The Toxies is a satirical red carpet awards ceremony for toxic chemicals, held at the Silent Movie Theater in Los Angeles. Actors bring toxic chemicals and pollutants to life—walking the red carpet for awards like “Worst Hair and Makeup” and “Lifetime Achievement In Harm”. We’ve produced creative postcards with headshots and facts about each nominee will provide video of the ceremony and interviews. Check out our 1-minute teaser on this fun awards ceremony and the 2012 Ceremony Highlight Reel.

The Toxies is brought to you by a group of non-profits pooling the technical expertise of our scientists and advocates, the creativity of artists and actors, and our collective passion for a safer world.

Why Toxic Chemicals?

Last week, a study found chemicals marketed as flame retardants in peanut butter. Do you need flame retardants in your peanut butter?!? The answer is no. Then why are there flame retardants in your peanut butter? The short answer is that of the 80,000 chemicals on the market, only 200 have been tested for safety, and only 5 have been restricted. The U.S. chemical regulatory system is broken and fails to protect people, wildlife and the environment from toxic chemical exposures.

Our Story

In 2010, a small group of California-based non-profits came together to launch a public conversation on toxic chemicals in our bodies and environment -- one that would engage everyday families, workers, businesses, and policymakers. How could we show the real faces and convey the real harm of difficult to pronounce chemicals? Here's what we started with:

• When studies show that a chemical can be toxic to our health and environment, you want to know how to avoid it. That makes sense. But, we already had plenty fact sheets and lists on which chemicals to avoid. 
• If that chemical is used in your workplace, would you know about the exposure at all, or how to protect yourself?
• If that chemical is released near your home, or in air, water or food, there’s usually not much you can do. Low-income people and those with limited access to information have even less power to protect themselves and their communities. 
• Every week, more studies are published that link yet another chemical to cancer, lower IQ, infertility, autism, and many other serious health effects...you name it.

At this point, you may feel overwhelmed. Many people do. You may be asking, “How am I supposed to avoid everything?!?” 

The problem is real. And it’s a problem we can’t just shop our way out of.

But we can reduce some toxic exposures and make our world safer today – for us and future generations – by keeping toxic chemicals and pollutants off the market and out of our communities. 

Step one is starting the conversation in a creative way.

Why The Toxies?

“Bad actor” is a term scientists use to describe chemicals that have hazardous traits, meaning that no matter how or where they’re used, they’re bound to cause some trouble. People should know about these bad actors.

At the time we were having this conversation about “bad actor” chemicals (2010), Arnold Schwarzenegger was California’s governor...

And then we remembered “The Razzies” is an awards ceremony that calls attention to “bad actors” by presenting them with awards.

Add in a little dose of celebrity-obsessed culture for an event in the entertainment capital of the world... and The Toxies was born! 

Join us in developing this fun and informative project, and help us share it with the world! Please pledge your support today.

The Funds

Funds raised will help us pay for the awards venue, photography, actors, live web-streaming and video production. Your support will help us share the awards ceremony with audiences long after the red carpet has been rolled away.

See our 2012 emcee, actor D.W. Moffett, invite you to the awards ceremony as "Tex Doolittle".

The Toxies is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. We have found a unique and exciting way to talk about toxic chemicals in a way that is both entertaining and informative. We hope that others will be similarly motivated and draw upon our project for their own public education efforts around this important issue.