Chej

Aluminum is a metal element found in the Earth’s crust. Because it is durable, lightweight, and easy to recycle, it is a major component of many metal consumer products and industrial materials. Recycling aluminum from scrap like old cars, planes, cans, and electronics is cheap and energy efficient compared to primary production of aluminum from ore.

Lead is a naturally occurring element present in small amounts in the Earth’s crust. It has historically been used in many consumer products including gasoline, paint, plumbing materials, batteries, and cosmetics. This makes lead common all around us. While people may be familiar with the potential to be exposed to lead from the paint or plumbing in their homes, less widely known is that people can be exposed to lead from the soil around their home as well.

Perchloroethylene (PCE, also called tetrachloroethylene) and trichloroethylene (TCE) are manufactured chemicals used for dry cleaning clothing and degreasing metals. They are both colorless liquids that can be released into the environment from improper transport, use, or disposal at places where they are used. When in exposed soil or water, PCE and TCE quickly evaporate into the air, where they can travel long distances.

For more than four decades, the Center for Health, Environment & Justice has stood with communities fighting for clean air, safe water, and a healthier future. Today, that work enters a new chapter. CHEJ is now a project of the Texas Health and Environment Alliance (THEA), expanding this at the heart of some of the nation’s most urgent environmental health challenges. We are heading straight into the “belly of the beast”, because that’s where this work is needed most.

By Mihir Vohra. The communities along the San Jacinto River in Harris County, Texas face many environmental health threats from industrial activity in the area. These threats expose residents to toxic chemicals in the air, water, and soil that are known to cause significant health problems. The San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund Site has been contaminated since the 1960s with dioxin waste from the Champion Paper Mill.

Social media offers a direct line to share stories from frontline communities whose concerns too often go unheard in traditional media. A single post or video can be shared, re-shared, and reach far beyond what a printed flyer or local meeting might achieve. Unlike one-way communication channels, social platforms allow for dialogue—through comments, shares, and live interactions—which can strengthen connection and trust.

By Sharon Franklin. David Leffler, Public Health Watch recently reported on a Superfund site, where the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) scientists conducted a study in East Harris County which is home to several environmental hazards, including toxic Superfund sites. These hazards are largely concentrated in certain communities, which is worrying its residents about concealed cancer clusters.

Community organizing is the process of building power through involving a constituency in identifying problems they share and the solutions to these problems that they desire; identifying the people and structures that can make those solutions possible; enlisting these targets in the effort through negotiation and using confrontation and pressure when needed; and building an institution that is democratically controlled by that constituency that can develop the capacity to take on further...

When the world went into lockdown in 2020, the Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ) launched an innovative new series called Living Room Leadership. This weekly webinar-and-podcast series was created to keep the Environmental Justice (EJ) community connected and inspired during a time of physical isolation. With in-person gatherings impossible, CHEJ brought the movement into people’s homes – or rather, their living rooms – through candid conversations with grassroots leaders.

There is a growing array of groups, agencies, and experts that offer their help to groups dealing with toxics and waste issues. Often this help is sincerely offered, gratefully received and truly helpful. Sometimes it’s not. Too much help, or the wrong kind, can be toxic to grassroots groups.