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Children and toxics don't mix. We understand your concerns and want to answer any questions you may have about keeping your children safe from lead in candy, including:

Facts about candy with lead
Why might lead be present in candy?
What are symptoms of lead poisoning in children?
Where can I find a list of candies that have been tested for lead?
Should I discuss lead in candies with my healthcare provider?
What is being done about lead in candy?
More questions, more information

Candy 7

Facts about candy with lead:

  • Lead has been found in some chili and tamarind candy and some candy wrappers
  • Lead damages children's brains and causes irreversible development problems
  • It is against the law to sell candy that has more than .1ppm lead in California

Why might lead be present in candy?
Some candies brought into the United States may contain lead, coming from lead-containing inks found in wrappers, unwashed chilis or acidic, lead-laden spices (tamarind, chili powder and paprika, to name a few).

What are symptoms of lead poisoning in children?
Children can be poisoned by lead without looking or acting sick. As a result, lead poisoning may go unrecognized. A blood-lead test is the best way to determine the diagnosis of lead poisoning.

Potential signs and symptoms of lead poisoning in children include:

  • Learning disabilities
  • Reduced IQ
  • Hyperactivity
  • Aggressiveness 

Click here to learn more about lead-poisoning in children. 

Where can I find a list of candies that have been tested for lead?
You can find a list of candies that have been tested for lead here. You may contact the California Department of Public Health for more information.

Patients and families should be well informed before ingesting any candy. A blood-lead level test is the most readily available method to evaluate lead exposure. 

Should I discuss lead in candy with my healthcare provider?

Yes. Many cases of childhood lead poisoning occur in children under the age of six from sources other than candy, such as lead-based paint, paint chips, dust, dirt and/or glazed pottery. Such exposures are normally augmented by hand-to-mouth behavior during normal child development. Environmental Health Coalition recommends testing children once a year until age six.

Candies are likely to be ingested well beyond the recommended ages for screening, however. As a result, many cases of lead poisoning in older children, pre-teens, and adolescents may be missed. If this is a concern for you, ask your healthcare provider about a blood-lead test.

What is being done about lead in candy?

  • Environmental Health Coalition advocated for years to enact a California law that removes lead from candy by requiring frequent lead-level testing and a change in candy manufacturing processes
  • The California Food and Drug Branch continually monitors candies for traces of lead
  • Manufacturers are regularly audited to ensure safe production of candies
  • Standards are being raised statewide: to be certified as lead free in California, companies must have their candy tested for lead and checked by an independent food quality auditor
  • When lead is found in candy, a recall warning is sent out by the California State Health Department. Get more information here. 

I still have questions.

You can find more answers to your concerns about lead in candy here.

If your question was not answered, you have several options.

  • Call or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Environmental Health Coalition - (619) 474-0220
  • Contact your County Lead Prevention Program: Find your local prevention program here
  • Contact the California Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch:
    • 850 Marina Bay Parkway, Building P, Third Floor, Richmond, CA 94804
    • (510) 620-5600

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Category: Toxic-Free Neighborhoods

Thank you for being a part of Creating Healthy Neighborhoods: Community Planning to Overcome Injustice.

The 20-minute video below (in both English and Spanish) illustrates seven steps to fight for environmental justice through community-engaged planning.

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods explores the interconnectedness of issues facing communities and uses real-life examples and case studies to show how real people can become advocates and activists for social and environmental justice in seven steps:

Step One: Identify the Problem
Step Two: Build Power
Step Three: Develop Strategy
Step Four: Develop Core Community Principles
Step Five: Develop the Community Vision
Step Six: Organize and Advocate to Win
Step Seven: Achieve the Vision

To begin your introduction to our community-proven, seven-step process, watch the full Creating Healthy Neighborhoods video and download our leadership training below.

The movie is available for download, or you can purchase a copy of the DVD in English and Spanish.


SESSION 1

SESSION 2

SESSION 3

SESSION 4

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods - English (Download Here)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods - Español (Descargar Aqui)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Category: Toxic-Free Neighborhoods

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods: Community Planning to Overcome Injustice

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods explores the interconnectedness of issues facing communities and uses real-life examples and case studies to show how real people can become advocates and activists for social and environmental justice.

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods Trailer - English 

 

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods Trailer - Español

 

Environmental Health Coalition announces a free curriculum and video-learning tool, Creating Healthy Neighborhoods. This inspirational toolkit empowers real people to become leaders for health and justice in their communities, just the way EHC community members have.

