Alaska Community Action on Toxins (ACAT), founded in 1997, is driven by a core belief in environmental justice, working to protect the health of Alaska’s people and environment by reducing the use of toxins, advocating for policy changes that promote safer alternatives, conducting scientific research on toxic chemical impacts, and providing resident education and outreach. Specifically, ACAT focuses on addressing toxic chemical exposure in indigenous and rural communities in Alaska, often disproportionately affected by these chemicals due to their traditional subsistence lifestyles and reliance on local resources. Military contamination and organic pollutants have blighted Alaska with high incidences of cancer, low birth weights, and miscarriages unseen before the 1950s. In the wake of closed Cold War bases in one area alone were 34 contaminated sites over nine square miles, including 220,000 gallons of spilled fuel, as well as heavy metals, asbestos, solvents, pesticides, and PCBs.
ACAT has dedicated more than twenty-five years to defending Alaska’s health and natural resources. Their staff of 18 is a mix of indigenous and non-indigenous environmentalists, scientists and advocates advancing local, state, national and international actions to protect people and safeguard their air, water, and food. ACAT has engaged thousands of Alaskans through voter programs and supported educational programs ranging from human rights to organic gardening. They’ve also secured policy victories limiting pesticide use and securing global bans on chemicals that harm Arctic ecosystems and Indigenous peoples through work on the negotiation and implementation of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Pollutants. Currently, ACAT is focused on holding corporations and industries accountable for the PFAS chemicals endangering Alaska. They’ve partnered with other environmental organizations to urge state legislators to pass Senate Bill 121 to protect the people’s drinking water.
The sites with potential for toxic exposure to humans that ACAT works to make safe.