Recently in Synthetic Chemicals Category

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,"

Greening Consumer Electronics:
Moving Away from Bromine and Chlorine

Two leading environmental organizations, Clean Production Action and ChemSec, have released a new report showing companies that are leading the electronics industry by moving away from chemicals that can lead to health and environmental problems. features seven companies who have engineered environmental solutions that negate the need for most -- or in some cases all -- uses of brominated and chlorinated chemicals. This includes eliminating brominated flame retardants and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which can create dioxin, a human carcinogen, during the burning of e-waste. 

The best time to clean up "brownfields" that are dead because of toxic pollutants -- is not not use toxic chemicals or processes in the first place.  But how?  It's not easy to green manufacturing, especially high performance gadgets at low prices.  But it is possible.

ALSO NEEDED, consumer support :  Need to know how to recycle your electronics (TVs, computers, phones) safely?  Try Electronics Takeback Coalition.

Writing about complex scientific stories isn't easy, and takes years of both study and research.  These two investigative reporters have been honored for their dedication.

Susanne Rust & Meg Kissinger

Chemical Fallout
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Thirty years ago, a carcinogenic flame-retardant material was taken out of children's pajamas.  In 2008 it was being used with frequency in products such as baby carriers and bassinetts.  This was just one of several discoveries made by Susanne Rust and Meg Kissinger of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in their series, "Chemical Fallout."

The team exposed government programs that favored chemical makers over the public and conflicts of interests among regulators.  Rust and Kissinger reported that there was no such thing as "microwave-safe" plastics. An outside laboratory tested containers labeled as such and found toxic levels of chemicals leached from every item.

The Journal Sentinel team did their homework: They reviewed hundreds of scientific journal articles and worked with scientists to determine that the federal government's assurances that bisphenol A (a chemical compound found in many plastics) is safe are based on outdated U.S. government studies and research heavily funded by the chemical industry. PBS broadcaster Bill Moyers compared the reporting to the legendary Upton Sinclair. David Kessler, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said that the Sentinel was doing the work that the agency should have been doing all along to protect the public.

Susanne Rust

Senior Reporter, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Susanne Rust was part of a reporting team that won the 2008 Sigma Delta Chi award and the Society of American Business Writers and Editors award for detailing chemical dangers and lax regulations in Washington, D.C. The team also won the 2008 John B. Oakes Award.  Rust has continued to break new ground throughout 2008 with more stories exposing the failures of the Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration.  In her five years at the Sentinel, Rust has also trekked through the hills of Rwanda to cover stories on civil engineering and AIDS; hacked through the dense foliage of a Ugandan rain forest in search of mountain gorillas; poked around Scotland's Roslin Institute looking for clones; and written about eco-friendly agriculture in Costa Rica.  Before joining the Sentinel, Rust pursued a doctorate in biological anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Meg Kissinger

Investigative Reporter, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Meg Kissinger is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's investigative reporter focusing on health and welfare.  She and two of her colleagues won the 2008 Sigma Delta Chi award and the Society of American Business Writers and Editors Award for a series of articles on the government's failure to screen for dangerous chemicals in household products.  The series also won the 2008 John B. Oakes Award.  Kissinger has spent the last year breaking new ground on the failures of the Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration to regulate toxic chemicals.  She was a finalist for the 2007 Selden Ring and Investigative Reporters and Editors awards for her reports on the filthy and dangerous housing conditions in Milwaukee County for people with mental illness. That series won the Mental Health America Award for best news repoting.  In her 25 years in the newsroom, Kissinger has written about abuses in the nursing home industry, the scam of the door-to-door magazine sales industry and the travails of an oncologist who unwittingly discovered his own end-stage cancer.  

The meaning of greening

The term green chemistry was first coined in 1998 by Yale professor Paul Anastas and John Warner of the Warner Babcock Institute in their book "Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice." They defined it as "the utilization of a set of principles that reduces or eliminates the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture and application of chemical products."

The green chemistry movement is beginning to take hold at UC Berkeley. An important recent step was a 2008 report commissioned by the California EPA entitled "Green Chemistry: Cornerstone to a Sustainable California," which includes among the authors Drs. Michael Wilson and Megan Schwarzman, research scientists in the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. The wide-ranging report outlines some of the major environmental, health, and economic impacts of California's current approach to regulating chemicals.

Over 100 synthetic chemicals and pollutants have been found in umbilical cord blood, breast milk, and adult tissues, and, according to the report, many of these chemicals are "known or probable human carcinogens, reproductive or neurological toxicants, or all three."

Thousands of new chemicals are introduced to the marketplace each year and global chemical production is doubling every 25 years.

The report highlights the need for comprehensive policy solutions to avoid the potentially disastrous consequences of releasing these chemicals into the environment.

