Product Stewardship Regulations

Reports of chemicals in the environment or in our bodies can provoke strong emotional responses. Some believe that the widespread distribution of low levels of chemicals is an acceptable price to pay for the convenience and safety afforded by the use of many chemicals others may blame chemical companies for an apparent focus on profits at the expense of the environment. But the explanation is more nuanced than that and depends in part upon the regulations that societies choose to impose on the manufacture, import, and use of chemicals. 

A comprehensive regulatory review would examine restrictions on chemical substances, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food additives, and food contact materials. Such an examination would fill several volumes. This book narrows the focus to regulations on chemical substances used to manufacture various industrial and consumer products. The history of those programs provides much of the explanation for current environmental conditions. 

National environmental laws often reflect two global treaties, the Rotterdam Convention and the Stockholm Convention. Brief summaries follow. The Rotterdam Convention establishes a prior informed consent (PIC) procedure for importing shipments of chemicals listed in Annex 111 of the convention and provides for information exchange between participating countries. Adopted in September 1998, it entered into force February 2004 [1]. The 2001 Stockholm Convention requires parties to the treaty to take measures to eliminate or reduce the release of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) into the environment [2]. As described in this chapter, regulations on persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic substances address POPs. Industry value in 1970 dollars adjusted for inflation using the US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator at http //www.bls.gov/data/inflation calcula-tor.htm, equivalent to 1.01 trillion in 2010. 

Product Stewardship Life Cycle Analysis and the Environment 

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Chemical regulations in Europe developed as the European Union was evolving. The formation of the European Union is far outside the scope of this book, but a brief overview of recent history sets the stage for understanding the development of product stewardship regulations. The outline below documents milestones in the coalescence of the European Union after World War II [75] to provide context for the development of regulations on the manufacture and use of chemicals. 

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