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California Department of Toxic Substances Control Director Maureen Gorsen explains how, by using wiki technology, California shares with the public at large its mandate to create Green Chemistry regulations.

Director Gorsen also instructs wiki users on how to participate in this innovative approach to advancing California's green product revolution. California is implementing the first body of green chemistry law in the world and DTSC, the agency charged with its implementation is making history by writing the regulations on real time along with stakeholders and the people of the State of California.


Wiki for Green Chemistry

Chemical safety affects us all.  But how do laws support chemical safety?

Out of more than 62,000 synthetic chemicals that are part of our everyday lives, fewer than 200 have been tested for safety.

The Chemical Industry and Safety Best Practices

Thanks to effective lobbying by the chemical industry, laws are written so that every synthetic chemical is "innocent until proven guilty." The legal burden weighs on those seeking to prove the harm a substance can cause.

Find out more in "Toxic Ignorance is Not Bliss," by author and writer Dominique Browning.

Human Guinea Pigs

Browning reveals the shocking truth when it comes to potentially toxic chemicals -- you're basically on your own.

"We should be worried about what amounts to a huge, uncontrolled human testing experiment. Without agreeing to it, without understanding it, without even knowing it, we have become the chemical industry's guinea pigs."

Of highly visible concers of late is Bisphenol A (BPA), found in baby bottles, possibly the water bottle sitting by your desk and plastic dental sealants.

BPA is increasingly suspected of causing a variety of serious ills, yet factories continue to produce six billion pounds of it each year.

In the coming months, Congress may review the process by which we regulate toxic chemicals -- or, as Browning points out, mostly don't regulate them.

"Society needs to pay much more attention to this problem," says Dr. Richard Denison, Senior Scientist at EDF. "We've been complacent about it." Denison maintains an influential blog tracking the debate over chemical safety.

In 1976 Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

Unfortunately, the 62,000 chemicals on the market at that time were given a free pass: no requirement they be tested or assessed for safety.

EPA's Role in Chemical Regulation

Although the Environmental Protection Agency has garnered some information about chemicals through voluntary submissions by industry in a program that EDF helped start, limited testing has been required on a mere 200 chemicals over the past three decades.

Worse, EPA has managed to restrict only five substances--and even that overstates the agency's efficacy.

The only group of chemicals entirely banned was PCBs, because Congress required it.

Even Cal Dooley, the president of the American Chemistry Council, commented on EPA's incapacity in this matter: "EPA cannot make a determination on whether or not a chemical is safe for its intended use."

Read more at: "Toxic Ignorance is Not Bliss,"

Design firm Perkins+Will Introduces Precautionary List Examining Chemicals and Building Materials

"There is an ever increasing focus in the green building movement on the relationship between humans and the built environment," notes Peter Syrett, AIA, LEED AP™ of Perkins+Will and one of the creators of the Precautionary List. "There are thousands of chemicals used in a building and only a small percentage have been tested. We created the Precautionary List to advocate for alternative building products and advocate care when using products that have identified chemical hazards."

One example from the list is mercury, a known neurotoxin that can be found in HVAC controls, lamps, resilient floors and thermostats. The precautionary list showcases mechanical controls without mercury systems, different flooring systems, mercury-free lamp alternatives and encourages builders to pursue, advocate and specify for these alternatives when reasonable.

The entire Perkins+Will Precautionary List is online at http://transparency.perkinswill.com/

Daniel Goldman sums up many of the key aspects of green consumer behaviors in this overview of his book, "Ecological Intelligence".

Incremental improvements in our product choices, and product design will add up to a generational "world view" shift that leaves a healthier system in place for our old age...and our children.

Goldman explains the choices we can make to improve the health of our business system, and our environment on which we depend for life support.

EPA maintains an extensive database of Design for the Environment approved products.  These listings can be checked by consumers or business procurement buyers for products recognized under the DfE Formulator Program. DfE commends these companies for their leadership in designing products that are good for their business and for the environment.

Partners and Recognized Products

• Cleaning Products
  • Consumer Cleaning Products
    • Cleaners
    • Floor Care
    
    
    • Laundry Detergents
  • Industrial/Institutional Cleaning Products
    • Cleaners
    • Floor Care
    • Laundry Detergents
    • Automatic Dishwasher Detergents
    • Graffiti Removers
    • Marine Cleaning Products
    • Car Care
    • Aircraft Cleaning Products
    • Industrial Vehicle Cleaning Products
• Biological-based Products
  • Bioremediator
  • Drain Maintainer
  • Grease Trap / Lift Station Maintainer
  • Holding Tank Treatment/Deodorizer
  • Septic System Treatment
  • Vehicle/Parts Wash Additive
  • Wastewater Innoculant
  • Bilge Maintainer
• Deicers
• Field Paint
• Industrial Coatings
  • Conversion Coatings
  • Pavement Treatment
• Inks
  • Inkjet Printing
• Odor Removal
• Field Paint
• Tire Additives
• Soluble Films

See the EPA Web page for updated links.

Through manufacture and use, virtually everyone comes in contact with the chemicals in these products, which are ultimately released to the environment--as effluents to water, off-gases to air, and solid wastes to land. By forming partnerships with the DfE Program, formulators can take part in an important national effort to improve the human health and environmental profile of chemical-based products, which will benefit the quality of aquatic life and the environment, the biodegradability of waste streams, and human health and safety. The basis for a DfE partnership rests on the selection of the safest possible ingredients that permit the formulation of high-performing, cost-effective products. DfE can provide formulators with information on chemical characteristics and toxicities of raw materials and additives, safer substitutes for chemicals of concern, and innovative new chemistries. The DfE document "Criteria for Safer Cleaning Products (CSCP) in the form of a Standard" (PDF) (28 pp, 157K) describes the program's unique approach to product review and formulation improvement. To view this criteria in matrix form, please click here [considerations for partnership (PDF) (12 pp, 161K)]. DfE Formulator partners enjoy Agency recognition, including the use of the DfE label on products with improved formulations.

