Resources

  • Because Health A nonprofit environmental health site that offers science-based tips and guides for buying safer cookware and dishes, uncontaminated foods, and nontoxic personal-care products—to help people live more healthfully.

  • Breast Cancer Prevention Partners An organization that provides information for reducing toxic exposures—in food packaging, cosmetics, and other everyday products—to protect people’s breast health and reproductive health.

  • CHEM Trust A website that offers terrific fact sheets about hazardous chemicals and their impacts on health, as well as news about chemical legislation in Europe (such as REACH).

  • Environmental Defense Fund A leading global nonprofit organization that promotes research related to preserving the health of both the environment and its populations, including humans.

  • Environmental Health News A publication of Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit organization dedicated to environmental health issues, including climate change, the plastic pollution crisis, and harmful chemicals such as BPA.

  • Environmental Working Group A nonprofit dedicated to protecting human health and the environment. The group offers excellent Shopper’s Guides with scientifically based recommendations on choosing healthy consumer products (from cosmetics to cleaning products) and uncontaminated foods (including produce).
    The organization also offers a Healthy Living App with ratings of more than 120,000 food and personal-care products, to help consumers make the healthiest choices.

  • Made Safe A program that certifies safe brands of cosmetics, household products, apparel, bedding, and other products, after a rigorous screening and evaluation of ingredients and materials. Check out their new Healthy Pregnancy Guide.

  • National Resources Defense Council An organization that works to safeguard the earth, including its air, water, people, plants, and animals, from pollution, chemicals, and other toxic effects.

  • Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment Under the auspices of the University of California, San Francisco, this program offers valuable resources that can help minimize people’s exposure to reproductive toxins in everyday life.

  • Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families A coalition of organizations and businesses working to safeguard families from toxic chemicals in our homes, workplaces, schools, and in the products we use.

  • Safer Made An organization that invests in companies and technologies that eliminate the use of hazardous chemicals in consumer products and supply chains. Its newsletters highlight developments in phasing out certain chemicals and progress on other environmental issues.

  • Silent Spring Institute A scientific research organization dedicated to uncovering the links between environmental chemicals and human health.
    On the preventive front, the organization developed Detox Me, a free mobile app to help consumers reduce their exposure to toxic chemicals in their everyday surroundings.

  • Toxic Free Future An organization that conducts original research on the complex science underlying different aspects of environmental health and advocates for the use of safer products, chemicals, and practices to ensure a healthier future.

  • Clearya A browser plug-in and mobile app that help online shoppers make informed choices. Clearya automatically screens ingredient lists for chemicals of concern while shopping online, and assists in discovering safer alternatives. In parallel, the platform mines insights that serve environmental health scientists and advocacy groups.

To read more about the harmful environmental exposures discussed in Count Down, we recommend:

  • Silent Spring (1962) by Rachel Carson explores the damage inflicted by synthetic pesticides, especially DDT, not only on insects but also on bird and fish populations and even children. This revolutionary book kick-started the environmental movement and led to a ban on DDT.

  • Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival? A Scientific Detective Story (1996) by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers is also a classic in the field. It ultimately influenced government policy and helped foster the development of a research and regulatory agenda within the US Environmental Protection Agency.

  • Slow Death by Rubber Duck: How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects Our Health (2009) by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie offers a down-to-earth and often amusing look at how everyday living creates a chemical soup inside each of us— and what we can do to minimize our exposures.

  • Better Safe Than Sorry: How Consumers Navigate Exposure to Everyday Toxics (2018) by Norah MacKendrick provides insights into the chemical exposures we face daily, the policies and regulations that surround them, and how consumers can try to avoid them.

  • The Obesogen Effect: Why We Eat Less and Exercise More but Still Struggle to Lose Weight (2018) by Bruce Blumberg is about obesogens, chemicals that disrupt our hormonal systems and alter how we create and store body fat. The book explores how these chemicals work, where they are found, and practical steps we can take to reduce our exposure.

  • Non-Toxic: Guide to Living Healthy in a Chemical World (2020). By Aly Cohen and Fred Vom Saal. A reliable resource for environmental health information, designed to inform the general public on a variety of environmental health topics (chemicals, EMF radiation, medications, stress eg.) to reduce harmful exposures, and help to prevent and manage both acute and chronic health conditions.