The 20-minute full video shows the impacts of toxic pollution and discriminatory land use policies in ways that anyone can understand, empowering everyone to become involved in planning and policymaking. It illustrates seven steps to fight for environmental justice through community-engaged planning. Use this knowledge to gain a fuller understanding of land-use planning – and take action to create healthier, more vibrant and livable communities where you live.

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Category: Border Environmental Justice

 

Jovenes

"Jóvenes Pro Justicia Ambiental" es parte del Colectivo Chilpancingo Pro Justicia Ambiental y un proyecto de Environmental Health Coalition.

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Está conformado por más de 20 jóvenes de entre ocho y 19 años de edad que además de aprender a organizar y sobre temas que afectan su calidad de vida se encargan de desarrollar herramientas y crear vínculos con la comunidad para apoyar las campañas de trabajo del Colectivo Chilpancingo Pro Justicia Ambiental.

Algunos ejemplos de los materiales que han desarrollado son cuatro libros para colorear con la información de las campañas de Environmental Health Colalition. El Grupo de Jóvenes también elaboró dos cómics, el primero, "La historia de mi colonia", cuenta la lucha de la comunidad para limpiar Metales y Derivados. El segundo, "Queremos Aire Limpio" explica el problema de contaminación por el paso de camiones de carga pesada por la comunidad y las posibles soluciones para mejorar esta situación.

Contactar Jóvenes Pro Justicia Ambiental en Facebook 

Details
Category: Leadership Development

Welcome to Environmental Health Coalition's SALTA Community Leadership Training Program. This page has everything you need to learn about SALTA, create a registration account to download the curriculum and log in to return for more downloads and to provide feedback.

What is SALTA?
What is the SALTA approach?
What are the SALTA sessions?
How can my organization use SALTA?

WHAT IS SALTA?

SALTA (Salud Ambiental Lideres Tomando Accion – Environmental Health, Leaders Taking Action) is a web-based, interactive leadership development curriculum that provides community leaders with skill-building training in community organizing, policy advocacy, building power, community health, environmental justice and effective communication.

SALTA is a key component to ensuring that EHC achieves our core mission. More than education, SALTA is integrated with EHC's organizing and advocacy efforts to achieve environmental and social justice.

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WHAT IS THE SALTA APPROACH?

SALTA programs represent the organic educational efforts of the different campaigns, teams, leaders, and staff that make up EHC and were designed specifically for our leaders based on our local efforts. We began SALTA trainings in 1996, and now more than 2,000 individuals have been trained.

Developed and field tested by EHC staff and leaders during the past 15 years, SALTA uses a popular education approach that makes the training inclusive and accessible to all participants. Trainings are based on the knowledge, skills and real-world experiences of EHC staff, leaders and training participants. 

Popular education, which has varying interpretations, is best defined by the practice where participants share their own understanding and feelings about a specific topic or issue and that understanding and feelings are considered valid. The idea of popular education (often described as "education for critical consciousness") as a teaching methodology came from a Brazilian educator and writer named Paulo Freire, who was writing in the context of literacy education for poor and politically disempowered people in his country. It's different from formal education (in schools, for example) and informal education (learning by living) in that it is a process which aims to empower people who feel marginalized socially and politically to take control of their own learning and to effect social change.

The SALTA sessions improve participants' sense of belonging to a community as participants and stakeholders of their societies. They begin to see themselves as empowered members who can make change.

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What are the SALTA sessions?

Click the sessions below to learn more.

SALTA leadershipSALTA leadership training environmental justiceSALTA leadership training environmental health 1SALTA leadership training environmental health 2SALTA leadership training change the power structureSALTA leadership training messaging for social changeSALTA leadership training organizing sessionSALTA leadership training advocacySALTA leadership training land use and leadership

Leadership

Social change relies on leaders who act to improve conditions for themselves and their communities. In this session participants explore the roles and responsibilities of community leaders working for social and environmental justice.

Environmental Justice

In this session, the concepts of environmental racism and justice are discussed and defined through the lens of the history of the civil rights and environmental justice movements. Participants identify injustices in their neighborhoods and learn about inspiring organizing victories.

Environmental Health I

This session makes the link between pollution and human health in the workplace and community. The basics of the routes of exposure with a focus on childhood lead poisoning are presented.

