Women'S Healthy Environments Network

The Women's Healthy Environments Network (WHEN) is a non-profit charitable organization that educates the public and policy makers about environmental health as a key determinant of public health, and advocates for the prevention of environmental health harms. WHEN is located on the traditional, unceded territories of several First Nations including the Huron-Wendat, Anishnaabeg, Haudenosaunee, and the Mississaugas of the Credit that is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. WHEN has been a trusted source of credible tools and information on emerging environmental health topics since 1994. By developing public education materials, hosting and speaking at community events, and participating in meetings with diverse stakeholders, we teach individuals how to reduce their risk of illness and injury that can occur from the products we use, the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe. Recognizing that exposure to harmful environmental contaminants disproportionately impacts certain sub-populations, such as women, BIPOC and low income communities due to their intersecting identity factors, we advocate for an intersectional approach to toxic substance management that is aligned with environmental justice principles. We engage in law and policy reform to better protect disproportionately impacted communities from environmental risk and shift the responsibility of preventing toxic substance exposures from the individual to the government. WHEN applies an intersectional feminist lens to our work, and all staff and volunteers are certified in gender-based analysis plus to support this commitment. WHEN advocates for all women, trans, cis, AFAB (assigned female at birth) and gender diverse people, recognizing that environmental health harms affect the body differently depending on sex, gender, race and other identity factors. We all deserve healthy environments.