Greenlist Bulletin
From the Toxics Use Reduction Institute
at the University of Massachusetts Lowell
September 13, 2013
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| Highlighted Resource | | 2013 Additives Reference Guide from Paint & Coatings Industry |
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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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EPA Web Tool Expands Access to Scientific, Regulatory Information on Chemicals
| Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, September 10, 2013
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a web-based tool, called ChemView, to significantly improve access to chemical specific regulatory information developed by EPA and data submitted under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). "This online tool will improve access to chemical health and safety information, increase public dialogue and awareness, and help viewers choose safer ingredients used in everyday products," said James Jones, assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. "The tool will make chemical information more readily available for chemical decision-makers and consumers." The ChemView web tool displays key health and safety data in an online format that allows comparison of chemicals by use and by health or environmental effects. The search tool combines available TSCA information and provides streamlined access to EPA assessments, hazard characterizations, and information on safer chemical ingredients. Additionally, the new web tool allows searches by chemical name or Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) number, use, hazard effect, or regulatory action. It has the flexibility to create tailored views of the information on individual chemicals or compare multiple chemicals sorted by use, hazard effect or other criteria. The new portal will also link to information on manufacturing, processing, use, and release data reported under the Chemical Data Reporting Rule, and the Toxics Release Inventory. In the months ahead, EPA will be continuously adding additional chemicals, functionality and links. When fully updated, the web tool will contain data for thousands of chemicals. EPA has incorporated stakeholder input into the design, and welcomes feedback on the current site. Read more...View and search ChemView. |
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| It's Not Easy Being Green | Source: Chemical & Engineering News, September 9, 2013
Author: Cheryl Hogue
When Paul S. Anderson was in graduate school in the early 1960s, he remembers that his fellow chemists had some vague awareness that their work could affect the environment. "But it was pretty minimal," says Anderson, a retired pharmaceutical industry chemist and former president of the American Chemical Society. In those days, chemists flushed solvents down laboratory sink drains as a matter of course, he says.
Then spring sprang. Rachel Carson published her landmark book "Silent Spring" in 1962. It raised awareness about unintended consequences of pesticides and triggered a public outcry that eventually led Congress to pass modern pollution control laws. Anderson says the book also triggered environmental cognizance among chemists. "It made us aware of the fact that things that were intended to be good might turn out to have consequences that were neither anticipated nor understood in any detail," he says.
Though many chemists and chemical companies initially derided Carson's message, it has endured -- and during the past half-century, it has led to changes in the chemical enterprise. Hazardous waste sites leaking industrial chemicals, including the notorious Love Canal in Niagara Falls, N.Y., during the 1970s, increased sensitivity. Mary L. Good, a former ACS president who has worked in industry, academia, and the federal government, says environmental mindfulness over the past five decades has "enormously improved."
But some say even with the rise of green chemistry, the discipline and industry still have a long way to go. One problem is that academic and entrepreneurial chemists often focus solely on applications for new chemicals, says David J. C. Constable, director of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute (GCI). "They certainly don't look at things from a life-cycle perspective," which considers the availability and sources of raw materials as well as uses and ultimate disposal of products, he says.
Read more...
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| Walmart steps in right direction to cut chemicals, fertilizer | Source: GreenBiz.com, September 12, 2013
Author: Elizabeth Sturcken
[On September 12, 2013], Walmart broadcast its Global Sustainability Milestone Meeting across the Web, giving audiences everywhere a peek into its journey to achieve its goal of selling "products that sustain people and the environment."
Why wouldn't a retailer sell products that sustain its customers (so they can continue shopping there) and its resources (so it can continue operating)? In a perfect world, all companies would operate like this. That's not the case though.
Aspirational goals like this are hard for any company, much less the world's largest retailer. Environmental Defense Fund has spent 25 years proving that good environmental strategy and profitability go hand in hand.
For Walmart -- with up to half a million products in every store from more than 100,000 suppliers -- product sustainability is a massive undertaking.
Read more...
Also read from GreenBiz, Walmart seeks to clear toxics from its shelves, and Walmart's chemical policy: The right formula, but just a first step.
