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Environmental Health
Emerging scientific research is demonstrating that harmful chemical substances known as persistent bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs) are implicated in a wide range of reproductive, neurological, developmental and immunological problems, even at minute levels of exposure. PBTs are used not only in manufacturing and agriculture, but also in seemingly benign consumer products. Growing evidence of their health impacts is strengthening the case for reducing chemical exposures.
All these chemicals of concern, which are ubiquitous in plastics, are derived from fossil fuels. Thus, a common goal of the Clean Energy and Environmental Health programs is to eliminate fossil fuels—coal, oil and eventually natural gas—as a source of energy and product feedstocks.
The goal of the Fund’s Environmental Health Program is to promote state and federal policies and market shifts that engender a transition away from petroleum-based chemicals linked to preventable diseases.
Objectives
· Reforming state and federal chemicals policies so that they are comprehensive and effective in protecting human health
· Shifting markets and consumer product sectors toward safer alternatives along the production and supply chains
The Fund’s core strategy in pursuing these objectives is to reinforce the connection between PBTs and health impacts, believing that success in attaining truly protective chemicals policy will ultimately depend on making chemical exposure an issue about health rather than about the environment. Diseases and disabilities caused by exposure to chemicals released into the environment are, by definition, preventable. Individuals harmed by these chemicals, and those who provide them professional care or personal support, can become important allies of the environmental health community. To encourage this potentially powerful advocacy, the Fund supports organizations whose work addresses the links between human disease and disability and chemical exposures.
Strategies
- Support multi-constituency, health-oriented policy and market campaigns at state and national levels; increase alignment between policy and market campaigns
- Based on emerging science, engage new, non-environmental constituents, particularly health-affected groups, minorities, women, seniors and people of faith
- Increase both positive and negative incentives for companies and industry sectors to adopt safer alternatives, using the tools of international policies and markets where appropriate
- Make targeted, high-impact investments in translation of critical scientific data that influences policy and/or brings safer alternatives to market; and in international policy forums that drive market transformations and more robust domestic policy changes
- In New England, incentivize institutional procurement of safer products, especially among hospitals, and state and local governments
2011 Grants
Environmental Health
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$75,000 |
| To create a scientific testing protocol that will indicate whether a new chemical under development is an endocrine disrupter; and to publicize leading scientists' judgment that the current regulatory regime for chemicals neglects current, widely accepted science. |
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$50,000 |
| To stimulate broad public support for local, national and international policies that protect the health of Arctic peoples, wildlife and the environment from chemical contaminants. |
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$80,000 |
| To bring more and stronger health-affected voices to the debate on more effective chemical regulation; to build consumer demand for nontoxic products; and to harmonize key state and federal environmental health advocacy campaigns. |
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$75,000 |
| To promote comprehensive reform of US chemicals policy, and to achieve synergy between these domestic reforms and international chemicals policies. |
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$50,000 |
| To protect the principles of risk assessment, now under attack from the chemical industry, that underlie sound toxic chemicals regulation; and to improve the EPA's Integrated Risk Information System program. |
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$85,000 |
| To accelerate the shift away from toxic chemicals toward safer substitutes in American businesses through joint business-NGO development of tools and resources that companies need; and to demonstrate to policymakers that chemicals reform will benefit both company bottom lines and economic innovation. |
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$125,000 |
| To enable the Coalition for a Safe and Healthy Connecticut to use current research to engage a cadre of new spokespeople and decisionmakers to win additional chemicals policies in Connecticut, fully implement laws enacted in recent years, and advance market campaigns. |
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$50,000 |
| To disseminate research findings about environmental risks to the East Harlem community, study participants, the general public, policymakers, health care workers and the media. |
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$90,000 |
| To educate national learning and developmental disabilities organizations and neurodegenerative disease organizations about environmental links to neurological disabilities, increase collaboration among them, cultivate opportunities for them to support chemicals policy reforms, and translate relevant emerging science for their use. |
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$75,000 |
| To use the findings of the Environmental Threats to Healthy Aging report to engage senior citizens' organizations and members in promoting policies that foster healthier living for all ages. |
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$25,000 |
| To seek strong implementation of existing state chemicals regulation, passage of new policies, and new research on toxic chemicals, all in support of chemicals policy reforms at the state and federal levels. |
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$110,000 |
| To enable the Michigan Network for Children's Environmental Health to seek state policy and administrative actions that protect people from exposures to toxic chemicals; and to leverage growing public engagement and business sector interest in green chemistry and federal chemicals policy reform. |
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$65,000 |
| To advance HealthyStuff.org's capacity to drive large-scale, market-based changes to make products safer; boost state chemicals policy reform campaigns; and build a long-term constituency for national reforms through increased consumer engagement and industry motivation. |
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$15,000 |
| To engage in advocacy and market campaigns in Maine to promote policies at the state and federal levels that protect human and environmental health. |
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$100,000 |
| To continue fostering integration among environmental health, policy and market campaigns, and increasing the financial resources needed to support those campaigns. |
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$138,035 |
| To engage in advocacy and market campaigns in Maine to promote policies at the state and federal levels that protect human and environmental health. |
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$125,000 |
| To protect Minnesotans from toxic chemicals in everyday products through a health-based campaign that achieves near-term chemicals policy victories while building toward comprehensive state and national reform. |
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$60,000 |
