Additional ELF Victories

We believe in protecting the environment, protecting communities, and protecting consumers against harmful toxics. Our work consistently improves environmental quality for those most at risk by providing access to information, strategies and enforcement of environmental, toxics, and community right-to-know laws.  

Protecting the Environment
Through enforcement of federal laws requiring companies to disclose their use of toxic chemicals, ELF achieved a settlement with a Bay Area manufacturer of plastic bags in which the manufacturer agreed to use recycled materials in their products.

ELF provided support and research assistance to Citizens for a Healthy Ukiah in the grassroots group's battle to prevent the largest air polluter in Mendocino County from covering up its air pollution emissions as "trade secrets."

Protecting Communities 
Illegal trucking operations threatened the health of a Latino community by kicking up asbestos-laden soil and dust. On behalf of a local citizens' group, Organizacion de la Communidad de Alviso, ELF filed a class action suit which led to a landmark settlement in September 1994, providing $1.1 million to establish a community fund for medical monitoring, personal injury, property damage and abatement activities.

ELF assisted the Clean Air Alternative Coalition, a West Oakland community organization, in a civil rights challenge to a proposed freeway in an African American neighborhood. The defendants agreed in settlement to a number of measures to mitigate the freeway's harm to the community both during construction and after.

ELF brought an action against a manufacturer for firing a Latina worker for complaining about workplace safety conditions. The company agreed to pay damages and to take action to insure that it was in full compliance with Proposition 65's warning requirements regarding workplace safety for all workers.

ELF filed suit against Stanford University to reduce, and require warnings of, the threat from lead paint exposure to children in a family housing complex. The university agreed to provide warnings and information to parents, launch an inspection program and to address paint damage complaints, and provide free semi-annual blood tests to children under six.
 
Protecting Consumers 
In conjunction with the Natural Resources Defense Council and the California Attorney General, ELF secured a precedential settlement with major faucet manufacturers to phase out the use of lead-based alloys in their products and provided warnings concerning those products' tendency to leach lead into drinking water.

ELF achieved a settlement with major refrigerator manufacturers requiring warnings concerning use of ozone-depleting chemicals.

ELF secured the first-ever settlement requiring dentists to warn patients about mercury exposure from "silver" dental filings. ELF also, in conjunction with the California Attorney General, achieved a significant appellate ruling holding that Proposition 65's warning requirements must be applied to dental filings.