[2] She founded the non-profit Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste in 1981 to help train and support local activists with their environmental work.

[3] Lois Gibbs's involvement in environmental causes began in 1978, when as a 27 year old housewife[4] she discovered that her 5-year-old son's elementary school in Niagara Falls, New York was built on a toxic waste dump.

Because her two children had been healthy when they moved to their Love Canal home, but then suffered unusual health issues, she began to wonder if there was a connection.

When Gibbs began organizing in Love Canal, and later continued her activism nationally, many doubted her ability to be effective.

In addition, President Jimmy Carter mentioned Gibbs as the key grassroots leader in the Love Canal movement during 1980.

Once she was living in the Washington, D.C. area, she renamed it the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ).

[17] It was a national organization to help families who lived in environmentally degraded sites like Love Canal.

CHEJ is a grassroots environmental crisis center that provides information, resources, technical assistance and training to community groups around the nation.

CHEJ seeks to form strong local organizations in order to protect neighborhoods from exposure to hazardous wastes.