Environmental Health II

Building on the Environmental Health I session, here the problem of air pollution with focus on diesel and greenhouse gas emissions is presented. Solution-oriented prevention strategies such as pollution prevention, the precautionary principle and cumulative impacts assessment are discussed.

Power

In this session we answer the questions: What is power? How can community organizations build power to make change? Power analysis and EHC’s Social Change for Justice model are presented.

Messaging for Social Change

Participants in this session will learn effective methods of persuading individuals and decision-makers through effective messaging. Use of personal stories is encouraged to inspire trust and hope.

Organizing

The foundation of community organizing is relationship building. In this session participants learn basic organizing skills and how to use them to build on their messaging skills.

Advocacy

Participants learn basic advocacy skills and how to use them to influence policy makers to take actions for environmental and social justice.

Land Use and Leadership

The last session provides a comprehensive review of the program and combines learning to develop a model organizing and advocacy plan. The plan incorporates the Problem/Solution/Action method.

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HOW CAN MY ORGANIZATION USE SALTA?

The main objectives of SALTA are:

  • To develop unity, commitment and shared consciousness on core principles
  • To enhance leader's skills and effectiveness
  • To develop an understanding of all efforts

If these objectives are consistent with your organization's mission and theory of change, SALTA can provide a forum for learning and growing. SALTA training works best when integrated with active campaigns and opportunities to use the skills in the real world.

Each session builds on the prior one. You may use individual activities or sessions as stand alone workshops but be aware that there may be topics covered in prior sessions that are integral to full understanding.

You will find it necessary in some cases to change or adapt some of the information or activities to suit your purposes, communities and local efforts. EHC encourages adaptation for individual needs of non-profits, environmental and social justice organizations, unions and public schools however any for-profit enterprise must first get permission directly from EHC.

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Subcategories

Climate Justice

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Low-income communities of color must lead when it comes to climate solutions. The climate crisis is real, is here, and affects us all, but it hits low-income communities of color first and worst. Environmental Justice (EJ) communities are at the center of the issue and we are the solution.

The Climate Justice Working Group defines climate justice as: “ensuring that the people and communities who are least culpable in the warming of the planet, and most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, do not suffer disproportionately as a result of historical injustice and disinvestment”. Unfortunately, the impacts of climate change are disproportionately felt by low-income communities of color, and it is these same communities who “have been kept out of the global processes to address climate change” (Indigenous Environmental Network, North America).1 As a result, Climate Justice affirms the rights of indigenous people and communities most affected by climate change to lead with the solutions. EJ communities represent and speak for themselves.

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Climate scientists predict significant changes in the San Diego region, like extreme heat, water shortages, drought, increased wild fire intensity and frequency, increased air pollution, sea-level rise and coastal flooding. The effects of climate change hit first and worst in EJ communities such as Barrio Logan, City Heights and National City The effects are magnified because these neighborhoods house the largest sources of pollution and are already burdened by inadequate infrastructure, limited transportation options, and poor economic opportunities.

EHC’s Climate Justice Campaign works to ensure that the residents of Barrio Logan, City Heights and National City are able to speak for themselves and advance climate policies at the local, regional, state levels.

Campaign Core Elements:

1. Start Here, Star Now: An Environmental Justice Assessment of the San Diego Climate Action Plan.
The prioritization of Environmental Justice Communities for climate related investments is key to real climate solutions. When cities advance environmental justice, everyone benefits.
2. Transportation Justice. Transformation of the San Diego region into a mass transit paradise where EJ community residents will not have to own a car to access jobs, go to the doctor, go to school and take care of their basic needs. Mass transit is the way.
3. Energy Democracy. Organizing to ensure investments in renewable energy are achieved for residents of low-income communities of color. Renters want solar too.

1 Indigenous Environmental Network, North America, et al. Bali Principles of Climate Justice (2002) https://www.ejnet.org/ej/bali.pdf

Green Energy

Renters need clean energy too. In San Diego, non EJ communities have more than double the residential solar (40 per 1000 residents) compared to EJ communities (18 per 1000 residents).55 We attribute this discrepancy to a variety of barriers making solar installation difficult to access and afford for all people.

San Diego is a “solar star,” but not for environmental justice communities. According to a 2018 report by Environment California, San Diego has the second most solar power capacity among the 69 cities surveyed. Unfortunately, installed solar power does not extend to EJ communities.

