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In January 2005, FACT joined with the Jenifer Altman and Kapor
Foundations in commissioning a report outlining a strategy for
bringing the labor and the environmental sectors together to “reframe”
homeland security as a progressive value by using it to address
a long-standing issue that pre-dates 9/11, known as “chemical
security.”
Chemical security refers to the effort to phase out widely used
and frequently mishandled industrial chemicals that pose an existing
threat to the health and safety of workers and the general public.
That ongoing danger is only exacerbated by potential terrorist
attacks on chemical facilities, which could further expose millions
of Americans to lethal levels of these toxic chemicals.
There are 15,000 chemical facilities in 50 states that must report
their worst-case chemical disaster scenarios to the EPA. Of these,
almost 8,000 pose a so-called “off-site consequence”
to at least 1,000 people, and more than 100 plants could harm
potentially a million or more. Each of these facilities represents
an opportunity not only for a potentially devastating terrorist
attack, but also evidence that the White House and chemical industry
are asleep at the wheel, and the consequent need for cross-sector
“blue-green” collaboration, organizing, and activism.
Although there are currently a few local and state campaigns on
chemical security, the majority of efforts to date have been through
a national legislative effort coordinated between DC-based environmental
groups and the leadership of some international unions. Although
this has garnered the attention of the news media and Congress,
the environmental groups involved acknowledge that they lack a
strong grassroots component. A coordinated labor-environmental
campaign can achieve real community mobilization at the local
and state levels.
The report, “Potential Labor and Environmental Health Advocate
Collaboration,” was released in July 2005 and outlined a
number of funding recommendations for interested foundations.
In 2006, the Chemical Security Initiative will bring together
organized labor and environmental health advocates to begin to
build a multi-layered, collaborative campaign at the local, state,
and national levels that would complement existing strategies
and collaborations to phase out chemicals that pose a danger to
the general public and workers. |
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