Center for Environmental Health

What it reported doing in 2025

Protecting Consumers from Toxic Chemicals: CEH protected consumers from carcinogens and reproductive toxics across a wide range of products in 2025. The Court entered legal agreements between CEH and 14 defendants, including:-Bisphenol A in Socks Made Primarily of Polyester with Spandex: After years of persistence and negotiation, we celebrated the long-awaited closure of the BPA in socks case through a settlement with Daytona, now a part of Windsong Brands.-Nicotine Pouches: CEH entered into settlement agreements with major tobacco industry giants Helix Innovations, Altria Group Distribution Company, Swedish Match North America LLC, and Pinkerton Tobacco Co manufacturers and distributors of industry-leading nicotine pouch brands Zyn and On!. Our settlement agreements require these companies to put Prop 65 warnings on their packaging to give consumers the right to know about the reproductive harm that can be caused from use of these products. -1,4-Dioxane in Shampoo: We entered settlement agreements with two major companies, requiring that they reformulate their shampoo products to eliminate this carcinogen. We also achieved a major victory in the 1,4-dioxane in personal care products case, finalizing Consent Judgments with Kamedis Inc. and Dollar Tree Stores, Inc. -Cocamide DEA in Liquid Soaps: CEH entered settlement agreements with defendants, Brand Buzz LLC and Family Dollar LLC, requiring that they reformulate their liquid hand soap products to eliminate carcinogenic cocamide DEA as an intentionally added listed ingredient. -Hex Chrome in Leather Footwear and Gloves: CEH settled with another major distributor of leather gloves and footwear, requiring them to adopt state-of-the-art tanning protocols that will remove hexavalent chromium from their products. We also signed court-enforced Consent Judgments with luxury Italian footwear brands, Brunello Cucinelli and Roberto Cavalli, in our Hexavalent Chromium in Footwear case.-Lead in Brass Mouthpieces: CEH secured Consent Judgments with industry leader Yamaha Corporation of America and KHS America.Empowering Hospitals and Schools to Reuse: CEHs work promoting reusables in schools won two awards in 2025. CEH in partnership with StopWaste (Alameda County Waste Management Authority) was awarded the Department of Energy Re-X Before Recycling Prize for our work promoting reuse in schools. CEH was also awarded the California Resource and Recovery Association (CRRA)s Outstanding School Recycling Program Award for the CEH work bringing non-toxic reusables to K-12 schools throughout California. The award highlights our work bringing non-toxic reusables to the schools in Alameda County and assuring that young students are not being exposed to PFAS, microplastics, and other chemicals. CEH also finalized an analysis and report on the current single-use foodware in use in southern California Kaiser Permanente (KP) cafeterias and delivered our results including priority items to move towards safer alternatives. An overview of our report was presented to the senior leadership team with encouraging responses and the conversation will be ongoing on implementing these measures.Protecting Consumers from Black Plastic in Foodware: CEH is also working to protect consumers from toxic flame retardants in black plastic foodware. Gaps in transparency and regulation of the plastic recycling industry have allowed black plastic to enter the manufacturing process of food contact materials. This contamination can expose consumers to brominated flame retardants, heavy metals, and other toxic chemicals associated with e-waste.CEH is launching a black plastic testing initiative that includes measures to increase consumer awareness and combat misinformation to address this preventable exposure. This initiative includes fact sheets for the general public, inhouse screening of plastic items for toxic chemicals, and rigorous laboratory testing of black plastic foodware for toxic chemicals such as brominated flame

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
• Program expense ratio: 74%; rating input score 74
• Fundraising efficiency: $1.91 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 18th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Missing
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -70.2%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.62; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.35; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 29.2%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 2% per year; rating input score 100; 19th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: -1.3% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: -1.7% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings