Hazardous chemicals substitution

Minimize the risks of hazards by eliminating or reducing quantities of hazardous chemicals, substituting more hazardous chemicals with less hazardous chemicals, and eliminating or changing... 

Inherent safety Inventory reduction Fewer chemicals inventoried or fewer in process vessels. Chemical substitution Substitute a less hazardous chemical for one more hazardous. Fr ocess attenuation Use lower temperatures and pressures. 

Hazardous chemicals or mixtures may be replaceable by safer materials. These may be less toxic per se, or less easily dispersed (e.g. less volatile or dusty). Substitution is also applicable to synthesis routes to avoid the use of toxic reactants/solvents or the production, either intentionally or accidentally, of toxic intermediates, by-products or wastes. 

Lohse, J., Wirts, M., Ahrens, A. et al. (2003) Substitution of Hazardous Chemicals in Products and Processes. Okopol GmhH and KooperationssteUe, Hamhurg. 

By implementing a well-conceived waste management system, it is possible to contribute to resource conservation, for example, via recycling processes of used products. Chemical additives which have been introduced decades ago may consider being later hazardous substances and should therefore be substituted by non-hazardous chemicals. Within the last years, for example, policy tools have been developed to phase out these goods for special recycling procedures or safe disposal. 

The most important step towards a preventive regime, one that truly has protection of human health and the environment at its core, is to give a central place in chemicals legislation to the Substitution Principle. This can be defined quite simply as the substitution of hazardous substances by less hazardous, or preferably non-hazardous, alternatives where such alternatives are available. It means that if a product that uses a hazardous chemical can be manufactured using a safer alternative, at a reasonable cost, the hazardous substance will no longer be permitted for that use. Common sense Yes, but currently things do not work that way, and many hazardous substances are used without need, simply because there is no legislative or economic reason for substitution to take place systematically. 

Some companies are already using substitution as a means of eliminating hazardous chemicals from their businesses, (see Annex I) A variety of reasons exist for why some companies are searching for safer substitutes and these include regulatory drivers (such as the recent Directive on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances), increased public awareness, demands from downstream users or clients, worker protection, liability issues, competitive advantage and company ethics. However, there are also barriers and the development and adoption of safer substitutes is happening only slowly, in a piecemeal fashion and in some sectors not at all. 

The Principle of Substitution states that hazardous chemicals should be systematically substituted by less hazardous alternatives or preferably alternatives for which no hazards can be identified. 

It will avoid the current paralysis-by-analysis syndrome where we have upwards of 30 000 chemicals on the market that have not been adequately tested. Substitution reduces the need for cumbersome, time-consuming, subjective and data-poor assessments of risk. If an alternative is available which is intrinsically less hazardous, intensive assessment of the original hazardous chemical is unnecessary. 

In many cases, hazard based substitution eliminates the need for notoriously difficult exposure assessment. Persistence and bioaccumulation potential are surrogate measures of both hazard and exposure that can be applied quickly to all chemicals In order to identify those of greatest concern. 

Many progressive companies have used the Substitution Principle to move towards the goal of clean production. Some downstream users of chemicals claim to only use benign chemicals in their processes and products. For instance, the McDonough Braungart team of consultants has worked with the Design Tex company to produce a carpet that is made with non-hazardous chemicals from their Positive chemical list. ... 

Such planning for substances of very high concern would vastly improve the information flow and development of safer substitutes. It would also move Europe to become a more competitive, innovative and sustainable producer of chemicals, goods and services. More importantly, it would begin to reverse the body burdens of hazardous chemicals that we all now carry. 

The history of the substitution of hazardous chemicals could be considered a success story. If it is examined more closely, however, a range of as yet ume-solved tasks are still evident (cf chapter 6). This basically concerns two problem areas the fundamental ability and willingness to substitute hazardous substances and the question whether the substitute is actually any less dangerous. 

Competition is the most effective driving force for innovation. In competitionintensive, quality-differentiated, saturated and demand-dominated markets the most important impulses for hazardous substance substitution should originate from the customers, both from the end customers and from industrial or commercial chemicals users ... 

How do the general framework conditions for the substitution of hazardous chemicals differ from the conditions under which the case of asbestos was dealt with This analysis was so important for the SubChem project because the relevance of the historic case analyses for future substitution processes (cf Chapter 3) had to be assessed. 

In applying paragraph 1, substitution shall by preference be undertaken, whereby the employer shall avoid the use of a hazardous chemical agent by replacing it with a chemical agent or process which, under its condition of use, is not hazardous or less hazardous to workers health and safety, as the case may be. 

The economic framework conditions for hazardous substance substitution have thus also changed considerably in the course of the past twenty years. Many commodities are produced today in globally organised supply chains the origin, quality and application conditions of process chemicals and product components is complex. Developing appropriate management systems for product quality and product safety requires considerable organisational innovation by the companies involved. 

With regard to hazardous substance substitution, the guiding principle of the intrinsic safety of chemical substances, products or application systems was examined within the scope of the SubChem project. An essential approach for implementation of the guiding principle of the intrinsically safe substance or the intrinsically safe application system, especially with regard to the health and ecological consequences, would be the use of chemicals of short ranges (chemicals with low environmental persistence and transport distance) e.g. by ... 

By considering hazardous substance substitution to be part of a normal innovation process, an extensive management approach to deal with chemical substances can be established. 

The process safety assessment module screens potential chemical substitutes to determine if they could potentially pose a safety hazard in the workplace. 

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