December 2025 Newsletter
In this edition: Looking back on 2025 | 2025 Legislative Round Up | Team Tackling Toxics | Meet Poly! | Make a Difference This Giving Season | Here Comes a Reimagined Albany | Meet Our New Team Member | What’s to Come in 2026
Dear Friend,
Happy Holidays! Now that we are ramping up for the New Year, we are taking a moment to reflect on the progress we made in 2025. Regardless of the challenges any year brings, when it comes around to December, I always feel hopeful for the year ahead. And this year even more so: 2026 is our 20th anniversary!
In this newsletter, check out the milestones we’ve reached together this year. We love our new addition to the Clean+Healthy team. We’re excited about the storytelling power of a new character called Poly - read on to meet them and how they’ll help engage more people to act on PFAS in the years ahead. We’re dedicated to working with allies to Reimagine Albany in ways that center the needs of its hardest-hit residents as I-787 is replaced and the State invests $200M in downtown Albany.
Here at the end of the year, we also need fuel to advance these campaigns for people’s lives. Simply put, we need you. I urge you to include C+H in your year-end giving. Due to a generous anonymous source, your gift will be matched, up to $20,000. And as a thank you, donors who contribute $75 or more will receive their own copy of Meet Poly: A Tale for Grown-Ups, the first of our picture books telling the story of PFAS.
We’re happy to share what 2025 has meant for the work of Clean+Healthy, but as always, we only win together. Thank you for everything you do for this work, for your community, for your family.
Wishing you joy and peace this holiday season,
--
Bobbi Wilding
Executive Director
Advancing Health and Protecting Policy
2025 NYS Legislative Roundup
🟩= Passed both houses 🟨= Passed one house
🟩Toxics in Period Products Bill: Ban toxic chemicals as ingredients in period products. This bill passed both the Senate and Assembly and is currently on Governor Hochul’s desk for her signature - she has until tonight to sign.
🟨 The Beauty Justice Act: Bans toxic chemicals from personal care & cosmetic products. It passed the Senate (49-10), and moved to the Ways & Means committee in the Assembly.
🟨 PFAS Ban in Consumer Products: Bans PFAS “forever chemicals” in everyday products. It passed the Senate (47-12), and advanced to the Assembly floor but didn’t get a vote.
🟨 Packaging Reduction & Recycling Infrastructure Act: This bill puts the cost and responsibility for packaging on producers, requires packaging reduction, added reuse infrastructure, elimination of toxic chemicals. It passed the Senate (48-11) and advanced to the Assembly Rules committee.
🟨 Lead Paint Right to Know: requires homeowners to test for lead based paint and share results with buyers and a statewide database. It passed overwhelmingly in the Assembly.
Meet The Legislative “Team Tackling Toxics”
This year, the JustGreen Partnership and PFAS-Free NY Campaign recognized the “Team Tackling Toxics”, made up of 48 legislators who have demonstrated their leadership on PFAS bills in the 2025 session. We assessed legislators based on sponsorship 14 bills placed in three tiers: we awarded three points for bills that “turn off the tap” by banning PFAS use, two points for bills that address significant systems (like packaging) or PFAS in our environment, and one point for bills that address smaller sectors or were only introduced in one house. Prime bill sponsors received double the points for those bills. We look forward to working with and expanding this Team to ensure New York State stays in the leading pack of states addressing this critical issue.
Is your legislator on the Team Tackling Toxics? Please see the factsheet here.
Say Hello to Our New PFAS Line Up - Forever Fables: Meet Poly! & PFAS: The Meaning of Forever
The alarm has been ringing on PFAS “forever chemicals” for decades. Yet despite growing evidence of their many harms to human health and the environment, the chemical manufacturers’ influence coupled with corporate greed has led to slow and insufficient action to end their use. As research on PFAS’ environmental, public health, and financial burdens increase, the case for eliminating these toxic and persistent chemicals grows ever stronger.
In May, we released Forever Fables: Meet Poly as the first in a three part series that are “tales for grown ups”, written by FCB Cure and Clean+Healthy. The picture books are designed to help introduce a personification of PFAS “forever chemicals” named Poly. The books’ eerie storylines and illustrations educate readers on the dangers of PFAS in our everyday lives; highlighting the concern we should all have about PFAS infiltrating our everyday products.
