Toxic threats
It’s up to us to protect our ecosystems and communities from toxic chemicals.
Most of the 80,000 chemicals on the market in the United States have been put into use without testing long-term consequences for the environment, or their impacts on our health. We should make sure that any chemical in use is safe, eliminate those we know are dangerous, and stop using any that are damaging healthy ecosystems. And if an industry makes a toxic mess, we should know right away, and they should be the ones to pay for cleaning it up.
Featured Resources
Get the Lead Out
Get the Lead Out Toolkit
Wasting our Waterways
The Latest
Two more states take action to limit lead in schools’ drinking water
Legislators in Missouri and Colorado have just approved bills requiring remediation when lead in schools' drinking water exceeds 5 parts per billion (ppb).
Interactive map shows widespread lead contamination in schools drinking water
BOSTON -- Lead contamination of school drinking water is more pervasive than previously thought, according to testing data from across the nation published on Thursday by Environment America Research & Policy Center and U.S. PIRG Education Fund on a new interactive map. The groups urged public officials to take swift action to “get the lead out” of schools’ drinking water.
Statement: Clean schools program means cleaner, healthier future
Vice President Kamala Harris will announce on Monday a clean schools infrastructure program, which features grant funding for public school energy upgrades, money for electric school buses, and investments in rural schools.
Thousands call on EPA to get the lead out of drinking water
Nearly 15,000 people are urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to not only set a 10-year deadline for removing lead pipes but also take decisive action to ensure safe drinking water at schools and child care centers. Environment America Research & Policy Center and U.S. PIRG Education Fund submitted comments Wednesday from these individuals on the EPA’s Draft Strategy to Reduce Lead Exposures and Disparities.
New report: Reinstated ‘polluter pays’ taxes should speed up lagging toxic waste cleanup
WASHINGTON -- For more than 20 years, the federal government’s “Superfund” program aimed at cleaning up toxic waste sites has languished for lack of funding. The program was originally funded by a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries, but those “polluter pays” taxes expired in 1995. When President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan infrastructure package (BIF) into law last month, a polluter pays tax was finally reinstated on chemical industries.