Greenlist Bulletin
From the Toxics Use Reduction Institute
at the University of Massachusetts Lowell
November 22, 2013
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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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| Professional Wet Cleaning Implementation Guide |
Author: Kate Winnebeck
This Implementation Guide is meant to serve as a professional wet cleaning resource for dry cleaners and other garment care professionals. The New York State Pollution Prevention Institute (NYSP2I) developed this Guide to explain how wet cleaning works, the benefits of professional wet cleaning (PWC), and provide considerations and questions for cleaners to help with the adoption of PWC.
A future version of this Guide will include examples of New York State cleaners that have successfully implemented wet cleaning in their shop, including details of their wet cleaning equipment selection process, installation schedule and setbacks, economic and resource analyses of their perc operations compared to wet cleaning operations, and other operational details.
Learn more about TURI's efforts to promote wet cleaning here. |
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| Pulse of the Bay: Contaminants of Emerging Concern | Source: San Francisco Estuary Institute, 2013
The Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in the San Francisco Bay is an innovative collaboration of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, the regulated discharger community, and the San Francisco Estuary Institute. It provides water quality regulators with information they need to manage the Bay effectively. The Program issues a report each year, the Pulse of the Bay, that presents the latest results from monitoring and addresses a theme related to a timely water quality topic. The theme for 2013 is "Contaminants of Emerging Concern." This edition of the Pulse provides a summary of the current state of knowledge of Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) in the Bay. The report includes profiles of the CECs of greatest concern, which summarize information on their use, properties, recent findings from monitoring in the Bay and elsewhere, and developments in management. Read more...Access report here. |
| Partners in Project Green - Case Study Collection |
The Partners in Project Green Pearson Eco-Business Zone [a community of businesses surrounding Toronto Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Ontario, Canada] features a wide array of progressive companies that have realized that where there is an environmental issue, there is an economic opportunity.
Partners in Project Green has an ongoing mandate to collect and share case studies on environmental practices being deployed within the Pearson Eco-Business Zone.
Please search the case study collection to learn more about what companies are doing to improve their financial and environmental performance.
TURI's Note: The Partners in Project Green site features many case studies on resource conservation (RC). For additional case studies on RC, as well as TUR, see the MA Office of Technical Assistance and Technology site, and TURI's site for case studies organized by sector/topic. |
Toxic Flame Retardant Chemicals No Longer? New California Regulation Announced
Enables Fire Safety Without Toxic Flame Retardants | Source: Alliance for Toxic-Free Fire Safety, November 21, 2013
Author: Stephenie Hendricks
(San Francisco) Physicians, scientists, consumer and parent advocates, firefighters, furniture manufacturers and retailers celebrated a hard fought change in California regulations that now enables furniture made for sale for the state to meet a fire safety standard without the use of toxic flame retardant chemicals. Governor Jerry Brown's Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair, Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation (BEARHFTI) announced the new regulation today.
"Such great news that we can soon buy fire safe and healthy furniture without flame retardants," says Arlene Blum, PhD, executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute, who has worked on flame retardants since her research on tris in baby pajamas in the 1970s. "Beginning January 1 2014, we can look for a TB117-2013 tag and then ask for furniture that does not contain flame retardants." . . .
"It's great to see public safety regulations that also protect human health," says Ruthann Rudel, Director of Research at Silent Spring Institute. "Carcinogens don't have any business being in our furniture. Now we can look to other places like Boston and Massachusetts that reference California's flammability regulations to update their codes to this new standard, so that our health in New England is protected too."
Read more...
Access further information on TB 117-2013 here.
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EPA Proposes New Guidelines for Greener Federal Purchases
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WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing draft guidelines that will help the federal government buy greener and safer products. In response to broad stakeholder interest, EPA is seeking public input on these draft guidelines and a potential approach to assessing non-governmental environmental standards and ecolabels already in the marketplace.
"As the largest purchaser in the world, the U.S. government is working to reduce its environmental footprint," said Jim Jones, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. "The government buys everything from furniture to lighting to cleaning products. These guidelines will make it easier for federal purchasers to meet the existing goal of 95 percent sustainable purchases while spurring consumers and the private sector to use and demand safer and greener products."
Access the draft guidelines and supplementary material. Comments will be accepted starting in early December.
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| New guide lists 6 ways to clean up chemicals in supply chains | |
Author: Michelle Harvey
In the world of consumer products made from mixtures of chemicals -- baby lotion, shampoo, cleaners, laundry soap -- chemists seek ingredients that are effective and feasible. Too often, what they don't also consider are the hazardous properties of these chemicals and the risks they pose to consumers.
This is in part because most chemists are not trained in toxicology. It's also because many biological interactions that occur when we use everyday products on our bodies and in our homes are only now being understood. As our understanding has grown, groups such as the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) have called for the removal of some of the more concerning chemical ingredients from store shelves.
But it's not as simple as just taking a hazardous chemical out of a product. While in some instances a chemical of concern simply can be eliminated, in many cases these chemicals perform a key function in a product and a replacement chemical is necessary. If the replacement isn't carefully considered for its own potentially deleterious effects, you can end up exchanging a problem for a problem -- resulting in a regrettable substitution.
The good news is that the path forward for identifying and making informed choices about substitutes has become a lot clearer.
Recently, EDF together with BizNGO, the Toxics Use Reduction Institute and the Lowell Center for [Sustainable Production] released "The Commons Principles for Alternatives Assessment" with the support of more than 100 representatives from businesses, universities and NGOs. This broad consensus around simple, solutions-based principles signals a growing commitment to moving hazardous chemicals out of the supply chain and driving informed, safer innovations.
View "The Commons Principles for Alternatives Assessment." |
EPA Study: Mercury Levels in Women of Childbearing Age Drop 34 Percent / Data suggest women making more informed seafood choices
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WASHINGTON -- Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a study showing that blood mercury levels in women of childbearing age dropped 34 percent from a survey conducted in 1999-2000 to follow-up surveys conducted from 2001 to 2010. Additionally, the percentage of women of childbearing age with blood mercury levels above the level of concern decreased 65 percent from the 1999-2000 survey and the follow-up surveys from 2001-2010.
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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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