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Building Alignment for Greater Impact

What we do

Safer States convenes state, local, and national allies to work collaboratively on policy and market actions that will lead the transition to safer chemicals and materials, ensuring a healthier future for everyone. We bring allies together to identify strategic opportunities and facilitate the identification of a shared agenda and aligned actions. As part of this collaborative approach, we work with our allies such as Alaska Community Action on Toxics, Clean Cape Fear, and others, to ensure that the voices and perspectives of impacted communities are not only heard but also distinctly considered in shaping the path forward.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

– African Proverb

How Our Strategic Alignment Yields Success

Examples

PFAS in Food Packaging

In 2017, the Safer States Alliance took leadership in addressing the PFAS crisis. By uniting state advocates, affected communities, health scientists, and national groups, Safer States aligned our focus towards the use of these toxic chemicals in food packaging. Our collaborative engagement has yielded substantial results, with twelve states adopting restrictions on PFAS in food packaging and multiple retailers phasing out PFAS from food packaging. This success story stands as a testament to Safer States’ ability to bring allies together, address PFAS concerns, and effectively guide market shifts away from these toxic chemicals.  

Toxic Flame Retardants in Consumer Products

Safer States took a proactive role by bringing together state advocates, corporate campaigners, affected communities, health scientists, firefighters and national groups to eliminate the unnecessary use of toxic flame retardants, particularly in furniture, children’s products and electronic casings. This led to several states enacting policies which in turn yielded transformative results in the marketplace and ultimately federal policy for furniture. Now, consumers have access to a wide range of furniture and children’s products that are free of toxic flame retardants.