Read more at the Berkeley Science Review

SOURCE:
Green Chemistry
Chemists clean up their act (view PDF)
by Lee Bishop and Mitch Anstey

The Clean Air Act (CAA) and its amendments are designed to "protect and enhance the nation's air resources so as to promote the public health and welfare and the productive capacity of the population." The CAA consists of six sections, known as Titles, which direct EPA to establish national standards for ambient air quality and for EPA, states, and tribes to implement, maintain, and enforce these standards through a variety of mechanisms. Under the CAA, many facilities are required to obtain operating permits that consolidate their air emission requirements. State, tribal, and local governments oversee, manage, and enforce many of the requirements of the CAA.

Healthcare Air Emissions / Pollutants

Healthcare air emissions come from  air conditioning and refrigeration, boilers, medical waste incinerators (if on site), asbestos, paint booths, ethylene oxide sterilization units, emergency generators, anesthesia, laboratory chemicals, and laboratory fume hoods.

EPA has established national ambient air quality standards (NAAQSs) to limit levels of "criteria pollutants," including carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, ozone, and sulfur dioxide. Geographic areas that meet NAAQSs for a given pollutant are designated as attainment areas; those that do not meet NAAQSs are designated as nonattainment areas.

Each state is requireed to develop a State Implementation Plan (SIP) to identify sources of air pollution and to determine what reductions are required to meet federal air quality standards.

New Source Performance Standards (NSPS)

The following NSPS are particularly relevant to the healthcare industry:

Boilers -Most hospital boilers are subject to the NSPS regulations.

Requirements for monitoring and recordkeeping. http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/boiler/boilerpg.html.

Medical Waste Incinerators - Under the CAA, EPA regulates air emissions from hospital and or medical/infectious wastes incinerators (HMIWI). For additional information visit: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/129/hmiwi/rihmiwi.html.

Hazardous Air Pollutants

EPA establishes and enforces National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs), nationally uniform standards oriented toward controlling specific hazardous air pollutants (HAPs)

Asbestos (40 CFR 61 Subpart M) - A hospital that performs demolition and renovation operations will be subject to the CAA NESHAP for asbestos.

Industrial, Commercial and Institutional Boilers and Process Heaters (40 CFR 63 Subpart DDDDD) - This NESHAP may apply at hospitals that are major hazardous air pollutant emitters under the CAA.

Chemical Accident Prevention Provisions 

The CAA sets forth a list of regulated substances and thresholds, a petition process for adding or deleting substances to the list of regulated substances, etc.

Title V Permits

Title V of the CAA requires that all "major sources" (and certain minor sources) obtain an operating permit.

Refrigerant Recycling Rule 

The purpose of Section 608 of the CAA is to maximize the recovery and recycling of refrigerants during the servicing and disposal of stationary air conditioning and refrigeration equipment. Requirements include prohibition of venting, service requirements, equipment certification, leak repair, proper disposal, and recordkeeping.

EPA Resources for Clean Air Act Compliance and References

More information can be found at http://www.epa.gov/region02/cfc/.

EPA's Clean Air Technology Center, at (919) 541-0800 (in Spanish: (919) 541- 1800) or http://www.epa.gov/ttn/catc, provides general assistance and information on CAA standards.

The Stratospheric Ozone Information Hotline, at (800) 296-1996, or the Ozone Depletion web site (www.epa.gov/ozone), provides general information about regulations promulgated under Title VI of the CAA.

RCRA information pertaining to questions about accidental release prevention under CAA Section112(r), is available in the RCRA OnLine database (www.epa.gov/rcraonline),

Asearchable database of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about RCRA, and through an on-line order form for RCRA publications (www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/publicat.htm).

Information on air toxics is at the Unified Air Toxics web site at http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/.

The Clean Air Technology Center's web site includes recent CAA rules, EPA guidance documents, and updates of EPA activities. Visit the Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) homepage for more information: (http://www.epa.gov/air/).

SOURCE:  EPA industry sector information: www.hercenter.org/links

Synthetic chemicals in the environment may be interfering with our bodies' delicately balanced  endocrine system, even at relatively low levels of exposure.

The endocrine system consists of glands that produce hormones that act together to guide development, growth, reproduction, immunity, normal organ function and behavior. Chemicals can disrupt this complicated and vital system in several ways. They can mimic or block chemicals naturally found in our bodies, alter our hormone levels, interfere with the body's ability to produce hormones and cause long-term effects in offspring born to mothers who are exposed during pregnancy.

Suspected endocrine-disrupting chemicals are found in pesticides, cleaning products, detergents, personal care products and chemicals used in the manufacture of plastics. Most of them are fat-soluble, meaning that they do not move through the body but are stored in body fat.

"Pesticides as Endocrine Disruptors"
www.pmac.net/endodisr.htm
Pest Management at the Crossroads, a Benbrook Consulting Services site, provides several links to articles on how chemicals in the environment act as hormone disrupters.

Grassroots Environmental Education

http://www.grassrootsinfo.org/hormones.html