Greenlist Bulletin
From the Toxics Use Reduction Institute
at the University of Massachusetts Lowell
September 14, 2012
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This is the weekly bulletin of the TURI Library at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Greenlist Bulletin provide s previews of recent publications and websites relevant to reducing the use of toxic chemicals by industries, businesses, communities, individuals and government. You are welcome to send a message to mary@turi.org if you would like more information on any of the articles listed here, or if this email is not displaying properly.
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| The Dirt on Cleaners | |
Source: Environmental Working Group, September 2012
EWG's Guide to Healthy Cleaning reviews and rates more than 2,000 popular household cleaning products with grades A through F, based on the safety of their ingredients and the information they disclose about their contents.
In the making for more than a year, EWG's Guide to Healthy Cleaning, the only one of its kind, has found that hazardous industrial chemicals lurk in far too many bottles and boxes under Americans' sinks and on laundry room shelves.
Just seven percent of cleaning products adequately disclosed their contents. To uncover what's in common household cleaners, EWG's staff scientists spent 14 months reading product labels and digging through company websites and technical documents. We researched ingredients and contaminants in 15 government, industry and academic toxicity databases and numerous scientific and medical journals.
Read more...
For commentary see Chemical & Engineering News' Cleantech Chemistry blog.
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U.N.: Chemicals damaging health and environment
| Source: USA Today, September 6, 2012
Author: Edith M. Lederer
UNITED NATIONS -- The potential cost of pesticide-related illnesses in sub-Saharan African between 2005 and 2020 could reach $90 billion, according to a U.N. report released Wednesday highlighting the growing health and environmental hazards from chemicals.
It said the estimated cost of pesticide poisoning exceeds the total amount of international aid for basic health services for the region, excluding HIV/AIDS.
The report by the U.N. Environment Program warned that the increasing production of chemicals, especially in emerging economies where there are weaker safeguards, is damaging the environment and increasing health costs.
The program urged stepped up action by governments and industry to meet a target set by the world's nations in 2002 to produce and use chemicals by 2020 in ways that minimize adverse effects on human health in the environment.
Rachel Massey of the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, one of the report's authors, told a news conference launching the report that chemical production is growing worldwide, but the growth is most rapid in emerging economies.
Read more...
Read additional information on the UNEP report...
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| Air Force joins nation for Pollution Prevention Week 2012 | |
Source: Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment, September 10, 2012
Author: Eric Grill
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas -- In its continuing efforts to educate the public about pollution prevention and reducing the contamination of air, soil and water by eliminating pollution at its source, the Air Force joins the nation Sept. 17-24 for Pollution Prevention Week.
Observed during the third full week in September, Pollution Prevention Week presents an annual opportunity for individuals, businesses and government agencies to highlight past successes, expand current initiatives and commit to new ways to protect the environment.
Read more...
Read more about P2 Week 2012 on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's website.
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How manufacturers can prep for new hazardous chemical regulations | |
Source: GreenBiz.com, September 7, 2012
Author: Alison Moodie
There's a large governmental effort underway to improve the classification and labeling of products containing hazardous materials. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the federal agency in charge of safety and health legislation, announced earlier this year new regulations on how chemicals are classified and how the potential hazards of these chemicals are communicated to workers.
More than 32 million US workers are exposed to 650,000 hazardous chemical products, according to OSHA. These changes could reduce worker injuries and increase productivity, says the agency, and could save over half a billion dollars annually in the US alone. . . .
The new OSHA regulations conform to the United Nations' Globally Harmonized System (GHS) of Chemical Classification and Labeling of Chemicals, which has previously been adopted by the European Union. Countries in the Asia Pacific and South America have done so as well.
Read more...
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| Screening for PBT Chemicals among the "Existing" and "New" Chemicals of the EU | Source: Environmental Science & Technology
Authors: Sebastian Strempel, Martin Scheringer, Carla A. Ng, and Konrad Hungerbühler
Under the European chemicals legislation, REACH, industrial chemicals that are imported or manufactured at more than 10 t/yr need to be evaluated with respect to their persistence (P), bioaccumulation potential (B), and toxicity (T). This assessment has to be conducted for several 10,000 of chemicals but, at the same time, empirical data on degradability, bioaccumulation potential and toxicity of industrial chemicals are still scarce. Therefore, the identification of PBT chemicals among all chemicals on the market remains a challenge. We present a PBT screening of approximately 95,000 chemicals based on a comparison of estimated P, B, and T properties of each chemical with the P, B, and T thresholds defined under REACH. We also apply this screening procedure to a set of 2,576 high production volume chemicals and a set of 2,781 chemicals from the EU's former list of "new chemicals" (ELINCS). In the set of 95,000 chemicals, the fraction of potential PBT chemicals is around 3%, but in the ELINCS chemicals it reaches 5%. We identify the most common structural elements among the potential PBT chemicals. Analysis of the P, B, and T data for all chemicals considered here shows that the uncertainty in persistence data contributes most to the uncertainty in the number of potential PBT chemicals.
Read more...
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| Please send a message to mary@turi.org if you would like more information on any of these resources. Also, please tell us what topics you are particularly interested in monitoring, and who else should see Greenlist. An online search of the TURI Library catalog can be done at http://library.turi.org for greater topic coverage.
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Greenlist Bulletin is compiled by:
Mary Butow
TURA Program Research Assistant
Toxics Use Reduction Institute
University of Massachusetts Lowell
600 Suffolk St., Wannalancit Mills
Lowell MA 01854
978-934-4365
978-934-3050 (fax)
mary@turi.org
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