Safety and Sustainability of Chemicals

A chemical substance is safe for a certain use if it is demonstrated that it poses no risk when taking into consideration risk reduction measures that reduce exposure of man or environment [86-88]. However, this is not enough to indicate that it is also a sustainable chemical. A sustainability target consists of the development of inherently safe chemicals (ISCs), for example, without risks for human health and the environment, even without specific exposure control. 

We may distinguish two aspects for ISC those used at workplaces (in particular, in SMEs), where in principle only substances not classified as dangerous for human health should be used, and those released to the environment, which should be not persistent and bioaccumulative or not persistent and highly mobile. 

The combination of persistence with mobility is also of great concern, because  

Sustainable chemicals should be short-range chemicals, that is, in which their (i) spatial range is low (mobility), (ii) temporal range is low (persistence) and (iii) effects are not irreversible. Clearly, not all chemicals that should be used can have the above characteristics because, for example, fuels must be inflammable, pesticides must be toxic (even with controlled properties) and reactive reagents must be aggressive/corrosive. The challenge is thus a careful control of the properties ( just needed ) and hazardous properties should be not linked to not-necessary functionalities. 

However, it is necessary to go beyond inherent safety sustainable chemicals, because they should be produced with low resource demand (energy, feedstock, auxiliaries), high yield and low discharges of sewage and waste. Three steps towards sustainability of chemicals should be evidenced  

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