The idea that companies could bypass the review is troubling to environmental advocates like Bobbi Wilding, executive director for Clean and Healthy New York. She stressed her concern that the collective memory of decades of environmental cleanup from past industrial mistakes could be fading.

A growing body of scientific research has found links between PFAS exposure and a wide range of health problems including a weaker immune system, cancer, increased cholesterol levels, pregnancy-induced hypertension, liver damage, reduced fertility in men and women, and increased risk of thyroid disease.

“Companies have to show that they don’t cause problems like bacterial growth or changes in the mucus in the vagina,” she said, “but there are no requirements at the FDA level that limit the kind of chemicals that can be present in menstrual products directly.” Bobbi Wilding of the advocacy group Clean and Healthy in New York.

"This pesticide is also known as a PFA chemical which we know as forever chemical and so when you put a forever chemical into a lake that is serving drinking water for people you are directly, ensuring that that kind of chemical could end up in the water that people are consuming," said Bobbi Wilding, Executive Director of Clean + Healthy.

"[The Beauty Justice Bill] would ban PFAS and chemicals that disproportionately harm women of color from being in our personal care products. There are classes of chemicals with complicated sounding names like phthalates and parabens; but also things like heavy metals and formaldehyde. A lot of things that people think are already banned or shouldn't be in there like PFAS and asbestos." Bobbi Wilding, Executive Director Clean + Healthy

For Bobbi Wilding, founder of Clean + Healthy, the collaboration with FCBCure provided an opportunity to more effectively communicate their message, with a partner who shared their evidence-based approach. 

“At Clean + Healthy, we are focused on building a just and healthy world where toxic chemicals are unthinkable,” Wilding says.  “When FCBCure approached us with an arresting campaign messaging idea that aligned with the science, we were excited about that direct overlap in terms of how we approach talking about these issues. What they created is so beautiful. We’re a small nonprofit; so having that kind of focused attention on this campaign is so important.”

Its ban is something advocates like Bobbi Wilding, executive director of New York-based advocacy group Clean and Healthy, said should be a given. “We are behind 50 other countries that have already completely banned asbestos, so it's not like the U.S.  is doing anything crazy or unusual. Most of the world has already come to grips with this being an extremely toxic chemical."

FCBCURE has launched its latest work for Clean + Healthy, an advocacy organisation building a just society in which toxic chemicals are unthinkable. Over their lifetime, people who menstruate will spend up to 84,000 hours actively on their period and use as many as 10,000 products contaminated with toxic chemicals, like formaldehyde, PFAS, lead and mercury. Some of these chemicals are also found in cigarettes, pesticides/insecticides, and even dynamite, and have been shown to contribute to a range of health issues including reproductive challenges, weakened immune system and even cancer. 

“Because of the harm it poses to workers and communities, TCE has no business in today’s industries, and that’s why New York State banned the chemical effective December 2021,” said Bobbi Wilding, Executive Director of Clean+Healthy. “For almost two years, businesses have continued to function without toxic TCE. We are pleased that EPA has followed states like New York in proposing to restrict it. They should finalize the rule promptly to protect the health of everyone across the U.S.”

“These are the forever toxins that are forever transforming our health and safety.,” said Bobbi Wilding, Executive Director of Clean + Healthy and co-lead of the JustGreen Partnership.

“This will actually give parents the information that they need when they’re shopping,” said Bobbi Wilding, executive director of Clean + Healthy.

“They’re put there to make them stain-resistant or water-resistant, but unfortunately, they cause a whole host of problems to our health and to our environment. And so this ban is going to mean that we don’t have to worry about that, we don’t have to worry that when we wash our clothes in the laundry, we’re washing PFAS down the drain and into our drinking water,” said Bobbi Wilding, Executive Director of Clean + Healthy and Co-Chair of the JustGreen Partnership.

"It's causing huge problems down in Long Island and other places that are really dependent on underground aquifers and so getting rid of 1 4 Dioxane in products that get washed right down the drain is incredible logical approach to protecting people when they are using the products but also making sure we're protecting everyone's drinking water supply," said Bobbi Wilding, Executive Director of Clean and Healthy NY.

“Electronic waste is the fastest growing category of municipal solid waste, and simply put, it’s full of toxics. When people can’t easily hire local repair shops to fix their damaged devices, they are often driven to dump their items and buy a new one,” said Bobbi Widling, the executive director of Clean+Healthy, and co-chair of the JustGreen Partnership. “This results in too-frequent disposal of electronic devices that contain lead, PFAS, and bisphenols, all of which leach into the environment.”

“Electronic waste is the fastest growing category of municipal solid waste, and simply put, it’s full of toxics,” said Bobbi Wilding, executive director of Clean+Healthy and co-chair of the JustGreen Partnership.

“When people can’t easily hire local repair shops to fix their damaged devices, they are often driven to dump their item and buy a new one. This results in too-frequent disposal of electronic devices that contain lead, PFAS, and bisphenols, all of which leach into the environment.”

“New York State has a diverse population of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color who use more personal care cosmetics than their white counterparts, especially those that are marketed toward achieving archaic Euro-centric beauty standards,” said Bobbi Wilding, Executive Director of Clean+Healthy, the state’s leading environmental health organization. “…Thank you to Governor Hochul for signing this bill and to Senator Brouk and Assemblymember Reyes for bringing it forward to protect New Yorkers from this harmful neurotoxin in their everyday products.”

The seven-term congressman…has called out the fossil fuel industry on its long campaign of disinformation on global warming, and pushed for legislation to phase out fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"It's urgent that the Department of Health and Governor Hochul act swiftly to set low cumulative thresholds for PFAS chemicals - as close to zero as possible. It's also critical to recognize that the entire class of PFAS chemicals -over 9,000 individual structures- have been indicted for their harm on human health. We can't wait to address these one, two, or even ten at a time. An overall, low threshold must be set," said Bobbi Wilding, Executive Director of Clean+Healthy.

'There's no law that says that a company has to tell you every single thing that's in a mattress,' Bobbi Wilding, executive director of Clean and Healthy New York, told the Times. 

'So whatever they tell you is what they're choosing to tell you, and that leaves people incredibly vulnerable because you have to just rely on what they say.' 

Advocates like Clean & Healthy New York want limits on toxics including phthalates included in an extended producer responsibility bill, S 1185C. Bobbi Wilding, the group’s executive director, said it’s also pushing for A 143 / S 3331 which would restrict toxics like phthalates in cosmetics.

Wilding said groups like hers are looking to move past phthalate restrictions to the source by limiting the use of vinyl—which phthalates are added to—in consumer packaging.

“We want to focus on taking as big of bite as we can,” Wilding said.