Center for Environmental Health

08/19/2026

Breaking News: Receipts are about to get safer! We just signed settlement agreements with 163 companies for exposing consumers to the endocrine disruptor BPS in paper receipts.

The 163 companies we signed settlements with for exposing consumers to BPS in receipts make up 7% of the US’ retail market! This signals an unprecedented shift towards health and environmental safety in every industry that hands out paper receipts.

When we got BPA out of receipts, companies have just switched from paper with one phenol to another. This time we’ve committed Domtar Paper (the only producer of the US' thermal paper) to exclusively offer phenol-additive free paper in CA and end this toxic shell game.

It only takes touching a receipt for 10 seconds to exceed the exposure threshold for BPS, which a hormone-disrupting chemical that mimics estrogen and can affect the normal functioning of the body, impacting metabolism, growth, development, and reproduction.

Getting BPS out of receipts isn’t just a win for public health, it’s also a win for recycling streams, which are contaminated by receipts with BPS that pose environmental risks. Recycling streams are safer now that there will be receipts made without phenol-additive free paper.

CEH’s settlements will protect consumers and workers from hormone disruption, recycling systems from contamination, and spur the creation of a new phenol-additive free receipt paper.

07/31/2026

📢 LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK! 🗣️

While is coming to a close, let's all do our part to make sure that we live as plastic-free as possible throughout the year!

07/23/2026

We're proud to be one of the organizations defending one of our nation's most important chemical safety laws, the Toxic Substances Control Act.

250 organizations have a message for Congress: Put people's health before chemical industry profits.

Congress must reject industry efforts to weaken our nation's chemical safety law. Instead of listening to industry lobbyists, lawmakers should hear from the people living with the consequences of toxic chemical exposure every day, including impacted communities, veterans, workers, and health professionals.

Americans deserve stronger protections from toxic chemicals linked to cancer, reproductive harm, and other serious health concerns—not dangerous rollbacks that put corporate polluters first.

Read our statement at the link in comments.

07/07/2026

DYK Toxic-Free Future found chemicals linked to cancer in more than one in six Sally Beauty products marketed to Black and brown women?

Tell Sally Beauty to get the cancer-linked chemicals out of its hair relaxers!

Tell Sally Beauty to get the cancer-linked chemicals out of its relaxers.

07/01/2026

Let's play...❓Did you know?❓Plastic Free July edition!

In honor of , take a second to learn some important info on plastics and how they can affect our health and environment. Swipe ➡️ to play!

06/25/2026

The Toxic Substances Control Act took the most diverse coalition in the history of environmental lawmaking 40 years to fix, but it could be dismantled in just one. Why it's so important to keep this chemical protections law strong.

Tell Congress to put public health and safety before the bottom lines of chemical companies: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/stop-congress-from-gutting-chemical-safety-laws/

Senate Republicans consider easing rules for the chemical industry

06/21/2026

Happy Father's Day from CEH!

06/19/2026

Happy Juneteenth! Join us as we celebrate the progress this holiday represents as well as the reminder of the work still to be done.

06/17/2026

We were heartbroken to learn that our longtime partner and attorney, Eric Somers, passed away this past Spring.

CEH has held a nearly 30-year partnership with Eric’s firm, the Lexington Law Group (LLG) that continues to this day. Under Eric’s steadfast representation, CEH’s litigation efforts led to the elimination of lead in children’s products such as toys, lunchboxes, baby bibs, diaper rash cream, and countless other common sources of lead exposure for kids. Eric also helped CEH to reach agreements that required companies to remove lead from jewelry, hexavalent chromium from footwear, and arsenic from wood playground equipment.

Eric was instrumental in helping us change the world. We send our deepest condolences to Eric’s family, friends, and our colleagues at the Lexington Law Group.

A number of former CEH team members who worked closely with Eric shared their thoughts, which can be read here:

Eric Somers represented CEH for 27 years, securing transformational legal victories to protect people’s health and the environment.

06/16/2026

❓ Have you begun your reuse and refill journey? If not: why not start today, on World Refill Day? 🌎

Here are a few things you can do to reduce plastic pollution:

✅ Ditch the disposable cups! If you’re going to a coffee shop, don’t forget to bring your favorite reusable beverage container. You can hand it to the barista and ask them to make your coffee in your cup, and save a single-use cup in the process. A lot of coffee shops will even give you a discount for bringing your own cup, so everyone (especially the environment) wins!

✅ Did you just run out of shampoo and conditioner? Or laundry and dish detergent? Before you head to a big box store to resupply, you might want to check out your local reuse and refill store first. A lot of these stores sell personal care and other products that allow you to bring your own glass or stainless steel jars or containers (try to avoid plastic if you can), and simply refill there. Typically you pay by the ounce, and save a whole additional plastic package you’d typically get when resupplying on detergents or shampoos.

✅ Do you live in an area where it’s safe to drink tap water? If so, don’t forget to use our favorite stainless steel or glass reusable water bottle for filling up and hydrating. This is much better than purchasing huge packs of disposable plastic water bottles, which contain chemicals that are harmful when ingested, and also harm the environment after use.

While the responsibility to change business practices to become safer for public health and the environment should fall upon manufacturers, these three things will help make an impact on reducing plastic waste. Happy ! 💚