Center for Environmental Health

Green Chemistry: Accelerating the adoption of safer products to protect human health and the environment Our climate work to reduce plastic and toxics exposure by leveraging institutional buying power to drive more sustainable supply chains has yielded impactful results. Our proven strategies have achieved real, tangible wins for human health, including:-Preventing over 600,000 single-use plastic foodware items from exposing people to toxic chemicals, filling landfills, and producing potent greenhouse gases. Landfills are major contributors to climate change given the gases they emit and the amount of plastic they contain. -Making it easier than ever for government, corporate, and educational institutions to find, evaluate, and purchase healthier, more sustainable furniture, flooring, and carpeting. -Launching a revolutionary standard for reusability criteria that restricts known hazardous chemicals (including recycled materials) in food packaging, service ware, cookware, and food containers. -Releasing an updated version of the Ditching Disposables Toolkit aimed at helping those in the K-12 school space reduce the use of single use-plastics in the cafeteria space and transition to non-toxic, reusable foodware. This updated toolkit has been instrumental in promoting our expertise across the country and has been distributed both nationally and regionally to all school districts in California. These wins propel CEH to continue to target city and county governments and private businesses to use our GreenScreen Certified Standard which as of December 2024 has been accepted under EPAs Recommendations of Specifications, Standards, and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing. We aim to drive the purchasing demand for sustainable products towards products that meet our rigorous safety and health standards, achieving healthier supply chains. The Green and Clean Purchasing team reached out to California school districts totaling over 1,110 district and school leaders in 2024 with the goal of shifting large scale purchasing toward non-toxic alternatives. CEH called on district leaders to consider safer, non-toxic, reusable foodware options and provided introductory resources including our Ditching Disposables Toolkit.

Protecting our Environment and Communities from Industrial Pollution CEH continues to tackle sources of industrial pollution and have focused on the metal processing industrys toxic hex chrome air emissions as well as their illegal PFAS discharges into groundwater classified by the Water Board as a potential source of drinking water for community residents. CEH has filed lawsuits against 6 companies to force them to implement much-needed pollution controls that eliminate further discharges as well as cleanup measures for existing water contamination. After we entered a Consent Judgment with one of these companies, CEH has continued to engage with the remaining five companies to hold them accountable, requiring cleanup, monitoring of groundwater and soil, and cessation of using PFAS-containing materials. Similarly, CEH has been actively engaged in a case involving a lead-acid battery recycling facility in the City of Industry named Quemetco (now known as Ecobat Resources California) to protect soils from lead and arsenic industrial pollution. In 2024, in partnership with community leaders, CEH conducted extensive community outreach to hear how affected residents wanted to use the community fund to protect themselves from contaminated soil. Based on this feedback, CEH is offering soil screening for lead and arsenic, safe gardening workshops, and professional landscaping services to residents who live near the facility. Accessing these services will have a direct impact on reducing residents exposure to lead and arsenic in contaminated soil at no cost to them.