September 5, 2013
1990 Goldman Prize winner Lois Gibbs and her team at the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ) recently launched a campaign to test popular school supplies for toxic chemicals.
CHEJ spent the summer raising money to commission an independent laboratory to test supplies such as lunchboxes and backpacks for chemicals like lead, phthalates and cadmium, which have been linked to asthma, autism and birth defects.
The tests are part of a larger CHEJ campaign for safe and healthy schools, free from PVC and other toxic chemicals. To learn more about this campaign and to check out CHEJ’s “Parent’s Guide for Safer School Supplies,” click HERE.
Gibbs was awarded the Goldman Prize in 1990 for her work to expose and clean-up ‘the love canal,’ a 21,000-ton toxic waste site buried beneath her neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York. The discovery came after Gibbs launched a personal investigation into the unexplained health problems of her children and neighbors.
Gibbs fought for years to get the site cleaned-up and went on to become the founding director of the CHEJ, an organization that helps local communities combat toxic waste and environmental issues across the country.
