Tom Neltner

Tom Neltner is the Environmental Defense Fund’s Chemicals Policy Director. He leads efforts to remove or minimize hazardous chemicals from products and the marketplace through cross-cutting policy initiatives. His primary focus is on food additive safety and reducing exposure to lead in our homes and communities. He is a chemical engineer and attorney with experience in chemical safety issues in the workplace, the environment, the home, consumer products, and food. Tom has worked on lead poisoning prevention at the federal, state and local levels for more than 20 years. He served on EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee for eight years and played a leading role in an EPA-convened, multi-stakeholder workgroup that made recommendations to the agency to upgrade its lead in drinking water regulations. He has worked in chemical, food additive, pesticide, and pharmaceutical manufacturing as well as state government and public interest advocacy with stints as an adjunct professor at Indiana University through many of those years. He is a Healthy Homes Specialist, Certified Hazardous Materials Manager and elected Fellow of the National Institute for Hazardous Materials Managers.