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From California Department of Toxic Substances Control's FAQ About the Green Chemistry Initiative
What is the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) Green Chemistry Initiative?
The Cal/EPA Green Chemistry Initiative is a collaborative approach for identifying options to reduce significantly the impacts of toxic chemicals on public health and the environment. The Green Chemistry Initiative recommends developing a consistent means for evaluating risk, reducing exposure, encouraging less-toxic industrial processes, and identifying safer alternatives. Most importantly, the Green Chemistry Initiative ensures a comprehensive and collaborative approach, to increase accountability and effectiveness of environmental programs across state government.
How does the Green Chemistry Initiative impact nanomaterials?
Safer Consumer Product Alternatives Regulations:
Under AB 1879 and Health and Safety Code (HSC) Section 25253, DTSC is required to adopt regulations "that establish a process for evaluating chemicals of concern in consumer products, and their potential alternatives, to determine how best to limit exposure or to reduce the level of hazard posed by a chemical of concern." The AA process is required to include life cycle assessment tools that take into consideration at least the following elements: (1) product function or performance; (2) useful life; (3) materials and resource consumption; (4) water conservation; (5) water quality impacts; (6) air emissions; (7) production, in-use, and transportation energy inputs; (8) energy efficiency; (9) greenhouse gas emissions; (10) water and end-of-life disposal; (11) public health impacts, including potential impacts to sensitive subpopulations, including infants and children; (12) environmental impacts; and (13) economic impacts. Following the completion of an AA, the regulations to be proposed must specify the regulatory responses that DTSC may take, ranging from not requiring any action, imposing use restrictions or labeling requirements, or prohibiting the use of the chemical of concern in the consumer product.
"Informal Draft" Safer Consumer Products Regulations:
On October 31, 2011, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) released an "informal draft" Safer Consumer Products Regulations (SCPR). DTSC proposed these regulations after ten months of meetings following the California Secretary for Environmental Protection's instructions to DTSC to stop working on issuing proposed regulations and instead "take additional time to be responsive to the concerns raised and revisit the proposed regulations." The regulations are available online. Comments on the regulations are due December 30, 2011.
Green Ribbon Science Panel Subcommittees:
There are three subcommittees of the Green Ribbon Science Panel: (1) Quality Assurance for Alterntives Assessments Subcommittee, (2) Alterntives Assesments Subcomittee, and (3) Tiered Altatives Assessments subcommittee. These subcommittee have been discussing potential revisions to the DTSC Safer Consumer Product Alternatives regulations, as required by AB 1879. Click here for more information.
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA): CEQA and Green Chemistry: Expansion in a Time of CEQA Scrutiny?
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