Also read the company press release, Walmart Highlights Progress on the Sustainability Index, and view their Policy on Sustainable Chemistry in Consumables. TURI's Note: Read Toxic substances in articles: the need for information (2008). The report was commissioned by the Swedish Chemicals Agency (KemI). The authors are Rachel I. Massey and Janet G. Hutchins of the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute, Joel Tickner of the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production and Monica Becker of Monica Becker & Associates. |
| Safety Data Sheets Often Fail Workers Who Handle Nanomaterials, Union Official Says | Source: Bloomberg BNA, September 12, 2013
Author: Robert Iafolla
Sept. 10 -- Due in part to "woefully incomplete" safety data sheets, workers often do not have sufficient information about potential exposure to substances containing nanomaterials, a union official said at a government-sponsored nanotechnology conference Sept. 10.
Some companies do not list nanomaterials, fail to provide all cautionary information or only include occupational exposure limits for a substance in its standard -- rather than nano-sized -- form, said Darius Sivin, a health and safety specialist at the United Automobile Workers.
Sivin cited an analysis conducted by safety consultants at the Lippy Group LLP of 49 safety data sheets for nanomaterial-containing products. One-third did not list the nanomaterials, 52 percent did not have cautionary language and 62 percent used exposure limits for the substance in its standard size, Sivin said.
"Even where we theoretically have the right to know, we don't necessarily have the right information," Sivin said.
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| FTC to Host Public Roundtable on Care Labeling Rule | Source: American Drycleaner, August 21, 2013
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will host a public roundtable Oct. 1 to analyze proposed changes to its Care Labeling Rule.
In September 2012, the FTC sought feedback on potential updates to the Rule on Care Labeling of Textile Wearing Apparel and Certain Piece Goods, which requires manufacturers and importers to attach care labels on garments and certain piece goods with instructions for dry cleaning, washing, bleaching, drying and ironing.
Based on the feedback the FTC received, one topic the roundtable will discuss is a proposal to allow manufacturers and importers to include a wetcleaning label on garments, if it can be professionally wet cleaned, and whether the FTC should require wetcleaning instructions for such garments.
"It will also address the cost of substantiating wetcleaning instructions, the availability of wet cleaning, customer awareness of wet cleaning and the content of labels providing a wetcleaning instruction," says the FTC.
Read more... TURI's Note: Visit TURI's page on wet cleaning to see case studies, identify wet cleaners in MA, and more. |
| Waste Heat Recovery Methods And Technologies | Source: Chemical Engineering, January 1, 2013
Authors: C.C.S. Reddy, S.V. Naidu, and G.P. Rangaiah
[Summary:] There is significant potential for recovering some of the wasted heat in the CPI. Key requirements, benefits and drawbacks for numerous techniques are reviewed.
Waste heat recovery (WHR) is essential for increasing energy efficiency in the chemical process industries (CPI). Presently, there are many WHR methods and technologies at various stages of implementation in petroleum refineries, petrochemical, chemical and other industry sectors. Increasing energy costs and environmental concerns provide strong motivation for implementing more and newer methods and technologies for WHR. The main objective of this article is to provide a review of promising methods and technologies for WHR (up to 400C) as a ready resource that can be used for better understanding and preliminary selection of suitable WHR techniques.
Read more...
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| Procter & Gamble Eliminating Phthalates, Triclosan from Products Worldwide | Source: The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, September 4, 2013
Due to public pressure and growing concerns about the safety of chemicals found in common cosmetics, household cleaners and fragranced products, Procter & Gamble (P&G) will achieve total elimination of the toxic chemicals triclosan and diethyl phthalate (DEP) from all its products by 2014, according to an announcement on the company's website. P&G is the world's largest manufacturer of consumer products, home to iconic brands including Cover Girl, Tide, Crest and Ivory.
"The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics congratulates P&G for taking bold and globally-significant action to protect the health of its 4.8 billion consumers by eliminating two dangerous toxic chemicals -- triclosan and DEP -- from all its products," said Janet Nudelman, program director at the Breast Cancer Fund and co-founder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.
Read more...
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| EPA Withdraws Two Proposals On Chemical Safety | Source: Chemical & Engineering News, September 13, 2013
Author: Cheryl Hogue
...EPA has rescinded plans to propose two new chemical safety regulations.
One rule EPA was considering would have placed bisphenol A, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, and eight phthalates on a federal "chemicals of concern" list. The other rule would have barred chemical makers, in most instances, from claiming the identity of a substance as confidential business information in health and safety data they submit to EPA.
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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
Research and Reference Specialist
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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