644 MILLION POUNDS
644 million pounds is equivalent to the combined weight of 2,628,588 NFL football players, or 49,596 NFL teams, or the combined weight of 74,884 Hummer h2 vehicles. 644 million pounds of chemical products are sold. Each day. In the state of California.
The California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) has developed a six-part framework for furthering the statewide Green Chemistry Initiative.
Launched in April 2007 and leading to more than 800 ideas, the Green Chemistry Initiative is an effort to change how California approaches chemicals. The framework touches on evaluating chemicals, informing businesses about how to reduce toxins in products, bringing green chemistry to the classroom and educating businesses and consumers about what is in products and how those products have impacted the environment.
One major thrust of the Initiative is to focus more on the beginning stages of products to prevent and minimize toxins and waste, instead of focusing on toxin cleanup and product disposal.
"Rather than managing wastes at the end of a product's lifecycle, Green Chemistry shifts our focus to designing chemicals, processes, and goods that have little or no adverse affects during the manufacturing, use or disposal of a product," said Cal/EPA Secretary Linda Adams. - GreenBiz.com
I'm an obsessive label reader with a mean geek streak. Of course my label reading obsession is not totally angst-free. For example, a generalization such as "natural flavors" is a dicey proposition unto itself. With that now in the open, understand how the mere possibility of the following gets my geek freak streak on.
Maureen F. Gorsen, director of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, said the administration would propose a law setting up a public database that could eventually allow consumers to scan a bar code on every product to determine how green it is -- or isn't.
With scanners at stores, or eventually on cellphones, purchasers could compare brands to figure out which one was manufactured, for instance, with coal-fired electricity in China and which one with solar power in California.
They could also determine how much greenhouse gas was emitted through its transportation by boat, plane or truck and whether its ingredients were the safest available and could be easily recycled.
This has been an ongoing work in progress and yes, Virginia, there are detractors.
Two California laws passed last fall have jump-started the program. AB 1879, sponsored by Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles), requires the state to identify "chemicals of concern" and to evaluate safer alternatives. SB 509, sponsored by Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), creates a scientific clearinghouse for information on chemicals' effects.
Automakers and electronics manufacturers lobbied against the bills, saying that, given the new European standards, they could be subjected to a patchwork of warning labels. Car manufacturers use flame retardants that have been linked to neurodevelopmental effects. Computers and other electronics contain contaminants that endanger health if they escape into factory workplaces, landfills and water supplies. - Los Angeles Times
Gawd forbid that nagging regulations could in any way reduce profit margin, neurodevlopmental endangerment be damned. You can read the final report here (PDF).
Related Reading:
Body Burdens and the Kid-Safe Chemical Act
Environmental Threats to Healthy Aging
