ENVIRONMENTAL
The Environmental Justice program works to build healthier communities by addressing issues caused and perpetuated by environmental racism. We work on issues such as the elimination of oil drilling, the reduction of harms associated with plastic pollution, the exposure of toxic chemicals in our personal and hair care products, and more.
Black Women for Wellness’ environmental justice work is split into two main categories:
- Built Environment:
- Eliminating neighborhood oil drilling
- Drinking water equity
- Reducing plastic pollution
- Green social housing
- Beauty Justice:
- Health education and research on toxic chemicals in personal products
- Advocacy around reducing chemical use in products
- Breast health public education
- Occupational health of salon workers
To find out more information about this program, please browse this page and look at the resources and media below. For further detail, and to find out how you can become involved, contact Tianna Shaw-Wakeman, Environmental Justice Program Manager.
Upcoming Events
environmental justice:
built environment
The built environment in Los Angeles hasn’t been designed equitably.
Black and Brown people face more environmental burdens in their neighborhoods, which includes everything from experiencing water quality concerns and worse air quality to the presence of toxic facilities like oil wells.
At BWW, we work to address some of these harms.
- Oil Drilling Elimination. We are proud members of STAND LA, a coalition to bring an end to neighborhood oil drilling. Recently, LA County and LA City voted in favor of phasing out oil drilling across Los Angeles. Now, we are in the midst of making these votes a reality and making sure that community voices are centered in the discussion of what these sites become.
- Water Equity. We work to understand and address our community’s water quality, affordability, and accessibility concerns. If you have any water concerns, please reach out to us. Otherwise, check out our handout about water issues in LA, and about steps you can take to address your water concerns at home!
- Reducing Plastic Pollution. Plastic is everywhere – in cosmetics, our clothes, food and beverage packaging, toys, car parts, and so much more. Plastic is a product of the fossil fuel industry, and the manufacture, use, and disposal of plastic involves significant health harms. People of color and low-income communities are affected the most by this toxic supply chain, and we are working on both health education and advocacy to mitigate these problems. Download our plastics pollution handout to learn more!
DOWNLOAD PDF.
- Green Social Housing. Green social housing is a housing model that aims to ensure permanently affordable and environmentally sustainable housing for residents, and to guarantee residents democratic decision-making power over their homes. As members of the California Green New Deal Coalition, we are working to advocate for community-oriented solutions to the statewide housing crisis.
environmental justice:
beauty justice
Black women are overexposed and underprotected in the world of beauty.
Due to eurocentric beauty standards, poor government regulation, and systemic racism, Black women are sold products with ingredients that are harmful to reproductive and respiratory health. This is called the environmental injustice of beauty, and it is even more severe for beauty industry professionals who work with dangerous ingredients in products everyday. We deserve better!
- We host Curls & Conversations events to shine a light on this issue and to educate about healthy hair.
- We conduct community-based research with partners like Occidental College and Silent Spring Institute to better understand this problem and create solutions.
- We work directly with hairstylists and barbers to advocate on their behalf, listen to, and address health concerns.
- We develop breast health education to promote awareness of the links between toxic beauty products and the breast cancer disparities faced by Black women, and to offer safer beauty tips.
Here are two recent reports that BWW has collaborated on:
Black Hair Care Survey
Download BWW and Occidental College’s report on attitudes surrounding clean beauty in our communities.
Exposed: Ingredients in Salon Products & Salon Worker Health and Safety
- This report spotlights how new ingredient disclosure requirements for professional salon products are providing improved and vital information about chemical exposure from the use of these products. The report reveals over 30 hazardous ingredients in professional salon products that have not been disclosed on product labels – until now!
- Download the report here – a Spanish translation is available also.
- There is also a fact sheet highlighting the toxic chemicals in salon products identified in this report, available in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
Reports:
• Exposed: Ingredients in Salon Products & Salon Worker Health and Safety »
• Fact sheet spotlighting toxic chemicals in salon products identified in this report is available in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
resources for you
Check out these resources to help keep you and your family safe.
johnson and johnson
Black Women for Wellness has led the charge against Johnson & Johnson to force them to stop selling their asbestos-contaminated talc baby powder.
In August 2022, after years of advocacy, Johnson & Johnson announced that they will stop selling their talc-based baby powder globally! Read more here.
A TIMELINE:
- 1970s and beyond: Johnson & Johnson (J&J) sold asbestos-containing talc in its baby powder and targeted Black women in advertising. There is evidence that J&J has been fully aware of the asbestos contamination since the 1970s.
- May 2020: J&J stopped selling the talc-based baby powder in the US – citing a drop in demand. They continued to do so globally.
- Summer 2020: After George Floyd’s murder, J&J put out a statement in solidarity with BLM. In response, BWW sent a letter to the CEO demanding J&J halt global sales of talc-based baby powder. BWW also issued a press release with over 170 supporting organizations.
- Summer 2020: J&J responded to the request with a non-answer.
- August 2021: 200 organizations from 51 countries signed onto a letter written by BWW asking J&J to stop selling its baby powder products globally.
- October 2021: J&J continued to sell and market talc-based baby powder in the U.S. This is shown in a Worldwide Research Brief for Black Women for Wellness.
- February 2022: Despite there being over 38,000 active lawsuits against J&J related to asbestos in their talc-based baby powder, J&J denied wrongdoing and won a court battle to proceed with its plan to shield itself from responsibility and deny thousands of people due process.
- Spring 2022: Black Women for Wellness, Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, Women’s Voices for the Earth, WE Act for Environmental Justice, and Until Justice Data Partners led an effort to push for J&J shareholders to vote in favor of two resolutions – one for them to conduct an internal racial justice audit, and one for them to cease global sales of talc-based baby powder. The first was voted in favor, but the latter was not.
- Spring 2022: This video was banned from being shown to shareholders about J&J’s harms.
- August 2022: J&J announced a plan to stop selling talc-based baby powder globally.
reading materials
Environmental justice reading materials and educational literature.
- Coming Clean policy papers on how to bring about a toxic-free future. Learn More!
- The Intersectional Environmentalist by Leah Thomas
- Dr. Robert Buillard, considered to be the father of Environmental Justice, has many books on the issues at hand. Check them out here!
- Hazel M. Johnson is considered the mother of the environmental justice movement, and spent years researching the links between industrial pollutants and negative health impacts in her Chicago community. Read more about her life and legacy here!
environmental justice videos
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environmental justice media
“How to Live Fashionably Well in a Fast Fashion Society”
Environmental Justice Session with Dr. Astrid Williams and Samata Pattinson.