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The map titled Installed Residential KiloWatts of Solar Power, per 1000 Residents, by Zipcode, City of San Diego, 2017 shows the geography of the number of kilowatts installed per 1,000 residents. The table titled Average Number of Solar Installations per 1000 people includes this metric and the average number of installations broken out by EJ communities, City, and non-EJ communities. Both statistics highlight that residential solar power installation in EJ communities is minimal.

A study done by the California Energy Commission identified barriers and recommendations to bridge the clean energy gap for low-income customers and small business contracting opportunities in disadvantaged communities. The structural barriers identified include low home ownership rates, insufficient access to capital, and aged buildings. The report by the California Energy Commission is an excellent guide to inform the implementation of the San Diego CAP.

Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH)

In 2015, the California Environmental Justice Alliance together with the Center for Sustainable Energy, GRID Alternatives, and the Association for Energy Affordability, with the support of EJ allies like Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) secured passage of California Assembly Bill 693. This legislation provides $1 billion to install solar on multifamily affordable homes in disadvantaged communities across the state.

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EHC will build awareness of AB 693 and the need for solar energy in EJ Communities and provide funding application technical support to increase solar deployment on low-income multifamily housing complexes in National City, Barrio Logan, and City Heights, so that they too can benefit from the utility savings from renewable energy and energy efficiency.

What to learn more, support, and get involved:

• Contact Caro This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 619-474-0220 ext 131
• DONATE to EHC

Healthy Kids

Children in our communities deserve healthy homes and communities where they can grow up without exposure to toxic chemicals.

  • Asthma attacks resulting in hospitalizations and emergency room visits are up to three times higher for children living in communities with high levels of air pollution
  • Many homes in low-income communities were built before 1979 and still have lead-based paint
  • More than 15 years ago, parents reported their children getting sick after ingesting candy later found to have high levels of lead

EHC’s Healthy Kids Campaign works to reduce or eliminate environmental childhood health hazards and promote homes and communities that are safe, healthy, accessible and affordable.

Learn more about Children and Toxics, Childhood Lead-Poisoning Prevention and Lead-Free Candy.

Toxic-Free Neighborhoods

Low-income communities of color have long struggled with discriminatory land-use practices that diminish our health, safety, and quality of life.

Toxic mixes of industrial development, freeways, and truck routes are concentrated in low-income neighborhoods alongside homes and schools. At the root of this all-too-common pattern are discriminatory land-use regulations that do not protect the community's health.

The way our neighborhoods are planned– or are allowed to degrade because of lack of planning – determines the levels of air pollution and concentration of toxic industries residents experience. Simultaneously, low-income communities of color experience a lack of affordable housing and limited access to public transit, open space and healthy food. Environmental justice will exist when all neighborhoods are treated equally.

The diligence of our dedicated community leaders has resulted in monumental environmental justice victories. Some of these include:

No one is more entitled to determine the future of a community than the residents themselves. EHC's Social Change for Justice Model embodies this belief. By empowering community members through leadership development, organizing and collective advocacy efforts, residents become community leaders whom we advocate with for healthy communities, healthy homes, and environments that are both safe and clean, working to ultimately achieve social and environmental justice.

Community Land-Use Planning

Under California law, all municipalities are required to complete General Plans that provide a blueprint for a long-range vision for cities. EHC successfully advocated for an Environmental Health and Justice element in the National City General Plan and a buffer zone between polluters and homes/schools in the Chula Vista General Plan – both firsts in the state. State law does not require the completion of community, area and specific plans, but when executed they apply General Plan standards to a specific geographic area to enable communities to determine the density, building height, zoning and amenities for their neighborhoods.

EHC’s community-driven planning efforts have focused on these plans because they offer the opportunity for self-determination for residents and enable residents to be proactive rather than reactive to inappropriate development proposals. The process also represents a holistic strategy for a community to engage in planning. It may allow residents, perhaps for the first time, to envision their community using their values and aspirations, not the developer’s or the city councilmember’s.

EHC currently works on community-driven land-use planning in Barrio Logan, City Heights and Sherman/Logan Heights in the City of San Diego, and in National City.

In each community, the underlying process is the same.

