Abstract

1. Green Chemistry: Development of a Chemical Evaluation ToolJames C. Coleman II, Ph.D.*, Jennifer M. Johnson*, Kenneth Washburn, Ph.D., DABT**, Denise Hill, Ph.D.*** Cardno ENTRIX, 8080 Beckett Center Dr., Ste. 309, West Chester, OH 45069** Cardno ENTRIX, 5252 Westchester Street, Suite 250, Houston, TX 77005 What is “Green”? • The green chemistry movement is gaining momentum as societal concern about toxic chemical effects mount. The movement seeks to align science, the environment, and economics to create more innovative, efficient and safer product and business designs. As defined by the USEPA, green chemistry (or sustainable chemistry) is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances. Green chemistry applies across the entire life cycle of a chemical product, including its design, manufacture, use and disposal.  • Custom Industry-Specific Chemical Evaluation Tool • Screening Tool Type 1 • Screening Tool 1 is a very qualitative evaluation tool based on the chemical composition presented in a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). This option is economical for evaluating purchased products, and for evaluating or optimizing potential future products at the corporate level. Since this tool is based on declared composition information in MSDSs, an industrial entity developing (Developer) the tool would not be required to request or handle confidential business information (CBI) from chemical product vendors in the supply chain. A drawback is that the results of an evaluation only have internal value and cannot be used to make or support “green” product claims. The CBI information vendors have in their possession cannot be part of the product evaluation. ………………………………………………………………………………….……………………...................................... • Screening Tool Type 2 • Screening Tool 2 is a basic qualitative evaluation tool with a third party delegated control of CBI from chemical product vendors. This quantitative tool may be used by trained personnel with strong backgrounds in science for the purposes of making and supporting “green” product claims. This tool offers allows assessment of confidential components not listed on the chemical product vendor MSDS. The delegated third party can readily access CBI from vendors using a legal vehicle such as a mutual Nondisclosure Agreement. The Developer of the tool may use it to assess products without CBI and the delegated third party may use the tool to assess products containing CBI, transmitting only sanitized information to the Developer. The drawback to this tool is that it requires continuous management of CBI by a third party and also is subject to additional maintenance costs when vendors frequently reformulate products. • Defining Green: Chemical Evaluation Tools • USEPA’s DfE: EPA has developed Designs for the Environment as a transparent tool for evaluating and differentiating among chemicals based on concerns for human health and environmental hazard. • UN’s GHS: The Globally Harmonized System addresses standardizing and harmonizing the classification and labeling of chemicals, addresses health, physical and environmental hazards of chemicals. • NSF’s Greener Chemical Products and Processes Standard: This consensus based standard for green info reporting through the ANSI process incorporates social responsibility criteria applied at the corporate level. .………………………………………………………………………………………………………........................................ Screening Tool Type 3 Screening Tool 3 is a fully quantitative evaluation tool used by trained toxicology or environmental professionals to perform with third party control of CBI from vendors. It may include toxicity and regulatory endpoints, allowing for substantiated “green” product marketing claims and responsible vendor product selection. The Developer may use this type of tool as a powerful pre-formulation tool. Also, the quantitative nature of the evaluation accounts for CBI and allows for potential risk evaluation. The Developer would only need to determine reasonable exposure scenarios to calculate risk from the product-specific hazard data. This tool would also allow for full management of the Developer’s supply chain. Finally, with Screening Tool 3 all of the data for a chemical product would be available in the event that an industry standard evaluation tool emerges by Industry agreement or by regulation. As with the previous system, drawbacks include continued management of CBI by a third party. Potential Applications for Hazard Assessment • Consumer Products • Household and Automotive Care Products • Personal Care Products • Industrial Chemicals • Oilfield Products • Commodity Chemicals Abstract The public interest in “green” chemistry with increased state and federal regulation of a wide range of chemical products point to a future where all chemicals and their applications have to be evaluated for their environmental, physical, and human health hazards. Making greener chemicals will be required both by market demand and by regulation. It may be several years before Industry as a whole has a legal obligation to generate and use green chemicals, but many companies are working proactively to evaluate their chemicals and practices and use green alternatives when possible. This poster explores the creation of three proposed models for purpose-specific chemical hazard evaluation tools, ranging from qualitative tools for internal use, i.e. “green,” yellow,” or “red” classification for decision making purposes, to sophisticated quantitative tools that allow for numerical hazard determination. Each system is built to address a specific set of needs, as well as to offer a systematic and well-documented hazard evaluation process that guarantees consistency.