CHEJ & Teamsters Demand End to Toxic Toys R Us at Times Square Flagship Store
Groups Warn that Toys R Us’ Broken Promises May Be Toxic for Kids

Today CHEJ, the Teamsters Union, Clean New York, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, concerned parents, students and consumer activists protested toxic PVC plastic used in toys at the Toys R Us flagship store in Times Square.

Read the press release.
Learn more and download our flyer.
Read the article in Variety
Read our blog post on the action.

What’s in your green beans and chicken noodle soup?
strong>Today CHEJ co-released a new national report, No Silver Lining, which found toxic bisphenol A (BPA) in canned foods like green beans and chicken noodle soup. We tested a wide variety of products, including fish, fruits, vegetables, soups, and more, and found BPA in foods from 92% of the cans we tested. Our new report reveals that BPA is a routine contaminant in canned foods.

What can you do?
1) Read the report, and educate yourself and your family!
2) Take Action! Urge your Senator to support national legislation to ban BPA in food and drink containers.

Photos from the Road - CHEJ's PVC-Free Schools Tour
CHEJ is back from our 10-day New York State PVC-free schools speaking tour! Be sure to check out some of the videos we shot.

CHEJ Across NY and In the News
This week CHEJ has been touring NY college campuses for the kick-off of our PVC-Free Schools Campaign. Follow our progress across the state with these news headlines:

Buffalo News: Gibbs brings campaign against PVC to UB

Fox 40: Nationally Known Environmentalist Speaks at BU

Your News Now: Environmentalist Pushes for Quicker IBM Toxic Waste Cleanup

Legislative Gazette: SUNY Campuses Celebrate Earth Day

CHEJ Kicks Off PVC-Free Statewide Speaking Tour in NY
CHEJ founder, Lois Gibbs will be traveling to universities across New York state over the next two weeks to introduce our new PVC-Free Schools Campaign. See the full schedule and download the new student activist toolkit.

New Study: PVC Workers Exposed to High Levels of Phthalates
A new study done by researchers at CDC, NIOSH, and University of Cincinnati found PVC workers are exposed to high levels of phthalates. Workers in the PVC film and compounding sectors had the highest exceedances over the U.S. reference dose for the phthalate DEHP. Interestingly, they also found that DEHP exposure levels for babies in neonatal intensive care units are even higher than PVC workers.

New PVC-Free Schools Campaign Fact-Sheets
CHEJ is kicking off a brand new PVC-free schools campaign to encourage schools to ditch the poison plastic in favor of safer alternatives. We need your help to make it a success! We’ve created a series of new PVC-free schools fact-sheets to help educate parents, students and decision-makers on the dangers of PVC plastic.
Click here to download the new fact-sheets!

Apple and Best Buy Make Progress in Ditching the Poison Plastic
The huge market shift away from the poison plastic continues. Apple nerds rejoice! This month, Apple announced the first ever PVC-free MacBooks and iMacs, making Apple the first major electronics company to completely eliminate PVC in these electronics. Apple was recently profiled in a report by Clean Production Action for their work phasing out PVC. In related news, Best Buy announced in their latest corporate social responsibility report they’ve made progress in phasing out PVC packaging and has set a goal of eliminating 50% of their PVC packaging by the end of 2010 (see page 38).

CHEJ Praises EPA for Developing Dioxin Cleanup Goals – Expresses Concern About Delays
In response to the EPA’s new plans for addressing Dioxin contamination, one of the biggest manufacturers of PVC in the country. The agreement came about after the EPA discovered “extensive” chemical pollution violations at their PVC plants in Point Comfort, Texas, and Baton Rouge, La during inspections. This is a big victory for community members who have been battling Formosa Plastics for many years, lead by fisherwomen Diane Wilson. Read all about it in the U.S. Department of Justice’s press release.

Good News! U.S. Department of Justice Cracking Down on PVC Chemical Manufacturer
The U.S. Department of Justice has reached a $13 million legal settlement with Formosa Plastics, one of the biggest manufacturers of PVC in the country. The agreement came about after the EPA discovered “extensive” chemical pollution violations at their PVC plants in Point Comfort, Texas, and Baton Rouge, La during inspections. This is a big victory for community members who have been battling Formosa Plastics for many years, lead by fisherwomen Diane Wilson. Read all about it in the U.S. Department of Justice’s press release.

EPA Developing Action Plan on Phthalates – Commonly Found in Schools
In a historic announcement, US EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced the Obama administration’s support of reforming our broken chemical safety system. As part of the announcement, Administrator Jackson also announced the EPA is developing the agency’s first-ever action plan on phthalates, which are widespread in PVC products. Over 90% of phthalates are used in PVC products such as vinyl flooring found in schools. Read the EPA’s press release.