Building Community Power

BarrioLoganCommunityPlanningAuthentic community involvement in every aspect of community planning and visioning leads to better outcomes that respect neighborhoods and their residents. EHC’s core strategies for all our efforts include community organizing and policy advocacy, which we combine with grassroots leadership development, research and communications to implement each strategic plan. To ensure that the community’s voice is heard, EHC employs the following tactics:

  • Community Action Teams
    In each community, EHC establishes a Community Action Team comprising residents trained as EHC leaders. These leaders develop the community vision and priorities that direct our efforts. They serve as spokespersons for the campaign at meetings with elected officials and government agency representatives and on various planning committees established to oversee plan development.
    José Medina, National City resident since 1969 and EHC leader, expressed his hopes for the Old Town National City Specific Plan when he said: “The plan will allow me to see the neighborhood change into something I remember when I was a boy, when a lot of residents were connecting with each other. In the mid-80s it changed for the worse – I saw houses flattened and autobody shops moved in.”
  • Leadership Training— SALTA (Salud Ambiental Líderes Tomando Acción -- Environmental Health, Leaders Taking Action)
    All EHC leaders complete an eight-session Core SALTA training program providing them with skills and knowledge to become effective advocates and community organizers. A five-session mini-SALTA focusing on land use also provides training on redevelopment, zoning, and affordable housing, plus air quality, contaminated site cleanup, reducing industrial pollution, and sustainable building, including green building materials and renewable energy options.

  • Conducting Community Surveys
    EHC Leaders commit to understanding the priorities of their neighbors and representing those needs when developing EHC platforms and positions. They utilize community surveying as a method for collecting and documenting these needs. In National City, for example, leaders surveyed residents and found that the highest priorities included development of affordable housing, relocation of auto body shops and changing zoning to prohibit incompatible mixed-use. These community priorities were incorporated into the community plan.

  • Community Visioning
    Once aware of the impact and importance of community planning EHC leaders in both Barrio Logan and Old Town National City elected to develop their own neighborhood vision. EHC raised funds to employ a land-use planning firm to work with residents to develop detailed plans with zoning changes, volume and affordability levels of new housing units, identification of industries for relocation, park acreage, school requirements and more. Barrio Logan’s community plan—one of the City of San Diego’s oldest—had not been updated since 1978. After years of promises and delays, residents took planning into their own hands. This resulted in the Barrio Logan Vision, now endorsed by over 1,000 area residents, community organizations and local businesses. EHC then secured $1.5 million from a neighboring downtown development agency for the City to update and revise the official Barrio Logan Community Plan, a process starting in early 2008. EHC pushes for the community plan update to be consistent with the Barrio Logan Vision.

    Hilda Valenzuela, EHC leader and Barrio Logan resident, expressed her excitement about the start of the planning process: “I hope with the Community Plan Update process we can resolve the problems sooner – improve affordable housing, have a healthier environment for children and a better place to live.”

Ensure Healthy Neighborhoods

For many years, EHC has promoted pollution prevention and the precautionary principle as the best way to prevent toxic exposure for community residents and workers. Communities subjected to toxic exposure due to discriminatory zoning need to take action to protect themselves and create separation between residential and industrial land uses. They must also ensure that industrial businesses adopt and implement the most up-to-date technology.

  • Buffer Zones
    EHC proposed the Toxic-Free Neighborhoods Ordinance in the City of San Diego in 1990, which would have required a buffer between industries using or emitting hazardous materials and residences, schools, and day care centers. Local polluters spent thousands of dollars lobbying against the ordinance and ultimately defeated it. Without an ordinance, EHC targeted polluters that chronically violated the law. Master Plating fit the bill with over 150 violations on the books. Community organizing efforts compelled the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and local government to take action resulting in Master Plating’s shutdown in 2002. CARB’s monitoring revealed a cancer risk four times higher than a "typical urban area" due to hexavalent chromium emissions. As a result of this local action, CARB developed the Air Quality and Land Use Handbook in 2005 that recommended buffers for many polluters for the first time in state or local regulatory history. The recommended buffer for chrome platers is 1,000 feet. The distance between Master Plating and the house next door was 4 feet. The guidance document also recommends separation of housing and major roadways, which presents difficulties with "transit-oriented development" that may encourage development very near freeways.

    Elvia Martinez, Master Plating’s next door neighbor and EHC leader, said: “This is the way it’s supposed to work…when a community works together to make its neighborhood a better place to live.”

