Women and children face greater exposure to and harm from toxic chemicals than men. Our gendered society means women are conditioned to feel responsible for making the “right” shopping and lifestyle choices to keep their families safe. Our program fights to end that flawed approach; We believe is time to hold corporations accountable for making safe products, and make our government prioritize protecting our families over profits.

Toxic chemical exposures have been linked to breast and reproductive system cancers and complications like endometriosis. They also harm fertility and put healthy pregnancies in danger. Even short-term exposure to pollution during childhood can permanently harm children’s behavior and body development.

Fixing the Problem:

Most industrial chemicals have undergone inadequate safety testing— their effects are almost entirely unknown. With cancer and other chronic health diseases on the rise, and taking into account their link to our exposure to toxins, our program holds corporations and the government accountable for the production of harmful chemicals.

Right now, consumer tips advise shoppers on how to make safe choices in an attempt to limit our exposure to toxic chemicals. Ultimately, these individual responsibility “solutions” unfairly burden women who feel the increased pressure to keep their families safe.

At the end of the day, people are left paying the price for polluters. This is a completely ineffective way to address a crisis caused by corporations’ reckless use of toxic chemicals and government failure to hold them accountable. Our program is building an equitable movement to reduce exposure to toxics— one that promotes legal protections against harmful chemicals making their way into people and our environment in the first place. We work to ensure companies are held accountable to stop production of dangerous chemicals and clean up the contamination they’ve created. We support and work to fight alongside people who live and work on the frontlines of these exposures.