PVC Packaging Found to Contain Toxic Metals Banned in 19 States
This week’s Sustainable Packaging Forum could not come at a better time as a new study by the Toxics in Packaging Clearinghouse found toxic levels of heavy metals in over 50% of PVC packaging tested. Read the press release here.

Sign the Petition for PVC-Free School Supplies!
We need your help to get toxic chemicals out of children’s school supplies. Today we’re launching our new Petition for PVC-Free School Supplies. Help CHEJ send a strong message to manufacturers and retailers of PVC school supplies – we want PVC the poison plastic out, and safer products in! PVC is the most toxic plastic for our health and environment – and is widespread in school supplies such as backpacks, lunchboxes and 3-ring binders.

Sign the petition now, and help us send a message to big corporations that PVC has no place in our children’s school supplies.

CHEJ Releases PVC-Free Back-to-School Guide
Need help keeping poison plastics off of your back to school shopping list? The Center for Health, Environment & Justice has created this Back-to-School Guide to PVC-Free School Supplies to empower you to make smarter, healthier shopping choices for a toxic-free future. To find out about the most common back-to-school supplies made out of polyvinyl chloride (PVC or vinyl) plastics and learn about safer PVC-free alternatives, download the guide here.

We also created a handy wallet-sized version of the guide for your shopping needs on the go click here.

Phthalates in PVC Linked to Underweight Babies – Are There Phthalates in Your School?
The scientific evidence on phthalates, over 90% of which are used in PVC, keeps on mounting. A new independent study on these gender-bending chemicals (commonly found in PVC flooring in schools) found phthalates linked to underweight babies. The Daily Mail reports that, “The latest study looked at phthalate levels in the blood and meconium - the first bowel movement - of 201 newborn babies in China. The researchers, from China's Fudan University and Rockefeller University in New York, found phthalates in 70 per cent of them. The levels were significantly higher in the 88 children with low birth weights, they reported in the Journal of Pediatrics.”

PVC Plant Closing -- Suspected of Contaminating Drinking Water at Trailer Park in Plaquemine, Louisiana
Dow Chemical, one of the largest manufacturers of PVC chemicals in the world, announced they’re cutting production of vinyl chloride and ethylene dichloride at their Plaquemine, Louisiana plant over the next two years. This is the very same plant that was suspected of leaching cancer-causing vinyl chloride into drinking water at a nearby trailer park, where a number of residents suffered from miscarriages according to the NY Times. Dow isn’t the only PVC manufacturer cutting back these days. In related news, Mitsubishi has announced they’re exiting the PVC business.

EPA Pushes Forward With Misguided Bush-Era Policies on Toxic Dioxin
Under pressure from a coalition of environmental groups headed by the Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ), the EPA has promised an acceleration of the latest review of the comprehensive human health and exposure assessment for dioxin. CHEJ is concerned about loopholes in the EPA’s plans. “This plan is merely moving forward with the Bush agenda; not accelerating the release of the dioxin report,” said Lois Gibbs. Click here for the press release and community letters and statements to the EPA

Pressure Mounting on EPA and Obama to Release Dioxin Study
This week, dozens of doctors, nurses and scientists sent a letter to EPA Administrator Jackson and President Obama calling on the EPA to release their 20-year delayed study on Dioxin, one of the most toxic chemicals ever studied by EPA. Last week, dozens of environmental justice groups, Vietnam Vets, indigenous groups, health-affected organizations fighting breast cancer, learning disabilities, and birth defects also sent a letter outlining their concerns. Check out some of these quotes from these organizations impacted by Dioxin on why this issue matters to them and their constituents. In 2001 and 2002, dozens of Congressmembers led by Rep. Nancy Pelosi sent letters to EPA calling on the agency to release the study. Almost 10 years later, the study is still in draft form and the EPA now wants to delay the release until at least 2012. Enough is enough – release the study!

Betty the BE Safe Ducky – Making Headlines Coast to Coast
Betty the Be Safe Ducky is CHEJ’s inflatable 25-foot rubber ducky that’s been making headlines coast to coast in support of a PVC-free and toxic-free future. Betty was commissioned in 2006 by CHEJ to support our PVC Campaign and allied groups working to phase out PVC and phthalates in kids’ toys and other consumer products.Check out our new website on Betty featuring a map of the states Betty’s visited the past few years. You can check out photos, video, and articles all about Betty’s travels across the country.

Vinyl and Obesity – Is There a Connection?
Vinyl may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about obesity, but a new study has come out linking PVC chemicals with obesity. Researchers at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in NYC found that exposure to phthalates (used in vinyl plastics) may be linked with childhood obesity, according to results from a long-term health study on girls who live in East Harlem and surrounding communities. This isn’t the first study linking PVC chemicals with obesity -there’s been a few other studies that found a correlation between organotins (also used as PVC additives) and obesity.

