How a Day of Advocacy Led to Action for Kids’ Environmental Health

Far too many kids in California face daily threats from the air they breathe, the water they drink, and the extreme weather impacting the neighborhoods they call home. From lead swallowed through their drinking water to pesticides used in fields close to their schools, from the smoke of wildfires to dangerous heat islands in their crowded communities, many kids grow up surrounded by environmental hazards that put their health and futures at risk. This is especially true for kids of color and those in low-income communities, due to historic and ongoing injustice in the location of polluting industries in their neighborhoods. Protecting kids from these threats is therefore essential to ensuring they have the opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive in safe and healthy environments. 

While California is in some ways a leader on environmental policy, the state has done much too little to guarantee these safe environments for kids. So this August, the California Alliance for Children’s Environmental Health (CACEH) led a Children’s Environmental Health Advocacy Day, calling on our state leaders to act and move our kids closer to those healthy futures. 

Organized by CalPIRG and coordinated with Children Now and nine other CACEH organizations, teams of advocates joined forces at the Capitol and met with lawmakers individually for conversations on how environmental toxins are negatively impacting kids and the steps they can take to help. With five environmentally-focused bills being debated in the CA legislature targeting toxic chemicals in cookware and cleaning products, extreme heat in housing, heavy metals in prenatal vitamins, and more (see full list below) they educated and demanded action from a wide variety of legislators and staff. These advocates included long-time Capitol lobbyists teaming up with young adults and young kids with their parents, all working to help protect the next generation from harmful toxins. And the conversations with legislators were fruitful and engaging, especially those focused on removing ultra-processed foods from school meals, where there was engagement from legislators of all stripes about why kids need to have access to nutritious and healthy food. 

The decision to meet with legislators in late August was purposeful. Just days after, they were tasked with deciding which bills moved forward out of the Appropriations Committee, which has notoriously been a graveyard for many worthy pieces of legislation. But with the importance of kids’ environmental health fresh in their minds, legislators pushed all five bills prioritized for discussion on Children’s Environmental Health Advocacy Day out of Appropriations, as well as the Legislature as a whole.  

The fate of all five bills now falls to the Governor, who will decide whether to sign or veto them by October 13. Children Now and our fellow advocates from Children’s Environmental Health Advocacy Day will persistently call on the Governor to sign every bill (join us by calling on the Governor here!), while continuing conversations with the legislators who helped push them this far. And when the final decisions are made, it is our hope that kids across California can celebrate Children’s Environmental Health Month this October with less environmental threats putting their health at risk and safer schools and communities to grow up in. 

Learn more about the work the California Alliance for Children’s Environmental Health (CACEH) is doing here, and how California can improve kids’ health through environmental justice here.