We’re working to change the way that chemicals are regulated so that the most dangerous ones don’t wind up polluting people, food, drinking water, and communities.

We are also advancing new approaches to regulation that are prevention-based, driving the safest solutions and ensuring the existing laws are working to protect people and the environment.

What we’re doing

Educating policymakers from Congress to the Environmental Protection Agency to the Department of Defense
Publishing scientific research that shows the impact of harmful chemicals and pollution on people and wildlife, particularly the most vulnerable
Building grassroots power and partnerships to compel the federal government to act

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FEDERAL POLICY

Key Projects & Priorities

TSCA Implementation

The EPA has the power—and responsibility—to protect people and the environment from toxic chemicals under the 2016 reforms to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Toxic-Free Future is holding the agency accountable, pushing for strong, science-based implementation to ban dangerous chemicals and deliver the full promise of the law.

Protect Safer Choice

EPA’s Safer Choice label on a product assures consumers that each ingredient has been evaluated for its hazard and the most dangerous chemicals like PFAS, phthalates, and formaldehyde are prohibited. Unfortunately, EPA’s Safer Choice program is under threat. Toxic-Free Future is calling for Safer Choice to be maintained as a trusted program within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Tell Congress, ban toxic food packaging!

The Keep Food Containers Safe from PFAS Act of 2021 is a bipartisan bill that would ban the use of toxic PFAS in food containers and cookware. This legislation would help to prevent further pollution by prohibiting food packaging that contains intentionally added PFAS in at the federal level.

Impact

Our federal policy program was established in 2009 to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)—the outdated federal law for regulating chemicals. Through the leadership of our Safer Chemicals Healthy Families coalition—representing hundreds of organizations and thousands of individuals—we helped convince Congress and President Obama to update TSCA in 2016. While the final bill wasn’t what we’d hoped for, it marked a major victory for public health during a time of federal policy gridlock.

Since then, our advocacy has helped drive key federal actions, including:

The EPA’s ban on deadly methylene chloride-based paint strippers for consumer use
The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s move to address toxic flame retardants in everyday products—from electronics to mattresses
Congressional action to begin addressing the nation’s PFAS pollution crisis, including contamination caused by the military’s use of toxic firefighting foam