Hazardous substances legislation

By way of reaction to the evident deficit in implementing the differentiated chemicals/hazardous substance legislation in Europe, the authorities responsible in all EU Member States set up the CLEEN network (Chemical Legislation En-... 

For work areas (rooms inside buildings in which workplaces have been permanently installed) the requirements relating to workplaces as specified in the Workplaces Ordinance must be observed. Basically rooms in workplaces (such as office rooms, for example) are deemed to be indoor environments in the aforementioned sense when the air pollutants found there are not used as working materials or when a working material from an area subject to hazardous substances legislation crosses into these rooms (Welzbacher, 1999). 

This is the first solely ehemical incident in which the brigade was involved and is still viewed as the landmark ineident that led to the revision of hazardous substances legislation in New Zealand. 

Control (IPPC) License, (3) Restriction on Hazardous Substances Legislation, (4) Water Framework Directive, (5) Air Quality Framework Directive, (6) Strategic Environmental Assessment, (7) Wildlife and Habitats Legislation, (8) Kyoto Protocol, (9) Rio Declaration, (10) Tradable Permits, (11) Planning Laws, (12) Environmental Impact Statanent (ElS), and (13) Energy Use in Bnildings. Some of them are related to environmental engineering. 

TABLE 1.2 Materials Impacted by Restriction of Hazardous Substances Legislation... 

The transportation of chemicals is dierefore highly regulated. In addition to general transport legislation numerous statutory provisions govern die carriage of hazardous substances by air, road, rail and sea. These tend to address die need for ... 

It should be noted that early remedial actions for contaminated soil consisted primarily of excavation and removal of the contaminated soil from the site and its disposal at a landfill. SARA strongly recommends on-site treatment that permanently and significantly reduces the volume, toxicity, or mobility of hazardous substances, and utilizes cost-effective permanent solutions. The legislation prohibits land disposal of hazardous wastes unless U.S. EPA determines otherwise (as in the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments, HSWA). 

The second possibility is the European waste legislation, which includes the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS). The RoHS Directive is closely linked with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) which sets collection, recycling, and recovery targets for electrical goods and is part of a legislative initiative to solve the problem of toxic e-waste. 

The Finnish legislation (Pyotsia, 1994) classifies the flammability of chemical substances on the basis of their flash and boiling points. This is similar to the European Union Directives concerning hazardous substances. Also the Dow Fire and Explosion Index (1987) and Edwards Lawrence (1993) have been used similar approaches. 

Chemical industries—Law and legislation— Economic aspects—United States—Congresses. 2. Hazardous substances—Law and legislation—Economic aspects—United States—Congresses. 

Another piece of legislative action to be considered is the OSPAR strategy regarding hazardous substances, known as the Convention for the protection of the marine environment of North-Atlantic . Among the OSPAR list of chemicals of priority action, surfactants NPEOs and so-called related substances, such as NP, are included among other persistent organic pollutants (POPs) like PCBs, PAHs and Hg, indicating that these compounds show a risk to the marine environment. 

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. 

With the background of this experience, we find it important that EU legislation supports the idea of substitution when a better alternative is available. Such legislation would support us In our continued effort to eliminate hazardous substances from our products and to find better solutions that are less harmful to the environment."Ingrid Schullstrom H M... 

As the substitution of dangerous/hazardous substances is one of the means to achieve the general goal of protecting human health, omitting the principle of substitution from the proposed chemicals legislation orthe inclusion of a weak version of this Principle, will be interpreted as a lack of serious commitment by the Commission to this goal. 

Certain regulations contained in the air legislation and also in the annexes to the Waste Water Ordinance include the substitution of hazardous substances as the best available technology and thus attempt to put into operation the precautionary principle (cf UBA texts 88/99, Guidance Manual for Formulators and Other Professional Users of Chemicals). 

The comparatively small number of new substances that are marketed and the high import ratio of new substances from outside the EU zone (approximately 40%) indicate that the legislative unequal treatment of existing substances and new substances in the past two decades has had an effect of slowing down substance innovations . Substances from the inventory of existing substances are mainly used for the substitution of hazardous substances, once this has in fact taken place. 

Hazardous substance is used here in accordance with the criteria of German chemicals legislation irrespective of the fact whether a legal classification or manufacturer s classification exists. 

Consumer Product and Safety Commission (CPSC) - under the Department of Labor. Its goal is to protect the consumer against unreasonable risks from products specified by legislation such as the Hazardous Substances Labeling Act, Consumer Product Safety Act, and Flammable Fabrics Act. (http //www.cpsc.gov/)... 

The environmental impact of waste disposal and of chemical use in Europe has led to three legislative actions that, in today s global economy, greatly affect flame-retardant use and research. These actions go by the acronyms of RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances), WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), and REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemical substances). These actions are discussed in detail in Chapter 22, but need to be mentioned here as they are clear examples of how changing regulations affect flame-retardant use, selection, and new fire-safety developments. The first one, RoHS, refers to how new items are manufactured, and specifically bans chemicals and elements of environmental and toxicological concern in Europe. One fall-out item of RoHS is the move from a lead-based solder on circuit... 

The Administrative Measure on the Control of Pollution Caused by Electronic Information Products (China-RoHS) entered into force in March 2007.85 The legislation is applicable to import, manufacture, and sale of products in China. Products for export are specifically excluded. Many product types that are not within the scope of the EU RoHS are within the scope of the China RoHS and vice versa. In addition, the initial disclosure, declaration, and exemption requirements for a RoHS certificate in China are different from the EU RoHS. The same six hazardous substances are regulated (lead, cadmium, chromium(VI), mercury, PBBs, and PBDEs, with the exception of deca-BDE). The China RoHS is likely to be upgraded to national regulation and to be amended in the future to potentially cover more products. More detailed materials testing is required in the China RoHS and is accepted only if performed by certified Chinese laboratories. A table in the product documentation must identify which hazardous substances are contained and which components are present. 

From the start, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been inescapably involved in this problem through the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and earlier legislation, but since 1979 it became evident that EPA s normal resources were quite inadequate to deal with the overall problem in a timely way. Therefore in late 1980 the Comprehensive Environmental Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (the Superfund Act) was passed. The Act revises a more limited National Contingency Plan to permit response to hazardous substances and to provide extra funds for EPA to tackle the problem. 

---