TOXIC FREE PHILLY
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  • What you can do
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  • HOPS Documents
  • Home
  • Why Toxic Free?
  • What you can do
  • Organic Lands
  • Updates
  • Contact
  • HOPS Documents

NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS to serve on HOPS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Are you an expert in Organic Land Management, the occupational hazards of pesticide use, and/or environmental justice? Serve on the Public Health Department's inaugural HOPS Committee to enforce one of the most progressive pesticide laws in the country.  Read more

Breaking news: Supreme Court rejects Bayer's appeal over RoundUp cases, leaving $25 million jury settlement intact
and: Court Orders EPA to reassess Glyphosate status, citing insufficient evidence for its "not harmful" determination

Philly status: as of January 28th, 2021, Healthy Outdoor Public Spaces (HOPS) has officially been enacted into law.
However, the Kenney Administration has so far refused to enforce on grounds overseen by Parks and Rec, shirking their duty to follow the law and protect public health. Toxic Free Philly is working to right this, but you can help.
THE FUTURE IS ORGANIC.
FINAL HOPS Bill
PRESS: HOPS passes unanimously
Passage of HOPS bill: City Council
POISON PARKS: The Black Institute
“Communities of color, particularly young children, that rely on public spaces for their recreation are  disproportionately affected by the use of this toxic chemical and pesticides more broadly. There needs to  be a sense of urgency in realizing that by not supporting this bill, our policy makers are putting our  children at risk of being exposed to harmful chemicals.”
​-Bertha Lewis, Founder and Executive Director, The Black Institute
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.

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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, neighbors, and organizations. 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?
In partnership with: 

PHILADELPHIA
One Art Community Center
bioPhilly

City Parks Association
​District 1199c Training Fund
​Friends of Fernhill Park
Friends of Manatawna Farm

Friends of Vernon Park
​Northwest Philly Climate Action Network

​Our City, Our Schools Coalition
​PhilaPOSH

​Soil Generation
Temple Environmental Law Society
Toxic Free Philly Drexel University
Weaver's Way Co-op

STATE/REGIONAL
The Black Institute
Clean Air Council
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Clean Water Action
​Delaware Riverkeeper Network

PennEnvironment
PennFuture
PennPIRG
NATIONAL
​Beyond Pesticides
​Humane Society of the United States
​Non-Toxic Communities
Physicians for Social Responsibility
​Rodale Institute
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Photo used under Creative Commons from Verde River