| To further demonstrate the business case for moving away from toxic chemicals in consumer products, with particular emphasis on engaging Business Group members to find practical, affordable substitutes for endocrine-disrupting chemicals. |
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$40,000 |
| To advance the global movement for international and toxic chemical reforms that will reduce harm to human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants. |
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$100,000 |
| To enable Coming Clean to force chemical industry reforms so that it is no longer a source of harm to health by: publicizing compelling biomonitoring data; promoting safe substitutions for toxic chemicals through alternatives assessments; linking market campaigns to policy objectives; offering strong messages for toxic-free solutions; and providing a communications structure that incorporates local, state, federal and international policy reform initiatives. |
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$85,000 |
| To build support for chemicals policy reforms by educating and engaging citizens, the media and key decisionmakers. |
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$100,000 |
| To raise awareness of environmental factors, particularly toxic chemicals, that can harm brain development, contributing to learning disabilities and behavior disorders; to prevent those chemical exposures, especially among pregnant women and children, by helping to reform their regulation and use; and to build a nationwide membership network actively working to protect children's health and reduce the incidence of learning disabilities in future generations. |
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$25,000 |
| To engage in advocacy and market campaigns in Maine to promote policies at the state and federal levels that protect human and environmental health. |
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$60,000 |
| To respond to growing demand for safer chemicals and products by promoting green chemistry and environmental design as key elements of sustainable business practice, and facilitating alternatives assessment as an approach to safer chemicals management within companies. |
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$20,000 |
| To act as coordinator for the Environmental Priorities Coalition in defending Maine's strong environmental standards and programs against efforts to weaken them. |
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$9,000 |
| To engage in advocacy and market campaigns in Maine to promote policies at the state and federal levels that protect human and environmental health. |
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$10,000 |
| To engage in advocacy and market campaigns in Maine to promote policies at the state and federal levels that protect human and environmental health. |
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$25,000 |
| To engage the Maine Small Business Coalition in defending Maine's strong environmental health standards and programs against efforts to weaken them. |
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$30,000 |
| To engage in advocacy and market campaigns in Maine to promote policies at the state and federal levels that protect human and environmental health. |
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$17,500 |
| To engage in advocacy and market campaigns in Maine to promote policies at the state and federal levels that protect human and environmental health. |
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$50,000 |
| To reduce and eventually eliminate mercury use in lightbulbs, foster purchase of the least toxic and most energy efficient lighting, promote shared business responsibility for recycling discarded mercury-containing lightbulbs, and reduce initial cost of the next generation light-emitting diode technology, which is highly efficient and low in toxicity. |
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$75,000 |
| To mobilize the faith community-clergy, laity and religious leaders-to educate state and federal policymakers about the dangers of toxic chemicals from a moral perspective; and to motivate mothers as well as older churchgoers to become engaged on environmental health issues. |
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$15,000 |
| To defend Maine's strong environmental health standards and programs against efforts to weaken them. |
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$7,500 |
| To launch Citizens Reinventing and Advancing Design Leadership for the Environment and Economy (CRADLE2), a national movement to establish extended producer responsibility as the dominant US approach to product and packaging waste management. |
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$25,000 |
| To engage in advocacy and market campaigns in Maine to promote policies at the state and federal levels that protect human and environmental health. |
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$85,000 |
| To protect children and other vulnerable populations from toxic chemicals by: improving the legal and regulatory system, in particular achieving health-protective regulations for high-priority toxic chemicals; expanding the availability of information about the health and environmental effects of toxic chemicals to the public; and promoting up-to-date analytical tools for assessing the risk of chemicals. |
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$12,965 |
| To engage in advocacy and market campaigns in Maine to promote policies at the state and federal levels that protect human and environmental health. |
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$17,500 |
| To engage in advocacy and market campaigns in Maine to promote policies at the state and federal levels that protect human and environmental health. |
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$15,000 |
| To seek strong implementation of existing state chemicals regulation, passage of new policies, and new research on toxic chemicals, all in support of chemicals policy reforms at the state and federal levels. |
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$50,000 |
| To build and assist a broad coalition of stakeholders engaged in state-by-state adoption of effective extended producer responsibility policies, while building support with business allies to neutralize industry opposition. |
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$350,000 |
| To create momentum for federal chemicals policy that protects public health and the environment, provides predictability to the business community, restores US leadership on issues of health and safety, and prevents chemical industry attempts to weaken reform measures. |
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$80,000 |
| To participate in the national Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition and to continue winning state reforms that accelerate momentum for federal action. |
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$15,000 |
| To engage in advocacy and market campaigns in Maine to promote policies at the state and federal levels that protect human and environmental health. |
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$15,000 |
| To seek strong implementation of existing state chemicals regulation, passage of new policies, and new research on toxic chemicals, all in support of chemicals policy reforms at the state and federal levels. |
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$30,000 |
| To ensure strong implementation of existing state chemicals regulation and passage of new policies and advance research on toxic chemicals that supports chemicals policy reforms at the state and federal levels. |
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$165,000 |
| To seek strong implementation of existing state chemicals regulation, passage of new policies, and new research on toxic chemicals, all in support of chemicals policy reforms at the state and federal levels. |
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