Environmental and human health

For an excellent, comprehensive review of the chemistry, environmental, and anthropogenic release, environmental fate, and environmental and human health effects of lead, see Air Quality Criteria for Eead, Vol. I—IV, EPA-600/8-83/028a-dF, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., June 1986, -Msd Air Quality Criteria for Eead Supplement to the 1986 Addendum, EPA-600/8-89/049F, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., Aug. 1990. 

Many countries have adopted chemical substance iaventories ia order to monitor use and evaluate exposure potential and consequences. In the case of essential oils used in many fragrance appHcations, these oils must be on many of these Hsts. New essential oils used in fragrances are subject to premanufactuting or premarketing notification (PMN). PMN requirements vary by country and predicted volume of production. They require assessment of environmental and human health-related properties, and reporting results to designated governmental authorities. 

From a toxicological and physiological point of view, the determination of very small amounts of tellurium is becoming increasingly important. Interest is environmental and human health has promoted development in analytical techniques and methods for the trace and ultra trace levels (see Trace AND RESIDUE ANALYSIS). 

After each issue outlined in the evaluation criteria has been developed for each corrective measure, the selection of the most appropriate alternative can be made. Trade-offs among health risks, environmental effects and other pertinent technical, environmental and human health factors enter into this decisionmaking process. In the RCRA context, cost is not a factor in the selection process except when two or more corrective measure alternatives are determined by EPA to provide similarly adequate levels of protection of human health and the environment. 

D. Paustenbach. The Risk Asseisiiient of Environmental and Human Health Hazards A Textbook of Case Studies, John Wiley Sons, New York City, 1989. 

DfE forms partnerships with industry and other interested parties to develop information on environmental and human health impacts, performance, and cost of cleaner technologies and approaches. 

Using this system, SC Johnson scores both raw materials and formulated products, tracks the score of all raw material purchases and measures the overall percentage of materials that fall into each rating category, that is considered Best or RUM . The scores are used to set company goals, as well as to reward the formulators and chemists who use the system to improve the environmental and human health profiles of individual products and product lines. 

Most circuit boards are FR-4 boards that meet standards for fire safety by the use of brominated epoxy resins in which the reactive flame-retardant tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) forms part of the polymeric backbone of the resin. Alternative flame-retardant materials are used in only 3-5 per cent of the FR-4 boards, but additional alternative flame-retardant materials are also imder development. Little information exists concerning the potential environmental and human health impacts of the materials which are being developed as alternatives to those used today that are based on brominated epoxy resins. 

The DfE partnership will develop information to improve the understanding of the environmental and human health impacts of new and current materials that can be used to meet the fire safety requirements for circuit boards. Project partners include electronics manufacturers, component and board manufacturers, chemical companies, trade associations, environmental groups, universities and governments. The project will consider environmental and human health impacts that can occur throughout the life cycle of a material, from development and manufacture, through product use and end of life of the material or product. Stakeholders have expressed a particular interest in understanding the combustion products that could be formed during certain end of life scenarios. The list of active partners includes ... 

Coastwide Laboratories/Corporate Express and SEGC 114. Coastwide Laboratories, now owned by Corporate Express uses green chemistry to develop products that meet rigorous performance, environmental, and human health criteria. They developed a product development standard called the Sustainable Earth Green Chemistry Standard 114 (SEGC 114), to establish positive criteria for product efficacy as well as human and environmental health benefits. Their strategy involves ... 

CleanGredients is an online database of cleaning product ingredients A one-stop-shop for green formulation . The database contains physical chemical data, MSDSs, technical datasheets, and environmental and human health hazard data on raw materials used to formulate cleaning products. 

The new antimicrobial is an order of magnitude less toxic, several orders of magnitude less volatile, easier to handle, more compatible with other water treatment chemicals, more effective against biofilms, and it generates less than half the disinfection by-products compared to chlorine or other alternatives. One hundred fifty billion gallons of industrial water have by now been successfully treated globally. Use of this new antimicrobial has substantially reduced environmental and human health risks from industrial water treatment by replacing nearly thirty million pounds of chlorine. The new product is proven to comparatively perform better, more safely, and it is substantially easier to apply than chlorine. 

A Revision of Current Models for Environmental and Human Health Impact and Risk Assessment for Application to Emerging Chemicals... 

In order to illustrate how the results finally mm out, examples for external costs induced by lead emissions and environmental and human health end points are presented here. The example presenting the external costs of lead emissions is more elaborate so as to give the reader an opportunity to follow a typical line of reasoning, while the generic table on typical external costs can be used as examples of final results from economic valuation studies. 

Table 2 presents results from three different methods and studies that have performed large-scale inventories on external costs associated with environmental and human health impacts [37, 38, 44, 45]... 

Table 2 External costs for different environmental and human health impacts...

As is seen, this example shows that flame retardants might be good for society (from a socio-economic perspective) even if they cause a number of adverse environmental and human health impacts as long as the value of the avoided mortality impacts is larger. Replacement of flame retardants should only be done (from an economic perspective) if the replacement cost is smaller than the avoided environmental and human health values. 

The negative aspects of chemical additives appear to be getting more and more attention in the public debate. Results linking chemical additives to adverse environmental and human health impacts are being produced. But more results are needed. More economic valuation studies are needed to support analysis as well as impact analysis on parameters such as human fertility, animal reproduction and animal productivity. Of big concern for the authors of this chapter is the need to know more about diffuse exposure from the use of products containing chemical additives. 

Several studies have suggested that some critical adverse effects like peroxisome proliferation, hepatotoxicity, immunotoxicity, and developmental toxicity may be associated with chemical exposure to PFCs, particularly to PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate) and PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), two ubiquitous persistent organic pollutants with possible environmental and human health risks. 

The characteristics of the applied models have been described in detail in the chapters Environmental Fate Models [50] and A Revision of Current Models for Environmental and Human Health Impact and Risk Assessment for Application to Emerging Chemicals [49] and only a brief overview is given here. Since each model has its own approach (i.e., QWASI is focused on the aquatic system), the combined results are expected to give a wider view with in-depth analyses for different aspects compared to just one model with its special characteristics. 

Rovira J, Nadal M, Domingo JL, Tanaku T, Suciu NA, Trevisan M, Capri E, Segul X, Darbra RM, Schuhmacher M (2012) A revision of current models for environmental and human health... 

Helland, A., Wick, P., Koehler, A., Schmid, K., and Som, C. (2007) Reviewing the environmental and human health knowledge base of carbon nanotubes. Environmental Health Perspectives, 115 (8), 1125-1131. 

---