ONLINE: "Radium Girls" and the campaign to #StopForeverChemicals

media release: Erin Brockovich moderates a discussion of the film "Radium Girls" with Lily Tomlin and toxics experts and advocates. They'll discuss the true story behind the film and the campaign to #StopForeverChemicals.

"Radium Girls" tells the true story of 1920s women who exposed a corporate cover up and made a lasting impact on workplace health and safety. Take action to ban & clean up "forever chemicals" past and present!

Why This Matters:

Radium belongs to a broad class of toxic “forever chemicals” that build up in our bodies and don't break down in the environment. Although the radium-based paint used on watch dials in the film was banned in the United States in the 1960s, a number of radium-contaminated industrial sites still require cleanup today.

Modern “forever chemicals” like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are still widely used in household products like non-stick skillets and food packaging and pose a significant threat to our health and environment. These chemicals have also been found in unsafe levels in water supplies across the nation. Women often face a higher degree of danger and pay a higher price due to their exposure to forever chemicals like PFAS, and exposures during pregnancy cause life-long impairment.

To address this crisis, the EPA must step in to ban the continued use of these toxic forever chemicals, require polluters to fund cleanup of contaminated sites, and ensure disposal of PFAS chemicals does not further endanger our air and water.

While there is growing bipartisan support for cleanup and regulation of PFAS, meaningful progress has been stalled by the Trump administration. As the Biden administration examines its regulatory priorities, cleanup and regulation of forever chemicals past and present must be a priority.

Call on the head of President Biden's EPA to clean up forever chemical contaminated sites and ban toxic forever chemicals like PFAS still in wide use today.