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Coming Clean is a nonprofit environmental health collaborative working to transform the chemical industry so it is no longer a source of harm, and to secure systemic changes that allow a safe chemical and clean energy economy to flourish. Our members are organizations and technical experts — including grassroots activists, community leaders, scientists, health professionals, business leaders, lawyers, and farmworker advocates — committed to principled collaboration to advance a nontoxic, sustainable, and just world for all. Learn more.

               

Coming Clean and the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA) have worked in strategic partnerships for over 20 years. EJHA is a network of grassroots organizers from communities that are disproportionately impacted by toxic chemicals from legacy contaminations, ongoing exposure to polluting facilities, and health-harming chemicals in household products. Visit their website to learn more.

Safe Fields & Food

Safe Fields & Food

Protecting farmworkers from harmful chemicals and supporting sustainable local food systems.

Safe Products & Stores

Safe Products & Stores

Defending customers and our families from toxic chemicals in products.

Safe Chemicals & Facilities

Safe Chemicals & Facilities

Protecting fenceline communities and facility workers from chemical disasters and toxic chemical exposure.

Life at the Fenceline

Life at the Fenceline

Watch the video: Roughly 40% of the population live within 3 miles of chemical facilities that could leak, spill, or explode.

The Story of Coming Clean

The Story of Coming Clean

Learn more about the collaborative approach that informs our organizing.

The Louisville Charter

The Louisville Charter

The Louisville Charter for Safer Chemicals is our shared platform for transforming the chemical industry, endorsed by 125+ organizations.

Preventing Chemical Disasters

Preventing Chemical Disasters

Watch the video: We're calling on the EPA to strengthen the rules for hazardous facilities.

March 15, 2024

EPA announces stricter rules to prevent chemical incidents

On March 1, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published updates to its Risk Management Plan (RMP) rule with stricter regulations for chemical accident prevention. The new rule is a result of listening sessions by the EPA in which industry, advocates, scientists and fenceline residents voiced their concerns. According to the new rule, facilities handling hazardous materials must consider safer technologies and practices, and the possibility of events caused by climate change in their emergency management plans. When a chemical incident occurs, the facility will have to undergo third-party testing to find the root cause and what could have prevented it. Any disconnection or disabling of air monitors in an emergency would be in violation of this rule and must be reported to the EPA. As a result, backup power options must be explored to prevent lack of emissions readings in events that result in the loss of power. To read a version of this story in Spanish click here. Haz clic aquí para leer este reportaje en español.

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March 1, 2024

EPA moves to limit frequent chemical accidents

Pressure ramped up on the EPA last year after a network of environmental and economic justice organizations reported that hazardous chemical accidents have been occurring almost every day, on average, in the United States, exposing people to dangerous toxins through fires, explosions, leaks, spills and other types of releases. The network applauded the EPA’s actions this week. “We’re glad that EPA stood its ground despite strong industry pressure and required more [Risk Management Program] facilities to report on safer chemicals and processes that could be implemented to prevent chemical disasters,” Maya Nye, federal policy director for the environmental health collaborative Coming Clean, said in a press release. “This establishes an important precedent.” The Coming Clean report found hundreds of accidents happening each year, with the majority tied to the fossil fuel industry. Acknowledging the frequency of incidents, the EPA previously told The New Lede that over the past 10 years the agency has “performed an average of 235 emergency response actions per year, including responses to discharges of hazardous chemicals or oil.”

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March 1, 2024

EPA Praised for Boost to 'Life-Saving' Protections From Chemical Incidents

Hazardous chemical incidents such as explosions, fires, and toxic releases happen almost daily in the United States, often at fossil fuel facilities, and the Biden administration won praise on Friday for stepping up safeguards for impacted communities. Michele Roberts, co-coordinator of another coalition member, the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform, celebrated the EPA's new online database for RMP facilities, and highlighted that "communities have been asking for this information for decades. We have a right to know whether our houses, schools, and places of worship are threatened by a potential chemical disaster," she said. "We look forward to a time when a database on RMP facility and hazard information will no longer be needed because every facility will have transitioned to safe chemicals and processes, but in the meantime EPA making this critical information more accessible to communities is a huge step."

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March 1, 2024

EPA finalizes critical new chemical disaster prevention rule after years of community pressure

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized critical updates to its Risk Management Program (RMP) rule today that will require covered facilities that use and store highly hazardous chemicals to better prevent, prepare for, and respond to disasters. The EPA also made non-classified information about RMP facilities publicly available online for the first time. Environmental health and justice advocates praised the new requirements and information access, while underscoring that EPA has the authority to take additional action outside of this rulemaking to protect communities and workers from toxic chemical harms.

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February 22, 2024

Justice40 tools must ensure that farmworkers are recognized as Environmental Justice communities and receive benefits.

Today members of Coming Clean’s Farmworker Health and Justice Team submitted a comment urging the Council on Economic Quality (CEQ) to improve its Environmental Justice (EJ) Scorecard to ensure that federal agencies are providing Justice40 benefits to farmworkers. Phase One of the EJ Scorecard was launched in 2023, as mandated by President Biden’s Executive Order 14008 on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. It is intended to track the progress of federal agencies in ensuring that 40% of climate, housing, energy, pollution remediation, and related federal benefits flow to “disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution,” as part of the implementation of the Justice40 InitiativeFarmworkers are “a particularly important EJ community,” states the comment, because they often live in remote, rural areas, are disproportionately exposed to toxic pesticides, intense heat and high humidity, and wildfire smoke and pollution, and experience other health stressors such as substandard housing, harsh working conditions, and lack of access to affordable healthcare. 

 

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Coming Clean is a nonprofit collaborative of environmental health and environmental justice experts working to reform the chemical and energy industries so they are no longer a source of harm. We coordinate hundreds of organizations and issue experts—including grassroots activists, community leaders, scientists and researchers, business leaders, lawyers, and advocates working to reform the chemical and energy industries. We envision a future where no one’s health is sacrificed by toxic chemical use or energy generation. Guided by the Louisville Charter, Jemez Principles of Democratic Organizing, and the Principles of Environmental Justice, we are winning campaigns for a healthy, just, and sustainable society by growing a stronger and more connected movement.