A Framework To Guide Selection Of Chemical Alternatives

Download or read book A Framework to Guide Selection of Chemical Alternatives written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2014-10-29 with total page 475 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historically, regulations governing chemical use have often focused on widely used chemicals and acute human health effects of exposure to them, as well as their potential to cause cancer and other adverse health effects. As scientific knowledge has expanded there has been an increased awareness of the mechanisms through which chemicals may exert harmful effects on human health, as well as their effects on other species and ecosystems. Identification of high-priority chemicals and other chemicals of concern has prompted a growing number of state and local governments, as well as major companies, to take steps beyond existing hazardous chemical federal legislation. Interest in approaches and policies that ensure that any new substances substituted for chemicals of concern are assessed as carefully and thoroughly as possible has also burgeoned. The overarching goal of these approaches is to avoid regrettable substitutions, which occur when a toxic chemical is replaced by another chemical that later proved unsuitable because of persistence, bioaccumulation, toxicity, or other concerns. Chemical alternative assessments are tools designed to facilitate consideration of these factors to assist stakeholders in identifying chemicals that may have the greatest likelihood of harm to human and ecological health, and to provide guidance on how the industry may develop and adopt safer alternatives. A Framework to Guide Selection of Chemical Alternatives develops and demonstrates a decision framework for evaluating potentially safer substitute chemicals as primarily determined by human health and ecological risks. This new framework is informed by previous efforts by regulatory agencies, academic institutions, and others to develop alternative assessment frameworks that could be operationalized. In addition to hazard assessments, the framework incorporates steps for life-cycle thinking - which considers possible impacts of a chemical at all stages including production, use, and disposal - as well as steps for performance and economic assessments. The report also highlights how modern information sources such as computational modeling can supplement traditional toxicology data in the assessment process. This new framework allows the evaluation of the full range of benefits and shortcomings of substitutes, and examination of tradeoffs between these risks and factors such as product functionality, product efficacy, process safety, and resource use. Through case studies, this report demonstrates how different users in contrasting decision contexts with diverse priorities can apply the framework. This report will be an essential resource to the chemical industry, environmentalists, ecologists, and state and local governments.

Download or read book Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2007-10-05 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advances in molecular biology and toxicology are paving the way for major improvements in the evaluation of the hazards posed by the large number of chemicals found at low levels in the environment. The National Research Council was asked by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to review the state of the science and create a far-reaching vision for the future of toxicity testing. The book finds that developing, improving, and validating new laboratory tools based on recent scientific advances could significantly improve our ability to understand the hazards and risks posed by chemicals. This new knowledge would lead to much more informed environmental regulations and dramatically reduce the need for animal testing because the new tests would be based on human cells and cell components. Substantial scientific efforts and resources will be required to leverage these new technologies to realize the vision, but the result will be a more efficient, informative and less costly system for assessing the hazards posed by industrial chemicals and pesticides.

Download or read book Green Toxicology written by Alexandra Maertens and published by Royal Society of Chemistry. This book was released on 2022-02-01 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Green toxicology is an integral part of green chemistry. One of the key goals of green chemistry is to design less toxic chemicals. Therefore, an understanding of toxicology and hazard assessment is important for any chemist working in green chemistry, but toxicology is rarely part of most chemists' education. As a consequence, chemists lack the toxicological lens necessary to view chemicals in order to design safer substitutions. This book seeks to fill that gap and demonstrate how a basic understanding of toxicology, as well as the tools of in silico and in vitro toxicology, can be an integral part of green chemistry. R&D chemists, product stewards, and toxicologists who work in the field of sustainability, can all benefit from integrating green toxicology principles into their work. Topics include in silico tools for hazard assessment, toxicity testing, and lifecycle considerations, this book aims to act as a bridge between green toxicologists and green chemists.

Download or read book Chemical Alternatives Assessments written by R M Harrison and published by Royal Society of Chemistry. This book was released on 2013-04-30 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chemicals are an essential part of everyday life and all too-often taken for granted, yet often portrayed negatively in the media. Concern over the deleterious effects of chemicals to the environment and human health have prompted governments in the developed world to establish screening programmes such as REACH and HPV Challenge to identify chemicals presenting the greatest degree of risk to health and the environment. While such programmes identify chemicals with the greatest risk, there is no ranking system for alternative chemicals, which while being potentially less harmful, still carry a degree of risk. This volume of the Issues in Environmental Science and Technology series investigates how the alternatives can be assessed and their risk determined. With contributions from experts across the globe, this volume addresses some of the key concepts behind risk assessment of alternative chemicals. Some of the current protocols adopted are discussed, and several chapters explore the topic in the context of industry, making this book essential reading for industrialists as well as academics, postgraduate students and policy makers.

Download or read book Cleaner Technologies Substitutes Assessment written by Lori E. Kincaid and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Sustainability in the Design, Synthesis and Analysis of Chemical Engineering Processes written by Gerardo Ruiz Mercado and published by Butterworth-Heinemann. This book was released on 2016-06-09 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sustainability in the Design, Synthesis and Analysis of Chemical Engineering Processes is an edited collection of contributions from leaders in their field. It takes a holistic view of sustainability in chemical and process engineering design, and incorporates economic analysis and human dimensions. Ruiz-Mercado and Cabezas have brought to this book their experience of researching sustainable process design and life cycle sustainability evaluation to assist with development in government, industry and academia. This book takes a practical, step-by-step approach to designing sustainable plants and processes by starting from chemical engineering fundamentals. This method enables readers to achieve new process design approaches with high influence and less complexity. It will also help to incorporate sustainability at the early stages of project life, and build up multiple systems level perspectives. Ruiz-Mercado and Cabezas' book is the only book on the market that looks at process sustainability from a chemical engineering fundamentals perspective. - Improve plants, processes and products with sustainability in mind; from conceptual design to life cycle assessment - Avoid retro fitting costs by planning for sustainability concerns at the start of the design process - Link sustainability to the chemical engineering fundamentals

Download or read book Toxicity Testing for Assessment of Environmental Agents written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2006-04-07 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Toxicity testing in laboratory animals provides much of the information used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assess the hazards and risks associated with exposure to environmental agents that might harm public health or the environment. The data are used to establish maximum acceptable concentrations of environmental agents in drinking water, set permissible limits of exposure of workers, define labeling requirements, establish tolerances for pesticides residues on food, and set other kinds of limits on the basis of risk assessment. Because the number of regulations that require toxicity testing is growing, EPA called for a comprehensive review of established and emerging toxicity-testing methods and strategies. This interim report reviews current toxicity-testing methods and strategies and near-term improvements in toxicity-testing approaches proposed by EPA and others. It identifies several recurring themes and questions in the various reports reviewed. The final report will present a long-range vision and strategic plan to advance the practices of toxicity testing and human health assessment of environmental contaminants.