Our values call us to include, value, and protect those most vulnerable in our city.  The lead in our soils, the asbestos in our schools, the particulates in our air, and the toxic chemicals on our public grounds represent disproportionate, dire threats to the health and wellbeing of Black Philadelphians. These threats are more insidious in that they are largely invisible, and effects can take years to become apparent, but they are real.
Toxic Free Philly has come together to address environmental poisons in our city.  We have been focusing our efforts on eliminating toxic synthetic pesticides from our public lands. Through our work we have begun collaborating with community groups and joining forces with coalitions to address systemic racism and environmental justice.  We support a fair and just Philadelphia budget that redistributes funds away from the police and prison systems and toward vital institutions such as the school district, public parks, and public health initiatives.

Philadelphia will join over 100 US cities, including NYC, in severely restricting the use of toxic herbicides on all City grounds, including parks, right of ways, playgrounds, and recreation centers.

Protect pets and wildlife: Toxic, synthetic pesticides are also harmful to pets, wildlife, soil microbiology, plants, and natural ecosystems, including honeybees and other pollinators. Less than 0.1% of pesticides applied for pest control reach their target pests. This means that more than 99.9% of pesticides used move into the environment, where they adversely affect public health and beneficial biota, and contaminate soil, water, and the atmosphere of the ecosystem.

Safe, cost-effective alternatives exist: The use of synthetic pesticides is not necessary, and are often counterproductive, to creating and maintaining healthy, high functional, and biodiverse landscapes and habitats given the viability of organic land management practices.

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New information: Every week new information is added to the already significant evidence that exposure to synthetic pesticides is linked to asthma, cancer, developmental and learning disabilities, nerve and immune system damage, liver and kidney damage, reproductive impairment, birth defects, and disruption of the endocrine system.
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Children are the most vulnerable: Infants, children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems and chemical sensitivities are especially vulnerable.

Protect city employees: Our public employees and sub contractors also have the right to a safe work environment and shouldn’t be exposed to synthetic toxic pesticides. In the last two years, over $2 billion has been awarded against pesticide manufacturers for causing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma to people who applied synthetic pesticides.

In Philadelphia, at least 18 toxic herbicides are applied to public grounds, including glyphosate, the primary ingredient in Roundup, and 2,4-D, one of the two active ingredients in Agent Orange. This is unacceptable, and completely unnecessary, given the wealth of cost-effective non-toxic solutions that are available.

Our mission and vision

MAP of US Pesticide Reform Policies

Toxic Free Philly is a growing coalition of concerned Philadelphia residents, visitors, and neighbors. We advocate for all Philadelphia public grounds to be safe, healthy, and thriving habitats for residents and wildlife alike. Our approach is to bring together public health experts, community leaders, business interests, the urban agriculture community, lawyers and local government to work to protect public health and restore environmental quality.
Our short term goals include an ordinance severely restricting the use of harmful, synthetic herbicides, particularly glyphosate and 2,4-D, on city grounds. We are currently arranging a collaboration around a pilot park program that will transition two public parks to organic management protocols.
Our long term goal is to pass robust legislation in Philadelphia severely restricting the application of all harmful, synthetic pesticides on city grounds, including toxic insecticides, fungicides, and rodenticides, and replacing the toxic paradigm with organic land management protocols.  

New Federal Legislation introduced to ban some pesticides and suspend use of 85 others

"THE EVIDENCE IS OVERWHELMING"

Why we are concerned, and why you should be, too.

Are pesticides really so bad?