  • Zoning
    Community plans can include zoning ordinances that determine where industrial, commercial and residential areas can be located. "Mixed-use" zoning that allows free uses in the same area plagues Barrio Logan and National City. EHC seeks specific zoning designations in the new community plans that separate industrial areas from residential areas and remove incompatible mixed-use zoning.

  • Polluter Relocation and Removal
    Rules that prohibit new sensitive uses near pollution sources help, but to restore residential neighborhoods and make them healthy places to live, polluters adjacent to homes and schools must be relocated. EHC has pursued several tactics to accomplish this. In National City, the City Council adopted an amortization ordinance that will phase out industries currently allowed to operate near sensitive uses such as schools. The ordinance sets up a process for relocation of prioritized industries when the amortization period is triggered.

Leadership Development

No one knows the struggle of living with toxic pollution like the people who face this challenge every day. “We Speak for Ourselves” is the principle that EHC works to achieve through our leadership development program that ensures that those affected should have the opportunity to raise their own voices and demand change.

Leadership development is critical to achieving success and is a one of EHC’s three primary strategies in our Social Change for Justice Model that enables the power of the base to be directed towards our goals.

EHC Tree

EHC’s signature leadership training, SALTA (Salud Ambiental, Líderes Tomando Acción – Environmental Health, Leaders Taking Action), is provided to all EHC leaders who serve on our Community Action Teams. In 2017, SALTA celebrated its 20th anniversary with more than 2,500 local graduates who have participated. . EHC has now packaged the successful training into a web-based, interactive leadership development curriculum that enables leaders around the globe have the skills and experience necessary to achieve environmental justice in their own communities.

For leaders passionate about transforming their neighborhoods, our Creating Healthy Neighborhoods:Community Planning to Overcome Injustice video and curriculum uses real-life examples and case studies to show how anyone can become advocates and activists for social and environmental justice through community planning.

Border Environmental Justice

Communities on an international border have the great privilege and responsibility of transcending boundaries and merging two cultures into one unique way of life. EHC’s Border Environmental Justice Campaign reduces toxic pollution caused by maquiladora industries in Tijuana and promotes fair trade and globalization for justice.

Our involvement in the border region began in 1983 with the co-sponsorship of an International Environmental Conference in Tijuana. Cross-border relationships continued to grow around a variety of social and environmental justice issues. We formed our Border Environmental Justice Campaign in 1993 with efforts to halt the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, in recognition of the devastation caused by unjust trade along the border.

Our Tijuana Community Action Team, the Colectivo Chilpancingo Pro Justicia Ambiental, inaugurated EHC's office in Colonia Chilpancingo in 2002 to support local residents committed to the struggle for environmental justice in Mexico and along the border.

Watch the videos and read more about EHC's historic successful efforts, including:

Metales y Derivados Toxic Site

leadbundlesWith corporate globalization, trade increased along the U.S.-Mexico border and so did pollution. However, trade agreements like NAFTA fail to hold polluting corporations responsible or to provide resources for environmental protection.

Of the 66 documented toxic waste sites in Mexican border states, the most infamous is Tijuana's Metales y Derivados, a U.S.-owned maquiladora factory that recycled batteries imported from the U.S. The owner, José Kahn, fled across the border when the maquiladora was shut down in 1994 after community reports of health problems and repeated violations of environmental law documented by the Mexican government. Mr. Kahn left behind 23,000 tons of mixed contaminated waste, including 7,000 tons of lead slag, exposed to the elements and threatening workers and families living in the adjacent Tijuana neighborhood of Colonia Chilpancingo.

EHC and the community conducted a campaign for over a decade to compel a cleanup. In 1998, EHC and the community filed a petition with NAFTA's environmental agency, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation.

The commission's report, released in 2002, concluded that the site represented a "grave risk to human health." Yet the commission has no authority or resources to clean up toxic sites. After over a decade of organizing and advocacy, EHC and the community finally celebrated the signing of a landmark cleanup agreement in 2004 with the Mexican government and the formation of a bi-national, community/government working group. The cleanup was completed in 2008, ahead of schedule, and included independent community monitoring. (Download the full cleanup chronology.)

Metales y Derivados is the poster child for the failure of NAFTA to live up to its negotiators' promise to protect public health and the environment. However, Metales y Derivados symbolizes environmental justice achieved. The case established for the first time a structure for cross-border and community/government collaboration on toxic site cleanups.