Chemicals Resources

Science Resources

Websites

  • The CHE Toxicant and Disease Database is a searchable database that summarizes links between chemical contaminants and approximately 180 human diseases or conditions.
  • Through the Human Toxome Project at the Environmental Working Group, researchers are using cutting edge biomonitoring techniques to test blood, urine, breast milk, and other human tissues for industrial chemicals that enter the human body as pollution via food, air, and water, or from exposures to ingredients in everyday consumer products.
  • The book Our Stolen Future brought world-wide attention to scientific discoveries about endocrine disruption and the fact that common contaminants can interfere with the natural signals controlling development of the fetus. This website tracks the most recent developments.
  • Environmental Health News, published daily by Environmental Health Sciences, a non-profit organization working to advance the public's understanding of environmental health issues by providing access to worldwide news about a variety of subjects related to the health of humans, wildlife, and ecosystems. Their daily e-letter, Above The Fold, is available for free.
  • A nationwide survey of more than 1,500 nurses suggests associations between the health of nurses and their children from nurses' long-term exposures to the many hazardous chemicals, drugs, and other agents to which they are exposed over the course of a workday.

Reports

Safer Chemicals: Health Care Action Kit

The Guide to Choosing Safer Products and Chemicals was developed by Health Care Without Harm to help health care institutions transition to safer chemicals and materials and to understand the broader public policy context in which the institutional work takes place.

Download the entire Guide to Choosing Safer Products and Chemicals: Implementing Chemicals Policy in Health Care. For a brief overview, download the Getting Started Guide.

Table of Contents 

Section A: Introductory Documents

  • Rationale for a Comprehensive Chemicals Policy in Health Care 
  • Explanation of a Comprehensive Chemicals Policy in Health Care

Section B: Policies and Plans for Implementation

  • Developing a Written Institutional Chemicals Policy
  • Developing a Written Plan of Action to Implement an Institutional Chemicals Policy 
  • Key Issues for Implementation of a Comprehensive Chemicals Policy Program

Section C: Implementation Strategies

  • Supply Chain Implementation Strategy 
  • Advocacy Implementation Strategy 
  • Occupational Health Implementation Strategy 

Section D: Appendices

  • Annotated List of Chemical Lists for Targeted Chemicals Strategy 
  • Check-list for Chemicals Policy Implementation 

Failure of Current Chemical Policy — and Better Solutions

Reports

Books

  • Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry, by Stacy Malkan, New Society, 2007. This award-winning book by former HCWH communications director Stacy Malkan reveals the toxic truth about everyday personal care products and describes the ongoing efforts to give the beauty industry a safety makeover.
  • Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power, by Mark Schapiro, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007. Investigative journalist Mark Schapiro takes the reader to the front lines of global corporate and political power, where tectonic battles are being waged that will determine the physical and economic health of our children and ourselves.
  • The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens our Health and Well-Being, by Nena Baker, North Point Press, 2008. Investigative journalist Nena Baker answers the pressing questions raised by our ongoing, ubiquitous, and unwitting exposures to the everyday toxics grabbing headlines today: phthalates in plastic; bisphenol A in food and beverage containers; flame retardants in furniture; and perfluorinated chemicals in food wrappers.
  • Poisoned for Profit: How Toxins Are Making Our Children Chronically Ill, by Phillip Shabecoff and Alice Shabecoff, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2010. Based on more than five years of investigative research and reporting, this book reveals the cumulative scientific evidence connecting the massive increase in environmental poisons to the epidemic of disability, disease, and dysfunction among our nation's children.

Green Chemistry

Chemical Exposure and Occupational Hazards

Alternatives to Pesticides

Reports

Websites

Greener Cleaners

Fact Sheets

Reports

Safer Disinfectants

Reducing Fragrance Exposures