Safer Chemicals Within Reach

As public awareness of hazardous chemical contamination grows, there is increasing demand for the cessation of persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic materials in production processes and products. Reaction to this increasing public concern by product manufacturers and governments can be one of risk management or the adoption of the substitution principle. Increasingly, substitution is seen as the preferred alternative. 

Indeed the principle has been enshrined in many international forums, particularly those that have set the generational goal to achieve the elimination of hazardous substances (Thorpe, 2003). The Nordic countries, in particular, have based many of their chemical policies round the principle of substitution. Most notable is the Swedish Chemicals Products Act of 1985, which puts the onus on anyone handling or importing a chemical to avoid chemical products for which less hazardous substitutes are available (Geiser and Tickner, 2003). 

In June 2003 the United Kingdom s Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution recommended that the U.K. government adopt substitution as a central 

In particular, downstream chemical users will benefit from a more efficient and streamlined flow of information among the supply chain, allowing a more discerning choice of materials and enhancing the profit potential of new materials. 

Skanska, one of the world s largest construction companies, with 75,000 employees and activities world-wide, claims that operating for many years under substitution regulation in Sweden has lead them to 

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SAFER CHEMICALS WITHIN REACH Using the Substitution Principietodrive Green Chemistry... 

Safer Chemicals within REACH Report prepared forthe Greenpeace Environmental Trust by Clean Production Action with contributions from International Chemical Secretariat... 

Safer Chemicals Within Reach Using the Substitution Principle to Drive Green Chemistry, REACH Report prepared for the Greenpeace Environmental Trust by Clean Production Action, Clean Production Action, 2004. www. cleanproduction. org/library/SafeChem.pdf. 

Clean Production Action. 2003. Safer chemicals within REACH. Using the substitution principle to drive green chemistry. Report prepared for Green Peace Environmental Trust. 

A safer alternative is one that does not meet the requirements for a substance of very high concern as defined in the authorisation procedure of the REACH proposed regulation. Obviously, every effort must be made to select the least hazardous alternative within this universe of "safer" chemicals. 

REACH will obviously helpfill this much-needed gap in information. It can be surmised that the phosphorus alternatives to BFRs listed in the case studies above are generally safer because of the non-organic, less bioaccumulative nature of the compounds. Some alternative compounds are in need of more research depending on the type of mix used. Specific information on the exact chemical composition was generally not available. However, it is vital to remember that, within the context of... 

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