The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) Office on Women’s Health (OWH), is awarding six winners for Phase 2 of the HHS Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals (EDC) Innovator Award Competition. This competition was developed to identify gaps in knowledge and innovative solutions to improving Black women’s health by reducing endocrine-disrupting chemical exposure risk. This challenge supports the goals of the Biden-Harris Administration’s 2023 Executive Order, Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All.
“HHS is fully committed to advancing health equity. That includes addressing exposure risks caused by endocrine-disrupting chemicals which heavily impact Black women,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “This competition is part of HHS’ ongoing efforts to deliver innovative solutions for health challenges that disproportionately impact underserved communities.”
Many natural or human-made chemicals may interfere with the body’s hormones, known as the endocrine system. These chemicals, called endocrine disruptors, are linked to a range of health issues including, developmental, reproductive, brain, immune, and other health-related issues. Endocrine disruptors are found in the environment, food, and everyday consumer products. Some of the major known endocrine-disrupting chemicals, such as bisphenols and phthalates, are in plastics. Other endocrine-disrupting chemicals, including those found in cosmetics and pesticides, can also pollute community water supplies.
“We are dedicated to reducing health disparities among people impacted by endocrine-disrupting chemicals and associated environmental justice issues, including in Black women and women of color. Not only are there higher exposure levels among communities of color increasing risk, but there are also fewer available resources and protective factors such as green spaces, healthy food options, and easily accessible healthcare,” said Assistant Secretary for Health, Admiral Rachel Levine. “These winners have made a significant impact for their communities, and we commend them on efforts to improve the lives of Black women across our nation.”
The competition identifies and awards programs that demonstrate effectiveness, sustainability, and the ability to replicate and/or expand interventions that address gaps in knowledge and provide solutions to reduce endocrine-disrupting chemical exposure risk for women, including Black women. During Phase 1, HHS identified programs with innovative approaches to reducing the associated exposure risks of endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Phase 2 focuses on demonstrating the program’s effectiveness by increasing knowledge and reducing the risk of endocrine-disrupting chemicals exposure. The third phase will award programs that have successfully replicated and/or expanded.
The six winners of Phase 2 of the HHS Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals Innovator Award Competition are:
The Chrysalis Initiative – Philadelphia, PA
Program/Focus: The Chrysalis Initiative established equity interventions for Black women with breast cancer, incorporating endocrine-disrupting chemicals education into an existing system of peer-to-peer breast cancer coaches. The program’s coaching/navigation team provides personalized support from individuals with lived experience. Over 40,000 Black or African American women have participated in the initiative’s patient education programs, events, and services.
Emily Hilz/Endoscreen – Austin, TX
Program/Focus: This program created a mobile phone application, Endoscreen, to increase awareness of and reduce exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals in personal care products. Endoscreen is designed to empower women as consumers to reduce exposure risk by educating them about the potential connection between endocrine-disrupting chemicals in their personal care products and adverse health outcomes. The app will next track product usage patterns to monitor endocrine-disrupting chemicals exposure and health inequities. Users can then create a personalized history and generate reports to monitor their endocrine-disrupting chemicals exposure over time.
Girl Plus Environment – Atlanta, GA
Program/Focus: The Black H(air) Initiative
Girl Plus Environment educates Black hairdressers about the harms of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in hair products and their disproportionate impact on Black women. This program utilizes a digital media campaign, pop-up shops, and a training toolkit to empower Black women hairdressers to protect themselves and their clients. The program has conducted Black hair care pop-up trainings, assessed hair stylist knowledge of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and created Toxic-Free Beauty Boxes for Black hairstylists focusing on Black clients.
HairDays – New York, NY
Program/Focus: The HairDays AI hair platform provides product ingredient transparency, offers data-driven hair care recommendations, and presents culturally conscious insights for safer haircare practices. The HairDays app contains an extensive educational database of hair and scalp products featuring 18,114 products and 50,490 ingredients. In a survey of 500 app users, 53 percent of users tried out a recommended endocrine-disrupting chemicals -free hair care product.
SafetyNEST – El Cerrito, CA
Program/Focus: SafetyNEST is a digital platform designed to build environmental health literacy for reproductive health professionals and their patients. This project aims to reduce the incidence of preventable diseases linked to toxic chemical exposures among Black or African American pregnant women. SafetyNEST has created over 200 fact sheets and other pieces of content for individuals and healthcare professionals, including a Safer Products Directory pointing consumers to product sites and certifications. SafetyNEST’s BetterNest™ Score designs an individualized action plan to immediately reduce endocrine-disrupting chemicals and chemical exposure in the home.
Silent Spring Institute and Resilient Sisterhood Project – Newton, MA
Program/Focus: The POWER Project was designed to empower Black communities to reduce exposure to toxic chemicals from consumer product use. This program trains and collaborates with social media influencers to create and share content on chemicals of health concern in consumer products to increase awareness and support behavioral change. This program has engaged with thousands of primarily Black female social media users to foster conversations on endocrine-disrupting chemicals exposure. POWER Project content has been viewed by more than 100,000 accounts, liked by nearly 10,000 accounts, and shared more than 1,700 times. Through continuous social media interaction, respondents demonstrated improved knowledge of which endocrine-disrupting chemicals to avoid and increased awareness of the lack of rigorous safety tests for chemicals used in products in the U.S.