Scientists, doctors and community leaders examined the harms from chemicals found in plastics and our personal care products, and the danger of living near petrochemical facilities
CONTACT: DKC News, MomsCleanAirForce@dkcnews.com
Washington, D.C. (March 5, 2026) – Moms Clean Air Force, the national coalition of more than 1.6 million moms, dads, and caregivers united in securing clean air and a healthy future for all children by fighting against air pollution, climate pollution, and toxic chemicals, hosted its annual Washington D.C. Summit at the National Press Club. Titled “PLASTICS ON OUR MINDS AND IN OUR BRAINS: The new science of petrochemical dangers and strategies for safeguarding our children’s health,” the event brought together scientists, health experts, doctors, frontline community leaders and environmental justice advocates to discuss the latest insights on the devastating impact of plastics and petrochemicals on human health.
The event addressed themes such as the “Plastics Playbook,” a decades-long campaign to mislead the public about the harms of the petrochemical and plastics industries and its use of deceptive practices borrowed from Big Tobacco. It also dived into the link between hazardous petrochemical pollution and diseases of the brain, the dangerous chemicals found in cosmetics and other personal care products, and the human health harms from every step of the plastics supply chain, including those of microplastics.
One of the panels featured leaders in West Virginia and Louisiana who are fighting the petrochemical polluters harming their communities. The speakers, Martec Washington of the Black Appalachian Coalition and Robert and Tish Taylor of Concerns Citizens of St. John, each shared heart-rending stories about how living on the fenceline of these facilities has devastated the health of their family, friends, and neighbors–and how stronger government protections and enforcement can help.
Each of the speakers pointed to how governments, petrochemical companies and even some industry scientists have conspired to ensure that these toxic chemicals are free from regulation and how the real dangers are obfuscated behind junk science.
Speakers included: Mariah Blake, the investigative journalist and author on PFAS, the deadly chemicals that last forever; Dr. David Michaels, the George Washington University epidemiologist and former OSHA Administrator; Dr. Ray Dorsey, the esteemed neurologist who leads Parkinson’s Disease research and care; Dr. Jasmine McDonald, the distinguished Columbia University professor who specializes in cell biology, public health and cancer; Cynthia Palmer, senior analyst for petrochemicals at Moms Clean Air Force; Robert Taylor and Tish Taylor, the father-daughter environmental-justice team leading Concerned Citizens of St. John, based in Reserve, Louisiana; and Martec Washington, the prominent Charleston, West Virginia activist who is running for Mayor.
“The principle that chemicals should be presumed safe until proved otherwise became the bedrock of our system for regulating harmful substances,” said Mariah Blake. “That creates an incentive for industry to manufacture doubt about the health and environmental effects of their products, because as long as there is doubt there will be no regulation.”
Dr. David Michaels stated, “There are at least 12,000 different PFAS chemicals, and we don’t have data on 99.9% of them… Our government agencies like OSHA, EPA, etc. regulate a chemical at a time…Unless we can move away from the system of thinking about chemicals individually and [start] thinking about them as a class, we’re not going to be able to protect people.”
“For the first time in human history brain diseases are the leading source of disability… The principal causes of this are not in our DNA, they are not in our genes, they are in our environment,” said Dr. Ray Dorsey. “It is not natural that one-in-three 85-year-olds have Alzheimer’s disease”
“When we think about the cosmetic and beauty industry, we falsely assume that they are regulated,” said Dr. Jasmine McDonald. “There are known human cancer-causing chemicals in the products that we probably started putting on our hair before we could even go to kindergarten.”
“Every step of plastics production subject communities to round-the-clock carcinogenic exposures and the ongoing risk of fires, leaks, and explosion,” said Cynthia Palmer. “The resulting plastic harms all of us. Plastics contain various mixtures of 16,000 chemicals including PFAS, phthalates, bisphenols, flame retardants, and on and on.”
“When I found out that the children in our elementary school, which a [petrochemicals] plant had been set 1000 yards away from the school, were in danger I knew I needed to act,” said Robert Taylor. “400-500 Black children were in this school. The EPA informed us that the chemicals and pollution coming from the plant were 400 times as high as the normal amount. I couldn’t sleep, I was flabbergasted. We were all so unaware.”
“We started getting sick,” said Tish Taylor. “My grandmother got sick first. Then it was my mom with breast cancer, then my sister with gastroparesis and with a rare autoimmune disease. When EPA shared the petrochemical industry pollution rates, I was devastated. It was the government letting this happen.”
Martec Washington said: “Growing up [in Charleston, West Virginia] was pretty awesome until I learned my life was literally being poisoned at every sense. At church. At home. At school. I didn’t realize that petrochemical harms were really affecting my everyday life. Now I have asthma, eczema, and long-lasting health diseases.”
Moderators for the panels were Moms Clean Air Force West Virginia Organizer Lani Wean, National Field Manager Maria Finnegan and Courier journalist Amie Rivers. Moms Clean Air Force’s ongoing efforts to raise awareness, demand policy changes and advocate for clean air solutions were echoed throughout the summit, with an impassioned message from Cynthia Palmer: “One person alone cannot solve this problem; it takes a village, it takes all of us.”
Photos from the event can be found here and a full recording of the summit here.
Read more about the event and see the speaker list and bios here.