P.O. Box 6806
Falls Church, VA 22040-6806
Staff size: 14
2006 Annual budget: $1,306,000
IRS Annual Report: http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org/990_pdf_archive/521/521219489/521219489_200612_990.pdf
Corporate polluters believe it's ok to dump toxics, poisoning our air, water and land. The Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ), the only national environmental organization founded and led by a grassroots leader, seeks to protect communities from this kind of corporate violence.
Lois Gibbs founded CHEJ after organizing residents in Love Canal, New York. Occidental Petroleum and other polluters had dumped 20,000 tons of chemicals there, resulting in a concentration of rare diseases. After organizing her community and leading a three-year fight, the government relocated 900 families.
Today, CHEJ continues to be a powerful force in protecting communities against toxic hazards through grassroots organizing. CHEJ works to prevent harm, promote children’s health and protect consumers from hazardous products. CHEJ’s early victories have had a lasting legacy: the organization was instrumental in the founding of the Superfund, established to clean up highly toxic waste sites. CHEJ also helped pass the Community Right-To-Know law, which allows people to access information about toxic materials in their communities.
Since being founded in 1981, CHEJ has assisted grassroots organizations in shutting down more than 1,000 unsafe solid waste landfills across the country. In addition, CHEJ has stopped dozens of new hazardous waste landfills from being built. CHEJ is an outspoken advocate for safe, environmental schools, and founded the Green Flag Schools program. The program has prevented dozens of schools from being built on contaminated land, and advocates the teaching of environmental concepts to children. Thanks largely to the work of CHEJ, President Bush signed into law in December 2007 a bill instructing the Environmental Protection Agency to create the first-ever federal guidelines to protect schools from being situated on toxic sites.
In an ongoing effort, CHEJ has campaigned against the use of PVC plastic, which releases poisonous chemicals linked to birth defects and cancer. Responding to pressure from CHEJ and its allies, Microsoft, Johnson and Johnson, Wal-Mart, and Crabtree & Evelyn have all committed to phase out their use of PVC in packaging.