Alaska Community Action on Toxics

We believe everyone has a right to clean air, clean water, and toxic-free food. Driven by a core belief in environmental justice, ACAT empowers communities to eliminate exposure to toxic chemicals through collaborative research, shared science, education, organizing, and advocacy.

Since 1997, Alaska Community Action on Toxics has successfully advanced local, state, and international action to protect Alaskan families from harmful chemical exposures and safeguard our air, water, and food. ACAT helps communities throughout Alaska identify toxic chemicals to which they are being exposed and the health problems associated with those chemicals. ACAT works to phase out chemicals that are persistent, bio-accumulative, and harmful to health and replace them with safe alternatives. ACAT also supports reduction, reuse, and recycling to decrease the detrimental impact of waste disposal. ACAT's organic gardening project helps Alaskans grow food without chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. ACAT works with the Alaska Run for Women to provide information about breast cancer prevention and action women can take to reduce their risks. In recognition of the special vulnerability of children to environmental toxics and the disproportionate exposure of Arctic populations to persistent organic pollutants, children's environmental health is a priority for ACAT. All this converges in our current campaign to eliminate unnecessary uses of plastics, which contain toxic petrochemicals that are a hidden driver of climate change and harm people's health and the oceans. Much of ACAT's scientific research is funded by federal grants, but this money cannot be used for assisting communities to achieve solutions to the environmental injustice of the pollution the research unveils. For that, we need support from Alaskans like you who want to make sure our friends and neighbors are safe from toxic pollution and help build a toxic-free and climate-stable future for Alaska.