1/29/10
CHEJ’s Hiring in NY!
CHEJ is seeking a part-time campaign organizer for a new New York State campaign to green schools inside and out. Read the job notice.

1/22/10
EPA Promises to Protect OH Schoolchildren from Manganese Exposure
Last year, CHEJ worked with USA Today to expose high levels of school air pollution endangering students across the country. The EPA has followed up with air testing at 62 schools across the country; and in October found alarmingly high levels of manganese outside an elementary school in OH. On Thursday, the EPA promised to take measures to reduce levels of this toxic chemical near the school. Read full coverage of this story from USA Today.

1/20/10
CHEJ’s Hiring! Childrens Health Campaign Organizer
CHEJ is seeking a campaign organizer for our Childproofing Our Communities Campaign (CPOC) in our Falls Church, VA office. The campaign works to protect children from exposure to environmental health hazards through innovative trainings, programs and organizing assistance. Read the job announcement.

12/16/09
Over the past month, toxic chemicals in PVC’s lifecycle, have made headlines coast to coast:

• A new study by EWG found cleaning products, many of which are used to maintain vinyl flooring in schools, can contaminate the air inside schools with harmful chemicals.
• The American Medical Association came out with a new policy on endocrine disrupting chemicals, which are released by PVC products found in our nation’s schools.
• Robert DeNiro, stars in a new movie where he plays a man “who spent his entire life breathing in toxic fumes at a plant that manufactured PVC coating for telephone wires.”
• PVC fenceline communities breathed a sigh of relief, after they won an agreement from EPA, to finally start regulating air pollution from PVC chemical plants.
• The vinyl chemical industry, backed by Exxon Mobil, has announced yet another “grassroots” (astroturfing) association – the Flexible Vinyl Alliance.
• A new study by EWG found minority babies are born pre-polluted with Dioxins, chemicals released by PVC’s toxic lifecycle.
  
  What a month! We're looking forward to 2010.

11/23/09
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!

Without Safe School Siting Laws, Schoolchildren Are Last Priority for Environmental Regulators

The ground under two Manhattan schools is contaminated with gasoline leaving children at risk for vapor intrusion. But what is shocking is that the Department of Environmental Conservation has known about the pollution for a decade, but not about the schools built on top. Read the full story here and Take Action!

Take Action on Safe School Siting Today!

Send a letter to your governor demanding strong and comprehensive safe school siting policies. Today few state and no federals ban the building of schools on or near sources of pollution. This dangerous trend is putting our children and school staff into harms way. Please take action today!

CHEJ releases the Safe School Siting Toolkit

Just Released! Safe School Siting Toolkit. CHEJ created the Safe School Siting Toolkit to provide communities with the tools to protect their children’s health by organizing for the passage of safe school siting policies.

Click here for the toolkit.

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.