Look for the DfE Label! Safer Products DfE-recognized products are safer for people and the planet and have eliminated more than 270 million pounds of chemicals of concern.   中文版

The redesign of chemical products offers important opportunities to:

• Remove polluting chemicals from formulations before they can enter the workplace, home, or environment.
• Advance energy and water efficiency, resource conservation, and innovative technologies.
• Qualify for environmentally preferred product status, increasingly sought by government, retailer and consumer purchasers.

For more information, contact DfE.

Each year, formulators blend billions of pounds of chemical ingredients to create a wide variety of products used by businesses, institutions, households, and others. Through manufacture and use, virtually everyone comes in contact with the chemicals in these products, which are ultimately released to the environment--as effluents to water, off-gases to air, and solid wastes to land.

By forming partnerships with the DfE Program, formulators can take part in an important national effort to improve the human health and environmental profile of chemical-based products, which will benefit the quality of aquatic life and the environment, the biodegradability of waste streams, and human health and safety.

NSF INTERNATIONAL, Third Party Reviews for DfE Formulator Program

NSF International  has partnered with the U.S. EPA's Design for the Environment program ("DfE") to perform third-party reviews for the DfE Formulator Program.

NSF International has been selected to prepare product ingredient profiles for partnership candidates. NSF reviews cleaning product formulations for its environmental and human health profiles using criteria developed by DfE. Once successfully reviewed, formulators may be recognized by DfE and use the DfE logo on their products.

DfE offers recognition to formulators who design products for the environment and human health by using safer chemicals.

SOURCE: NSF

CleanGredients® Data Verification

NSF International is pleased to announce it has partnered with the GreenBlue Institute and CleanGredients® to perform third-party reviews of surfactant ingredients. Once successfully reviewed, surfactants may be listed on the CleanGredients website, the industry resource for formulators.

NSF reviews ingredient formulations for aquatic toxicity and biodegradability using criteria defined by the U.S. EPA DfE (Design for the Environment) Program, which designates surfactants with especially positive environmental characteristics.

CleanGredients.org is an online database of institutional and industrial (I&I) cleaning ingredients that:

• Helps formulators identify ingredients that have potential environmental and/or human health and safety benefits.
• Provides an opportunity for manufacturers and producers of cleaning ingredients to showcase their ingredients with potential environmental and/or human health and safety benefits.

SOURCE:  NSF International

USDA's proposed BioPreferred eco-labeling program that will identify "bio-based" (i.e., made out of agricultural, forestry, or marine-based ingredients) products and packages.

The USDA "BioPreferred" list includes "BioPreferred" list include PLA-based plastics, vegetable oil-based cleaning fluids, and soaps made from natural ingredients--but not food or fuel.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is making it easier for consumers to identify biobased products through the release of its proposed BioPreferredSM labeling rule. 

Voluntary Labeling for Biobased Products for Consumer Products

USDA's BioPreferred labeling program, published in the Federal Register, intends to create a product label that would appear on qualifying BioPreferred biobased products. When final, this regulation will allow biobased product manufacturers to participate in a voluntary labeling program to identify biobased products on retail store shelves.

"Increasing the purchase and use of biobased products is a priority of the Obama Administration because it helps increase our nation's energy security and independence by using American agricultural products, while spurring economic development in rural areas," said Vilsack. "Consumers want to make more informed product choice decisions and BioPreferred will help them. This label will help consumers, businesses and Federal government purchasers easily identify biobased products."

Manufacturers will be able to utilize the BioPreferred label, when finalized, to help customers identify their products as biobased. 

200 Categories of Biobased Products

Currently, USDA has identified more than 15,000 commercially available biobased products across approximately 200 categories, from cleaning products to construction materials.

Biobased products are available to consumers today and the new label will help make these sustainable products more accessible and serve as a valuable marketing tool for manufacturers and vendors of biobased products.

Biobased products are products that are composed wholly or significantly of biological ingredients - renewable plant, animal, marine or forestry materials. A BioPreferred designated item is one that meets or exceeds USDA-established minimum biobased content requirements.

This Federal Register notice announces the program's intent to create and make available a voluntary product label for increased commercial and consumer promotion of biobased products. USDA, through the publication of this draft rule, seeks to notify and gather feedback from interested groups and the public-at-large on this process.

More information about BioPreferred's proposed labeling rule can be found at www.biopreferred.gov or contact BioPreferred at biopreferred@usda.gov.

BioPreferred encourages interested parties to submit comments on the proposed rule until Sept. 29, 2009. To submit comments go to http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-17610.htm.

The BioPreferred program was created by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (2002 Farm Bill) as a preferred procurement program to increase the purchase and use of biobased products within the Federal government. The Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Bill) expanded the program's scope to promote the sale of biobased products in other sectors.

BioPreferred is comprised of two programs: a preferred procurement program for Federal agencies and a voluntary labeling program for the broad scale marketing of biobased products. A complete list and detailed description of each BioPreferred designated item, and items for future designation, can be found at www.biopreferred.gov or follow BioPreferred at http://twitter.com/BioPreferred