PFAS Banned from Food Packaging in New York State!

We are pleased to announce the passage of a bill prohibiting the use of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in food packaging in New York State. This legislation was on our State Policy Agenda, and we have been conducting webinars on the dangers of PFAS and discussing the issue with our members and State representatives.

Why is This Important?
PFAS is widely used in food packaging to coat paper and cardboard wrappers for fast food and bakery goods because it is resistant to grease, water, and oil. However, that resistance comes at a huge cost. These man-made chemicals are extremely difficult to break down and can accumulate in our bodies for so long that they are commonly referred to as “forever chemicals.” Exposure to PFAS has been linked to a variety of health concerns, including cancer, liver and kidney disruption, reproductive and developmental disorders, increased cholesterol, and low infant birth weights. And one of the most-alarming health concerns of PFAS exposure is the disruption of the immune system, which studies have found could put people at higher risk of getting severely sick from COVID-19.
 
WE ACT had been working to ban the sale and distribution of food packaging that contains PFAS because it is an environmental justice issue. While PFAS exposure effects everyone, Blacks/African Americans are at greater risk from PFAS exposure through food packaging due to higher concentrations of fast food in their communities. Read the Press Release
 
Hazardous Fracking Wastewater Banned from New York State!
We are also happy to inform you that the JustGreen Partnership, which WE ACT co-leads with Clean and Healthy New York, helped close the Hazardous Waste Loophole in New York State. While fracking is banned in New York, hazardous fracking wastewater could still be spread on our roads for de-icing or dumped into our wastewater treatment facilities. Closing this loophole put an end to that. Read the Press Release

Concerned about the housing crisis? Then join us on August 8th!

Our August Membership Meeting will focus on housing insecurity and the challenges we face as a community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Join us on Saturday, August 8 at 10:00 AM EDT via Zoom. We will discuss the history that led to our current housing crisis, which started long before the pandemic. And we will also discuss the work WE ACT is doing to organize around affordable housing, the New York State COVID-19 Rent Relief program, and solutions to prevent pandemic-related evictions when the rent moratorium ends. Register Today

And mark your calendar for our other upcoming Membership Meetings: September 12 - Education, October 10 - Maternal Mortality, and November 14 - Annual Meeting.

Federal Policy Office Update

July has been a sizzling month for our Federal Policy Office in Washington, DC. They have been aggressively fighting against the Trump administration’s attempts to gut the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), speaking to CBS News, the New York Times, the Hill, the Washington Examiner, and E&E News. And we’ve joined a coalition of other environmental groups suing to block these changes to NEPA, a 50 year-old law that gives people an opportunity to raise concerns about federal projects that could impact their community.
 
They issued a formal response to the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis report, “Solving the Climate Crisis: The Congressional Action Plan for a Clean Energy Economy and a Healthy, Resilient and Just America,” having been asked to provide recommendations during its development phase. Similarly, they provided a response to former Vice President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better Plan.”
 
Our DC office also helped celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Equitable & Just National Climate Platform, of which we were co-authors and inaugural signatories. And they facilitated the virtual 2020 Summer Convening of the Environmental Justice Leadership Forum.

The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) has extended its application period to August 31st! If you are income-qualified, you can receive a free air conditioner (up to $800 in value) from New York State. LIHEAP is also now open to people in federal housing. Call 311 and ask to be mailed the application, or go online for more information and to downloadable application. Contact [email protected] with questions. And please get your air conditioner…the heat in New York can be risky for your health!

As we shared in an earlier email, Peggy Shepard was featured in a CBS News story on environmental justice, and did a live interview afterwards on the NEPA rollbacks. You may also recall the written CBS interview we shared last month. She spoke with the Hill and the Washington Examiner about the importance of protecting NEPA. She was interviewed by Ensia on the lack of diversity in the environmental movement, and the impact that has on grassroots groups. Bloomberg Law asked her how the EPA could best use the $17 million a House bill allocated for environmental justice programs. And she talked to the Washington Post about the importance of electric vehicles and the impact of emissions on communities of color.

Cecil Corbin-Mark was interviewed by the NRDC about heat vulnerability and the work we are doing to address it. His testimony before the House Committee on Science, Space, & Technology hearing on “Sweltering in Place: COVID-19, Extreme Heat, and Environmental Justice" was featured in E&E News. And he was quoted in a Gotham Gazette Op-Ed about the impact of vehicle emissions on communities of color.

Kerene Tayloe spoke to the New York Times and E&E News about the dangers of the NEPA rollbacks. She talked to Grist about our support for the Environmental Justice for All Act. And she was quoted in the Environment News Service, making the case for why we joined a coalition that has filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s undermining of NEPA.

In a Gotham Gazette Op-Ed, Sonal Jessel called for action from New York City and New York State to address the heightened health threats of extreme heat during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was also a guest on WNYC Radio's Brian Lehrer Show, talking about the same issue as well as the work we are doing to address it.

And Taylor Morton explained the history and intersection of environmental justice and racial justice to Honeysuckle Magazine, offering readers some actions they can take to get involved.

As a member of the Coalition for Safer Food Processing & Packaging, we’re helping to collect caps from glass bottles as part of a citizen-science project to determine which beverage brands are using toxic bottle caps. Toxic chemicals called phthalates are in many bottle cap liners, which are on the underside of the cap and used to form a seal against the bottle rim. These caps may leave a toxic residue on the bottle rim, which could mean that when you take a sip from that bottle you are also taking a sip of toxic phthalates.

Want to help? Here are the Instructions for Submitting Bottle Caps to be tested for toxic phthalates.
 
This project is part of the Toxic-Free Food Campaign, which is led by the Environmental Health Strategy Center, and they are collecting all of the submissions and organizing the testing. Please follow the instructions in the link above and do not send your bottle caps to WE ACT. Thank you!

WE ACT’s 2020 Annual Gala will be on Thursday, October 15th from 6:00-7:30 PM and will be a virtual event via Zoom. We will be releasing additional information in August, but we can tell you that the theme will be a Just Transition.

Become A Sponsor
If you would like to be a sponsor of our 2020 Gala and support the work we do, please contact Grace Mok or Morgan Fritz at [email protected] or 212-961-1000 ext. 304 or 305. To learn about the benefits of being a sponsor and the various opportunities available, download our 2020 Gala Sponsorship Brochure.

The Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School’s Summer Environmental Justice Institute Expo will be held online on Friday, July 31 at 5 PM EDT. Tune in to learn about and provide feedback on the amazing Clean Air Green Corridor project these high school students are proposing for Washington Heights, based on what they learned from our Environmental Health and Justice Leadership Training program. Register Here

Take a moment to get to know some of our new staff. Nicole Pavez joins as our Bilingual Community Organizer. She's already working on Community Power, our community solar project in East Harlem. And Grace Mok is our new Development Associate. She's hard at work on our 2020 Gala. Both are based in our New York Office.

Make sure you are counted! Filling out your 2020 Census form is super easy, and as Peggy Shepard explains in this video, super important. It's a simple questionnaire, and completing it will help ensure that our community gets the resources we deserve. You should have received your Census ID in the mail. If not, you can retrieve it - and fill out your form - online. 2020 Census