New Study: Cows with DNA Damage Downwind of Formosa PVC Plant
A new study provides further evidence that PVC manufacturer Formosa Plastics is harming communities in Texas, this time cattle. Environmental Health News reports the study found, “Cattle with the DNA damage were “oriented around the [Formosa] facility, with the highest damage occurring with those nearby and those downwind,” said Wesley Bissett, lead study author and a veterinarian at Texas A & M’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Bissett reported damage to cattle both within close proximity of the facility and in areas where the prevailing winds would blow the toxic gases... The changes in chromosome structure and other genetic damage can increase the animal’s risk of cancer and reproductive damage.” Read the study. This is the very same PVC polluter that fisherwoman Diane Wilson has battled for years and wrote about in her breathtaking book.

Environmental Groups to Obama: Release Dioxin Report After Twenty Years of Delays
CHEJ and over 100 environmental health, environmental justice, health-affected, and labor groups are calling on President Barack Obama to release the EPA’s report on dioxins, one of the most toxic chemicals on earth. In a letter to President Obama, groups decried President Bush’s last minute gift to the chemical industry by commissioning another review of the EPA’s dioxin reassessment, which has already been underway for over 18 years.
[See our letter to President Obama]
[Read CHEJ’s accompanying press release.]

New Scientific Studies Underscore Need for Global PVC Phase Out

• A recent study found premature babies hospitalized in neonatal intensive care units had levels of BPA in their urine 10 times higher than the general population, and the researchers concluded the likely source was PVC medical devices. 
• Adult men with average amounts of phthalates (chemicals widely used to soften PVC plastics) in their urine had lower levels of two important hormones  testosterone and estrogen -- in their blood.  These hormones are necessary for normal sperm production and function.
• Phthalates can pass from pregnant women to their unborn babies and affect reproductive development in their daughters .
• Dibutyltin,an understudied chemical used widely in PVC plastics, can interfere with the natural ability of human and animal cells to control important immune responses and inflammation. The results may help understand why asthma and allergies are increasing in people.

World's Biggest PVC Manufacturer Fined by U.S. Government for Major Pollution Violations
The fines keep stacking up for the PVC chemical industry, who's been targeted by the U.S. EPA for pollution violations in no less than six states: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky. The latest: the Department of Justice and EPA reached a $12 million settlement with Shintech and its subsidiary K-Bin Inc. for violating federal clean air and hazardous waste laws. We applaud the EPA and Department of Justice for taking this aggressive action, but it begs the question - when is the EPA going to finally update thier outdated vinyl chloride regulations?
[Read all about it]

Just Released! The PVC-Free Guide for Your Family & Home
Worried about toxic chemicals in toys, baby products, and your home? Just in time for the holidays, CHEJ is proud to announce our latest resource - Pass Up the Poison Plastic – The PVC-Free Guide for Your Family & Home. The guide lists the most common consumer products made out of PVC and safer PVC-free products including baby products, children’s toys, electronics, and more. Download your copy today. You can help promote the guide by posting a web banner
on your blog, website, Facebook, or Myspace page letting consumers know about this new resource.

If you make a donation to CHEJ of $100 or more to support our work on this issue, we’ll mail you a hard copy of the guide – printed on recycled, chlorine-free paper with soy ink – and a special wallet-sized plastics guide.

CHEJ’s PVC Campaign Honored with a BENNY Award
CHEJ’s PVC Campaign won an award this year at the 2008 BENNY awards given by the Business Ethics Network (BEN). This is the second year in a row CHEJ’s PVC Campaign has been honored at the BEN conference. BEN organizes the awards to celebrate the victories and achievements of top corporate campaign activists.
[Read the press release]

PVC Fenceline Communities Fight Back!
Community members affected by cancer-causing pollution from PVC manufacturers went to court again to ask the federal government to regulate the host of toxins released from these plants. Each year, PVC plants pump some 500,000 pounds of vinyl chloride – a known human carcinogen - and many other toxins into the atmosphere.
[Read the press release]

Apple Cutting Out PVC in New Laptops
Apple just got a bit greener, with the launch of new laptops with internal cables free of PVC. These new MacBooks are currently on a similar level of toxics reduction to the Sony Viao laptop series on PVC, and the Lenovo Think Vision in monitors. The good news is Apple also announced they are on track to meet their 2008 year-end goal to eliminate PVC!
[Learn more]

Victory! U.S. Government Cutting Toxic Phthalates Out of Kids' Toys!
We Did It! Thanks to your help, the U.S. government passed landmark legislation to ban phthalates and lead in kids’ toys! These chemicals are often found in PVC kids’ toys – in fact between 80-90% of all phthalates are used in PVC products such as toys. CHEJ’s PVC campaign played an important role in this effort -- in June, CHEJ testified before Congress and Betty the Be Safe Ducky visited Chicago at a news conference.

