Editor’s Note: Author David Steinman recently discussed his new book and citizen enforcement of environmental laws on Earth911’s Sustainability In Your Ear podcast. We asked him to explain how Americans can take companies and governments to court to prevent harmful chemicals from damaging nature and human health.

If I were to tell you what it is I do, I would say writer, journalist, antitoxic activist, parent—and citizen enforcer.  I’ve taken on some of the biggest brands and corporations in the country as a citizen enforcer and won court cases against them using available laws in both California and the District of Columbia.

As I share in my new book, Raising Healthy Kids: Protecting Your Children from Hidden Chemical Toxins, I successfully sued Procter & Gamble when I discovered exorbitant amounts of the carcinogen 1,4-dioxane in their Herbal Essences and Pantene shampoos, winning a consent judgement that the court approved to reduce or eliminate the chemical. That was more than a decade ago, and I’ve been taking on big corporations ever since.

After winning that case, I formed the nonprofit Chemical Toxin Working Group (CTWG) to advance my work in this unique but critical area of the law and consumer rights.

Since that time, I have used the California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, which the state’s voters passed in 1986 with nearly two-thirds of the popular vote. CTWG has filed more than 200 notices of violation, a requirement of the law, before going to court or settling before litigation. The point of the law is to empower consumers. It requires that companies alert consumers when reproductive toxins or carcinogens are found in products at harmful amounts with clear label information. If I test products and find high amounts and can prove they are harmful to consumers and society, the law allows citizens to enforce its regulations.

You Can Join The Battle

This is so empowering and places an awesome responsibility on individual citizens who use the law to do their civic duty. Most of the cases, in fact, that are brought under this California law are done by citizen enforcers. I know that I take the work seriously and bring only strong cases that we can win in the courts.

But it’s vital that the law be enforced. With such information, consumers can make informed choices and use their shopping dollars to vote for the change they would like to see.

The law has also made products such as Herbal Essences and Pantene safer for everyone since changes in California are often reflected nationwide.

The CTWG has won cases against companies like Bumble Bee, Chicken of the Sea, Kroger, and Walmart to require prominent label disclosures of hidden chemical toxins that shoppers have a right to know about.

In Washington, D.C., our group has used the Consumer Procedures Protection Act (CPPA), successfully stopping false advertising that personal-care products are free from phthalates. This victory came after our testing revealed the presence of these troubling reproductive and developmental toxins in personal-care products.

The importance of citizen enforcement in our legal system cannot be overemphasized. State and federal governments are often overwhelmed by the sheer amount of illegal toxic and so short staffed that there is little or nothing they can do. At other times, public officials may even be lax in their willingness to enforce environmental laws.

But we don’t need to feel helpless.  I gained the courage to try to find an attorney who would do the work on contingency and help me to win in court. The first win was intoxicating. You can do this too. It takes perseverance and an attorney who knows the law in your state.

Citizens, Charge Into The Breach!

 I’ve seen plenty of success stories.

Sharon C. Lavigne, of Rise St. James, in Cancer Alley, Louisiana, the highly industrialized corridor of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, has used citizen enforcement laws to require that state agencies do their job and protect citizens from the proposed Formosa plastics plant planned for her parish.

Michael Hickey, of Hoosick Falls, used the law to take on polluters in his his hometown for their harmful discharges of cancer-causing forever chemicals into their public water supplies.

Stephanie Mero, a hairdresser in Orlando, Florida, formed a Devacurl users group on Facebook that has more than 60,000 members, many of whom reported a variety of scalp and skin injuries and fertility issues they associated with their use of the products (which contain quaternium compounds associated with infertility). Her group was instrumental in bringing together users and the success of a class-action lawsuit filed against the company.

In fact, 16 states empower citizens to enforce state environmental laws. Among the most powerful laws is the Michigan Environmental Protection Act, passed in 1969, which authorizes any person to bring an action “for the protection of the air, water, and other natural resources and the public trust in these resources from pollution, impairment, or destruction.”

South Dakota, Minnesota, and Nevada have very similar laws. Ten state residents must join as the plaintiff in Massachusetts.  The Louisiana Environmental Quality Act allows citizens to enforce nearly any aspect of state environmental law. 

Health and environmental regulations work better when citizens are able to enforce the law.

Some 75 percent of the reported civil environmental cases are the result of citizen suits, notes Natural Resources & Environment. The average number of annual citizen actions is around 770 annually.

Do Your Part In Your Community

Democracy works best when we take advantage of everybody’s unique talents and specialties to provide opportunities for them to participate in the civic life of the nation.

But we need more citizen enforcers whether they are river keepers, part of the bay watch,  or simply the neighborhood toxic watch.

Often, if you are unsure of how to start, you can find help from your local environmental organization. The Sierra Club, EarthJustice, and Natural Resources Defense Council are a few of the national organizations that work with local neighborhood communities on legal issues involving environmental justice. They will listen to your story. They are there to help.

I reached out to an attorney who listened and believed in my first case. You can also, and find help from legal experts who share your concerns and are as vitally interested in our future as you are.

About the Author

David Steinman’s new book Raising Healthy Kids: Protecting Your Children from Hidden Chemical Toxins (Skyhorse Publishing, June 2024) is available from your local independent bookseller, Powell’s Books, or at Amazon.com.