C+H placed copies of the story in Little Free Libraries in Albany, giving folks a chance to “meet Poly”, and delivered copies to every member of the legislature. We also launched a website, foreverfables.org, to continue the storytelling and urge action. Stay tuned for the future books in this series!
Partnered with the picture books, we released our white paper, PFAS: The Meaning of Forever, to provide a more in depth look at PFAS - its many uses, how it can affect our bodies, and where it is contaminating New York’s environment. You can read it here.
Here Comes a Reimagined Albany
Changes are coming to I-787 and decisions are being made now by the NYS Department of Transportation to finalize the design for car travel along the Hudson River. NYS plans to invest $200M in projects within a mile of the Capitol to “Champion Albany’s Potential.”
Albany has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reshape our city: Community input is essential to ensure these changes reflect our needs. We are launching a survey in January aimed to get input from residents in the South End, Arbor Hill, North Albany, and West Hill neighborhoods of Albany.
Reimagine Albany is a coalition of community-based organizations committed to long-term engagement to advance an inclusive, community-driven transformation of Albany that prioritizes health equity, overall well-being, and environmental justice for all residents.
Reimagine Albany is a coalition coordinated by: Arbor Hill Development Corporation, Albany Riverfront Collaborative, AVillage, Capital Area Urban League, Clean+Healthy, NAACP: Albany Chapter, Radix Center, South End Neighborhood Association, We Are Revolutionary
C+H Team Update
Say Hello to Rachel!
Rachel Miller joined Clean+Healthy this Spring and we are so happy to have her! As our Finance & Administrative Manager, Rachel brings a unique blend of expertise in non-profit operations and higher education hospitality leadership to C+H. Her diverse skill set enables her to streamline office operations while maintaining a deeply personal, people centered approach to her work. Read more about Rachel here.
Coming Your Way in 2026
Action, Auction!
In early 2026, we’ll be holding an online Silent Auction for fun experiences for you to bid on.
Save the Date
In 2026, Earth Day Advocacy Day will be on the official Earth Day! Mark your calendars to join us in the Capitol on Earth on April 22, 2026 to advocate for topline environmental priorities. Stay tuned to register.
Advocate with JGP
JustGreen Partnership Lobby Day May 12, 2026 - Help get key toxics policies across the finish line!
We Are Throwing a Birthday Bash!
Clean+Healthy turns 20! Keep your eyes open for your invite to our 20th Anniversary Bash to be held in Albany in October 2026.
What We're Tracking
Penelope Jagessar Chaffer is a Sundance Artist in Residence in partnership with Johns Hopkins University, a British Academy Award Nominated filmmaker, TED Talk Speaker, and a board member emerita of Clean+Healthy.
Penelope created The Chemistry of Racism: Dying to be Beautiful, an exploration of the cultural context and chemical toxicity of European beauty standards for black women & femmes and the health consequences that come as a result of trying to attain those beauty standards. It also examines the historical sociocultural backdrop to these beauty ideals and the need for beauty justice in the United States today, incorporating New York’s Beauty Justice Act.
Penelope and special guests (including C+H’s very own Bobbi Wilding and Janet Grey) to dive into topics such as: environmental justice, chronic health conditions caused by toxic chemicals, the Beauty Justice Act, and more.The Chemistry of Racism: Dying to be Beautiful is available now on APPLE, iHEART, AMAZON MUSIC, and SPOTIFY. Start listening now and join the conversation!
Governor Hochul has until TODAY Friday, December 19th, to pass the Ban on PFAS and Other Toxics in Period Products.
Read about why this is such an important bill to sign into law here.
Use your voice! Tell Governor Hochul to sign this bill ASAP here.
Lead poisoning is STILL an epidemic. Thousands of children across New York State are lead poisoned every year; causing a lifetime of serious ailments. Fellow lead advocate, Shannon and Cooper Burkett, created a podcast telling their story about the quest to find the cause of Cooper's lead poisoning diagnosis. The podcast takes the listener through what thousands of New Yorkers experience every year. Listen here!
Our work could not be done without supporters like you. We are so thrilled to be approaching our 20th anniversary; stay tuned for our big plans for next year! Please consider making a contribution to help make our 20th year our best one yet!
Thank you for being here with us! Please reach out to our Communications Coordinator, Jasmine if there is anything you would like to see in our 2026 newsletters! jasmine@cleanhealthyny.org
