The EPA on Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010, announced new criteria to help companies and other groups, such as states and environmental organizations, identify safer chemicals. As part of the agency's Design for the Environment (DfE) program, the agency unveiled the new criteria for identifying safer alternatives to chemicals that pose a concern to human health and the environment. The announcement was made in an EPA press release.

The assessments are optional for companies looking to apply safer chemicals and were presented by the agency for the benefit of decision-making. The recommendations could affect the market for many of these products. Assessments are based on end-user, not manufacturing safety and environmental effects.

The DfE program works in partnership with industry, environmental groups, and academia to help industry choose safer alternatives to chemicals that may pose a concern to human health or the environment. Information on chemical hazards from DfE Alternatives Assessments is combined with industry data on performance and cost to guide the choice of safer alternatives. To distinguish among alternatives, DfE evaluates data for each chemical and assigns hazard levels of high, moderate, or low for human health and environmental concerns.

DfE Alternatives Assessments will be conducted for the following chemicals:

• bisphenol A (BPA),
• phthalates,
• decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE),
• hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) and
• nonylphenol and nonylphenol ethoxylates (NP and NPEs).

Both the BPA and decaBDE efforts are under way and include the use of BPA and its alternatives in thermal paper, such as cash register receipts, and the review of flame retardant alternatives to decaBDE in products such as textiles, plastic palettes, and electronics. Assessments of phthalates, the flame retardant HBCD, and NPEs will begin in 2011.

The agency will accept comment on the criteria through Jan. 31, 2011.

SOURCE: EPA press release