Our board member’s family story highlights the importance of safer chemicals and corporate accountability.
At Clean Production Action, we believe families deserve to know that the chemicals in everyday products have been carefully evaluated and that companies are working to replace hazardous substances with safer alternatives. Answering a question as fundamental as “Is this safe?” should not require a degree in chemistry—or days of research at the bathroom sink.
During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Amit Rosner’s reflection reminds us why this work matters. His family’s experience connects a deeply personal concern with a shared responsibility: changing how chemicals are assessed, selected, and managed before products reach our homes.
CPA helps turn that responsibility into action. Through GreenScreen® for Safer Chemicals, the Chemical Footprint Project, and the Investor Environmental Health Network, we equip businesses and investors to assess chemical hazards, strengthen accountability, and advance safer chemistry. We cannot explain any individual cancer diagnosis through an ingredient list. We can, however, work together to reduce hazardous chemical exposures and make safer products the expectation.
Amit’s story begins with one family’s question. It invites all of us to help build a better answer.
Eleven Octobers Later: The Ingredients of Prevention
Eleven Octobers ago, my wife Chen was 38. Then breast cancer. Surgery, chemo, radiation.
Cancer changes things. Here’s one: we started reading ingredient lists. We didn’t know why
cancer had hit, but we wanted to do everything within our reach to reduce the risk of it
returning.
I remember Chen at our kids’ bathroom sink a few months later, holding a bar of soap, reading
the back of it, and asking me a question neither of us could answer: “Is this safe?”
That ingredient list looked like it was written not to be read. Even if you read it, making sense of
it took days of research. So, I put my background in computational biology and software to
work. The free app we created, Clearya, was meant to make that easier. It reads ingredient lists
while you shop online and in-store, and flags chemicals you may want to reconsider based on
scientific findings and regulatory restrictions. We built it for our family and gave it to everyone.
In 2020 I wrote a post for Breast Cancer Prevention Partners (BCPP) asking what would happen
if a million people verified every ingredient. Well, our app has been used millions of times by
now. The messages we receive from cancer survivors, parents, and other users tell us how
much that sense of agency matters. But millions of scans and better-informed purchases alone
haven’t fixed the market.
Last month Silent Spring Institute mapped where more than 900 breast cancer-relevant
chemicals show up in the economy. Five hundred of them are used in consumer products:
cosmetics, detergents, plastics. None of them got there by chance. The ingredient was chosen
years earlier by a chemist, approved by a buyer, sold by a retailer, funded by an investor. When
I looked for more ways to support the ecosystem over the years, I found that many
organizations couldn’t answer Chen’s question either. They cared, but connecting the dots
between thousands of data points for an organization is often as daunting as deciphering an
ingredient list for a consumer.
That is why, alongside our app, we’ve spent the past five years developing Clearya Insights,
which helps researchers, agencies, advocates, and industry members gather relevant chemical,
product, and market information and act on it.
And that is also why I joined the board of Clean Production Action. CPA’s GreenScreen helps
answer Chen’s question before a product exists: How hazardous is this chemical? Are the
alternatives safer? CPA’s Chemical Footprint Project provides a clear metric for companies to
systematically measure and report their progress toward safer chemicals. Same question, asked
from the seats where the answer can change what gets made.
Addressing the environmental drivers of cancer requires an integrated ecosystem. Science has
been pointing in the right direction for decades. Data tools and a shared framework help us get
there sooner.
Chen still reads labels. The app makes it simple. The goal of our collective work is for her not to
have to.
Moving Towards a Safer Marketplace for All
Amit’s closing thought captures the future CPA is working toward: one in which families can choose everyday products with greater confidence because safer chemistry decisions have already been made.
Getting there requires action across the marketplace. We invite corporations to engage with CPA’s programs: use GreenScreen® to assess chemical hazards and evaluate alternatives; participate in the Chemical Footprint Project to measure and report progress; and connect with BizNGO to learn alongside businesses and advocates advancing safer chemistry. Through the Investor Environmental Health Network, investors can help reinforce the expectation that responsible chemical management belongs on the corporate agenda.
For those who share this vision, a philanthropic contribution to CPA helps sustain the science, practical tools, and partnerships that make this progress possible. Whether through corporate participation, collaboration, or a personal gift, your support can help move safer chemistry from aspiration into everyday practice.
And to every breast cancer survivor—and everyone still undergoing treatment—we see the person beyond the diagnosis: your hopes, your weariness, your determination, and the life you deserve to live fully. You do not have to feel strong every day to be worthy of care, encouragement, and hope. The responsibility for safer products should never rest on your shoulders alone. Your experience matters, your future matters, and we are committed to doing our part.
Derreck Kayongo is the Executive Director of Clean Production Action.
Amit Rosner serves on the board of Clean Production Action and is co-founder and CEO of Clearya, which turns complex data into actionable insights for safer, more sustainable products.