LDA of Michigan is proud to endorse the Louisville Charter as part of our Healthy Children Project work.
The Louisville Charter is a platform on how to achieve fundamental reform of the chemical industry. It originated in 2004, by many in this network when grassroots organizations and environmental justice leaders from across the nation—representing different communities but sharing common problems—met to define what truly just government policies to protect human health and the environment from exposure to unnecessary harmful chemicals should look like.
We know that there is some populations and communities are disproportionately impacted by neurotoxins and other harmful chemicals, which includes low-income and communities of color. This Charter is a roadmap and highlights how we can achieve proven safe chemicals, to protect the health including children’s brain health and learning potential.
The original Louisville Charter was ratified by the members of the Coming Clean network in 2004, and we recently completed an 8+ month revision process gathering significant input from our network to make sure the document is as comprehensive, powerful, and effective as possible (Tracy/HCP participated in this process). Coming Clean is working to get as much of our membership (which includes LDA national and many state affiliates) signed on as they can for a big a public re-launch of the charter in early December. Coming Clean is asking all members to reaffirm their endorsement of the updated charter, which you can do with the links below.
The charter goes into key focus areas and will eventually have planks that share details on how to:
- Prevent Disproportionate Exposures and Hazards, and Reduce Cumulative Impacts on Environmental Justice Communities (focus on disproportionate chemical hazards and exposures faced by communities of color, Tribes and Native/Indigenous communities, and low-income communities, and that address combined burdens of multiple pollutants, multiple sources, and accumulation over time)
- Require Safer Substitutes and Solutions for a Non-Toxic Economy (so we are not replacing harmful chemicals with chemicals that are still harmful or of unknown safety)
- Use Scientific Data to Support Health-Protective Policies and Practices.
- Take Urgent Action to Stop Production and Recover Chemicals that are Unsafe and/or Accumulate in the Environment and People.
Our endorsement will:
- Help demonstrate unity and broad support for the vision and policy platform
- Encourage elected officials to support and help enact our policy solutions
- Publicly align our organization with diverse allies working toward common goals
- Signal to our members and allies that they should also support the common policy platform