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2025 brings a new year, a new Trump administration — and with it — new challenges. We at Center for Environmental Health (CEH) know how important it is that we remain steadfast in our mission to protect public health and support decision-makers by leading science-backed approaches that center on prevention and remedy environmental injustice.

Let’s look back at seven strategies we used during the first Trump administration that will inform our work to protect our air, water, soil, and food during this one.

1. Uncover what the Trump administration doesn’t want you to see

We made it our duty to uncover any scientific information that the Trump administration was trying to hide. We called out Critical Reviews in Toxicology for publishing a supplemental issue featuring five articles downplaying the World Health Organization’s assessment that glyphosate — the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup — is a probable carcinogen. Critical Reviews in Toxicology issued a rare Expressions of Concern notice to disclose these conflicts-of-interest in part as a result of our outcry.

Thousands of leaked emails from Trump’s EPA reveal that the agency was trying to suppress another study from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) because the agency suspected publishing the results would lead to a “PR nightmare”. This study found that HHS’ previous recommended limit for safe PFAS consumption was potentially 10 times too high! Our research concurred with that finding, so it was especially disappointing to see HHS side with chemical companies over public health and safety. We collaborated with more than 50 like-minded groups to demand that HHS release the study, which the agency eventually did.

When 54 PFAS chemicals were found in human blood, drinking water, groundwater, soil, air, and locally produced food in the Cape Fear area in North Carolina, CEH joined grassroots groups in North Carolina to protect public health and the environment from these “forever chemicals.” We petitioned EPA to require The Chemours Company to fund comprehensive health and environmental testing on the 54 PFAS chemicals that the chemical company produces there. We even released a short film called Cape Fear Courage to get the word out about this dangerous situation in North Carolina.

2. Stop foxes from guarding the hen house

It’s no secret that industry executives and lobbyists wield a massive conflict-of-interest when put in charge of the government agencies that are supposed to keep us safe. We spoke out when Big Tobacco and chemical lobbyist Michael Dourson was nominated by President Trump to run the toxics program at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which succeeded in pushing Trump to withdraw Dourson’s nomination six months later. CEH also pushed back against chemical industry lobbyist Nancy Beck from leading the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which stalled after key Senators opposed her nomination, and called for Scott Pruitt to resign as EPA administrator after numerous corruption scandals which led to his downfall.

3. Amplify resistance efforts

The resistance efforts we saw from ally organizations and partners were so inspiring, we were proud to join the efforts and amplify them. We partnered with the People’s Climate March, stood with the indigenous tribes in opposing the Dakota Access pipeline, and hosted environmental lawyer Rob Bilott for a grassroots activism roundtable on protecting the public from PFAS.

4. Release guides to get you through four years of limited federal oversight

The first Trump administration was not a time of great government oversight and protections, to say the least. Less federal oversight makes the independent testing, reports, and guides that CEH releases even more important as we try to stay safe from exposure to toxic chemicals for the next four years.

We conducted a lot of independent testing during the first Trump administration. We left no stone unturned. We tested car seats. We even tested the carpets. We released a public and environmental health report on the dangers of PVC pipes.

Without science-based leadership in FDA and USDA, we’re especially cautious about what we (and our kids) put in our bodies. Our Consumer Protection team’s testing identified 90% of canned goods at ethnic grocery stores contained BPA, compared to just 40% of cans at mainstream grocers. After we found arsenic in popular bottled water brands, we worked with the purveyors in hopes of creating a legally-binding standard to protect consumers.

Our Consumer Protection team’s testing also found high levels of cancer-causing acrylamide in the Disney brand animal crackers sold at Walgreens. We filed a lawsuit with Disney’s cookie source which resulted in cookie maker Specialties reformulating their cracker recipe. We released a report that found the carcinogenic weedkiller glyphosate in 70% of oat-based breakfast cereals served as a part of school breakfasts across the country.

But our favorite campaign? We’ll never forget our collaboration with Lauryn Adams, Mystic, and the Roses in Concrete Kindergarten Warrior Scholars rapping about how easy it is to make nontoxic popcorn the old fashioned way (from kernels) without the PFAS-coated microwave popcorn bags.

5. Push for California protections that benefit the entire country

CEH has been on the lookout to make sure that companies follow Proposition 65 to the letter since its inception. And these benefits don’t just extend to Californians. A new study found evidence that Prop 65 has lowered the level of toxic chemicals in the blood of all Americans, even if you live outside of California! This is because companies often reformulate to make  products safer rather than use a Prop 65 warning, and then roll those safer products out to all markets.

When the federal government isn’t on our side, we shift to a state-specific strategy and duplicate those successes as far and wide as possible. We teamed up with domestic workers to convince California Governor Jerry Brown to pass the groundbreaking Right to Know Act (SB 258), which requires cleaning companies to disclose detailed ingredient information including the name of the fragrances used in the product for the first time. We co-sponsored the Safe Jewelry Act (SB 647) to protect Californians from lead exposure. We also partnered with the California Professional Firefighters Association in co-sponsoring a California bill (AB 2998) restricting flame retardants on mattresses, upholstered furniture, and children’s products.

6. Sue federal agencies to make them do their jobs

Anti-regulatory administrations can certainly cause roadblocks in protecting our health and environment, but they’re still required to follow the law when taken to court. That’s exactly what we do at CEH when the Trump administration has failed to act when required or otherwise violates our nation’s environmental protection and food safety laws.

We joined with our allies to sue the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to force the agency to make a decision on banning seven artificial flavors that have been found to cause cancer. We filed another lawsuit against the FDA to get the dangerous chemical perchlorate out of food packaging because it’s been found to disrupt hormones and endanger the life of pregnant mothers and their babies.

We won our lawsuit against the EPA for failing to protect at least twenty different regions in nine different states from dangerous sulfur dioxide poisoning, as is required by the Clean Air Act. We sent notices to both the EPA and the Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect endangered wildlife and the environment from pesticides which contain the chemical malathion, which has been found to harm 97% of endangered species. We also criticized EPA’s weakening of power plant emissions standards.

We also protected the integrity of NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act) from Trump’s attempts to eviscerate core components of it by granting exemptions of environmental review for many polluting projects, which would cut off one of the public’s best tools to prevent dangerous, short sighted projects.

7. Be the watchdog you want to see in the world

With an uncooperative administration having power in all branches of government, it can be more efficient to campaign directly with companies to create a safer, healthier world. We challenged companies to demand non-toxic furniture from their suppliers and recruited dozens of companies to demand better by signing our purchaser pledge to seek furniture without five hazardous chemicals of concern.

If the industry plants running federal agencies are distracted by corporate conflicts, rest assured that we’ll still be checking products for toxic chemicals. We notified the FDA about the concerning levels of arsenic in infant rice cereals and glyphosate in children’s cereals that are served in schools. We won cleaner air for the Paramount, California community by suing the metal processing company Anaplex Corp, and reaching a settlement that set limits for Anaplex’s emissions and fund air purification systems for the residents. Another CEH lawsuit got the Valley Water Management Company – the single largest operator of unlined oil and wastewater pits in California – to stop discharging toxic oil and gas wastewater discharge into open pits that had been contaminating the groundwater near Bakersfield.

When big companies change their practices for the better, they have the power to make big improvements to our environment. We convinced Lowe’s to commit to phasing out paint strippers containing methylene chloride and N-methylpyrrolidone by 2018, which have been found to have caused more than 60 deaths since 1980, as well as other adverse health impacts for the 2 million Americans exposed to them each year. We also reached a landmark settlement to stop JUUL – the largest e-cigarette manufacturer in the world – to stop marketing e-cigarettes to children.

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