We Still Need You! We hope you'll join us in thanking leaders in Congress for passing this critical legislation that will safeguard our children's health.

Time Magazine: It’s Curtains for Vinyl
The writing is on the wall for vinyl shower curtains - PVC is out and safer products are in! The latest to join the growing chorus is a writer from Time Magazine, who recommends consumers should, "avoid plastic bottles and toys labeled with the numbers 3 or 7, which often contain BPA or phthalates, and steer clear of vinyl shower curtains." Read the article for yourself here.

Do you have a chemically laden, potentially harmful shower curtain hanging in YOUR bathroom?
Chances are you do. Check out CHEJ’s newest report: Volatile Vinyl The New Shower Curtain’s Chemical Smell & watch the slide show, find out safer purchase options and much more: Click here

"Sign the Petition for PVC-Free Shower Curtains"
Check out photos from the national news conference.

Make sure your children’s back to school supplies are safe & PVC free!
Parents & children have options when it comes to choosing school supplies that are healthier and safer – in other words no PVC, the poison plastic included. To help you prevent any potential harm from coming to your schoolchild, CHEJ’s researchers have compiled a brand new guide for back to school purchases complete with safer PVC free products and commonly found products which do contain PVC, a plastic to be avoided. Click here for your copy:

We Did it Again! Toys"R"Us Getting the Nasty Toxins Out!
CHEJ's PVC campaign is on a roll! Toys"R"Us is the latest mega-retailer to adopt a PVC-free goal and is phasing out phthalates in juvenile products.
[Read CHEJ's press release]

Dangerous Ducky and Other Toxic Toys
Would you believe it? Another study has found high levels of phthalates, toxic compounds that have been linked to birth defects, in popular children’s PVC toys.
[Read the report]

Didn’t mom always say better to be safe than to be sorry?....
Why does the chemical industry disagree? Learn more about how Washington State wants to ban phthalates from children’s toys, yet is getting industry push back.Click here to read the article

I thought I saw a giant rubber ducky?!
Don ’t run to the eye doctors….CHEJ’s B. Safe Duck is one well traveled 25 foot tall ducky!Click here to learn all about B’s coast to coast travels, her rallies in Washington State and Maine. Can you guess where B will go next? Contact CHEJ if your group would like a visit from B. Safe the Giant Rubber Duck!
[Check out a slideshow of photos from the trip to Washington]
[Read all about the ducky's trip to Washington]

New Study finds PVC Packaging Breaks State Laws
A national study released today by the Toxics In Packaging Clearinghouse found toxic heavy metals in over 60% of PVC packaging it tested, which violates laws in 19 states.
[Read the full release to learn more]

Tell Target to Quit Ducking the Truth About the Dangers of PVC
While Target shareholders attended the company's annual meeting in Cleveland today, protests, press conferences and letters were delivered to store managers at over 200 stores across the country.
Read the news release. Print out copies of our USA Today ad.
Check out new report, Way Off Target and see pictures from events around the country. Take action and sign our petition to Target.

Strong Support for Shareholder Resolution at Bed Bath & Beyond Encourages Company to Replace Toxic Chemicals in Consumer Products
Shareholders voted 22 percent in favor of resolution encouraging the company to evaluate measures to reduce and eliminate potentially toxic chemicals in Bed, Bath and Beyond's products.
[Read the news release]

Hasbro Shareholders Show Strong Support for PVC Resolution
In a vote that ranks among the highest ever for resolutions on sustainability and toxic chemicals opposed by management, almost half of Hasbro Inc. shareholders endorsed a proxy resolution calling on the toy/game company to produce a sustainability report by December 2007. [read more]

Wal-Mart, Apple Announce New Plans to Eliminate PVC
Wal-Mart commits to support industry standard to eliminate PVC from all children's products, adding fuel to the national campaign challenging Target to “meet and beat” Wal-Mart’s commitment. View the news release.

Federal Agency: PVC Plant Didn't Do Enough to Prevent Catastrophic Explosion
A new report by a U.S. federal agency investigating the 2004 explosion that killed five workers at a Formosa PVC plant in IL revealed the plant owners were aware of the potential for a major catastrophe and didn't take sufficient measures to prevent the accident.

What's That New Car Smell?
Our friends at the Ecology Center have released the first-ever consumer guide to toxic chemicals in cars. Over 200 of the most popular 2006- and 2007-model vehicles in the U.S. were tested for chemicals that off-gas from indoor auto parts. Find out what the new car smell is and how your car ranked.

[ ARCHIVED CAMPAIGN NEWS ]