[Pharmwaste] EPA program: Design for he Environment - to promote safer chemicals and products

[DeBiasi, Deborah (DEQ)]

EPA Announces New Tool to Promote Safer Chemicals and Products
 
Release date: 11/30/2010 


Contact Information: Dale Kemery (News Media Only) kemery.dale at epa.gov
202-564-7839 202-564-4355
WASHINGTON - As part of Administrator Lisa P. Jackson's commitment to
strengthen and reform chemical management, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has announced new criteria to help companies and
other groups, such as states and environmental organizations, identify
safer chemicals. As part of the agency's Design for the Environment
(DfE) program, EPA unveiled the new criteria which are an important tool
under its DfE Alternatives Assessments for identifying safer
alternatives to chemicals that pose a concern to human health and the
environment. 

"This new approach for evaluating and identifying safer chemicals is an
important step toward ensuring that that the chemicals used in this
country are safe," said Steve Owens, assistant administrator for EPA's
Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. "Making this
information available will not only lead to the manufacture of safer
products, it will increase the public's access to critical chemical
information."

The DfE program works in partnership with industry, environmental
groups, and academia to help industry choose safer alternatives to
chemicals that may pose a concern to human health or the environment.
Information on chemical hazards from DfE Alternatives Assessments is
combined with industry data on performance and cost to guide the choice
of safer alternatives. To distinguish among alternatives, DfE evaluates
data for each chemical and assigns hazard levels of high, moderate, or
low for human health and environmental concerns. 

DfE Alternatives Assessments will be conducted for bisphenol A (BPA),
phthalates, decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE), hexabromocyclododecane
(HBCD) and nonylphenol and nonylphenol ethoxylates (NP and NPEs). Both
the BPA and decaBDE efforts are under way and include the use of BPA and
its alternatives in thermal paper, such as cash register receipts, and
the review of flame retardant alternatives to decaBDE in products such
as textiles, plastic palettes, and electronics. Assessments of
phthalates, the flame retardant HBCD, and NPEs will begin in 2011.

The assessments will lead to the manufacture of safer products and
reduced chemical exposures. For example, replacing BPA in thermal paper
with safer alternatives will safeguard children, cashiers, and others
from BPA in cash register or sales receipts. Similarly, safer
alternatives to decaBDE flame retardants used in textiles and
electronics will eliminate an important route of human and environmental
exposure to this chemical.

EPA will accept comment on the criteria through January 31, 2011.


More information: http://epa.gov/dfe/alternative_assessments.html
 


Deborah L. DeBiasi 
Email:   Deborah.DeBiasi at deq.virginia.gov (NEW!)
WEB site address:  www.deq.virginia.gov 
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality 
Office of Water Permit and Compliance Assistance Programs 
Industrial Pretreatment/Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) Program 
PPCPs, EDCs, and Microconstituents
www.deq.virginia.gov/vpdes/microconstituents.html 
Mail:          P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, VA  23218 
Location:  629 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA  23219 
PH:         804-698-4028 
FAX:      804-698-4032