polystyrene food packaging
• Establishing health-protective PFAS drinking water standards
• Eliminating intentionally added microplastics
• Banning toxic flame retardants and endocrine-disrupting chemicals from consumer products
• Requiring disclosure of chemicals in products

These efforts reflect a broad shift toward addressing chemical harm upstream, before exposures occur.

The power of coalitions & cross-state collaboration

Throughout the webinar, both speakers emphasized that progress depends on coalition-building, research, organizing, and collaboration across states. State policies rarely operate in isolation; when multiple states act, they can reshape national markets and corporate behavior.

Safer States plays a critical role in this ecosystem – connecting advocates, scientists, and policymakers; sharing research and model policies; and strengthening state capacity to respond to industry pressure and federal rollbacks. For Alaska, partnerships beyond state borders are especially vital. Chemicals and plastics do not respect political boundaries. Solutions must reflect that reality.

As federal chemical protections face ongoing challenges, states are demonstrating that prevention works. By centering health, science, and justice (and by listening to communities most affected by pollution), state and local governments are charting a path toward safer chemicals, cleaner environments, and healthier futures. This CHE Alaska webinar highlighted not only the urgency of this work, but also the growing momentum behind it.