Downstream Users Change the Course of Chemicals Production

By Mark Rossi, PhD

This essay is in response to: How can innovations in technology and research reduce exposures to toxic chemicals?

Downstream from chemical manufacturers is the vast part of our economy that uses chemicals by virtue of the products they purchase. They range from formulators to component producers to manufacturers to retailers to health care institutions to individual consumers. These are the “downstream users” that are changing the course of chemicals production.

Increasingly downstream users want to know the chemicals in their products, the human and environmental health hazards of those chemicals and whether safer alternatives are available to chemicals of high concern. In 2008, business and non-governmental organization (NGO) leaders created a visionary roadmap to implementing a safer chemicals agenda: the BizNGO Guiding Principles for Chemicals Policy. The four BizNGO principles are:

1. Know and disclose chemical ingredients in products.
2. Assess and avoid hazards.
3. Commit to continuous improvement.
4. Support public policies and industry standards that advance the first three principles.

Over 40 organizations have endorsed the Guiding Principles, including Catholic Healthcare West, Hewlett-Packard, Kaiser Permanente, Premier and Staples. In 2010, the following five downstream users released organizational profiles highlighting how they are implementing the Guiding Principles.

• Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), the eighth largest health care system in the U.S., summarized its internal chemicals policy agenda in its “Healthy Chemicals, Healthy Patients -- Why Health Care Needs Federal Chemicals Reform” profile:
  “To assess the chemical content of the products we purchase and reduce their toxicity, CHW created purchasing guidelines. CHW requests product chemistry data from suppliers and prioritizes chemicals of high concern, like PBTs (persistent, bioaccumulative toxics) for elimination. We create contractual obligations with manufacturers, suppliers and distributors to avoid identified chemicals of concern, disclose processes that use chemicals of concern even if the chemicals used in the processes are not a part of the end product and substitute safer alternatives identified through hazard analysis. We develop goals and metrics to measure our progress and evaluate our results, and share our successes and lessons learned with others.”

• Kaiser Permanente, the largest managed health care organization in the U.S., in its “Using Safer Chemicals in Products Supports Preventive Health Care” profile emphasized how:
  “Our commitment to preventive health care leads us to be concerned with the use of toxic chemicals in products. We strive to purchase products that do not contain persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals such as mercury or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), carcinogens like formaldehyde or reproductive toxicants like di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP).”

• Perkins+Will, one of the nation’s top ten architecture firms, highlighted the challenges to implementing a safer chemicals agenda in its “Taking a Precautionary Approach in Chemicals in Products” profile:
  “Amazingly, it’s hard to fathom that as architects we don’t always know what chemicals are in the building materials we use. It’s time for this to change. It’s time to bring a new set of baseline criteria to building design and construction by starting with the elimination of toxic chemicals in building materials.”

• Seventh Generation, one of the nation’s pioneering firms in creating more sustainable products, emphasized its commitment to chemical disclosure in the “Safer Chemicals Policy Reform -- Bringing Transparency to Chemicals Management” profile: 
  “Seventh Generation believes full ingredient transparency is necessary for consumers to verify the health and  safety of the cleaners they use. We fully disclose the ingredients in our products on the label, including explanations of each ingredient in a format guided by federal requirements for cosmetics. In addition the ingredients and material safety data sheets (MSDSs) are available on our website, as are disclosures of trace materials that may be present when known.”

• Construction Specialties, a mid-sized building products company with manufacturing facilities in Pennsylvania, highlighted the business value of a safer chemicals agenda in its “Green Buildings Need Safer Chemicals Policy Reform” profile: 
  “The demand for environmentally responsible and relevant building products is growing rapidly. Building owners, architects, contractors and building occupants are selecting products made with chemicals that have low to no toxicity and that are integrated into new products at the end of their life cycle. Central to our environmental strategy is using chemicals that are inherently safer for humans and the environment.”

Each of the these organizations is translating its internal chemical management practices into support for government chemicals policy initiatives. Catholic Healthcare West, for example, supports:

• Creating a minimum data set of all chemicals in commerce within the next five years.
• Taking immediate action to reduce the use of PBTs (persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic chemicals) and other chemicals of high concern.
• Ensuring that new chemicals only come to market after full safety determinations.
• Promoting safer alternatives.

As Bob Sussman, Senior Policy Counsel to the U.S. EPA told attendees at the Business and NGO Forum for Safer Chemicals Policy Reform,  “Downstream users play an important role in the government’s efforts to revise its policies related to chemical safety…. You occupy a unique position at the end of the value chain, where the rubber meets the road. Your voice is critical. We want to encourage you to stay in the game and to help shape the end product”.

By designing and purchasing products that use safer chemicals, as well as by supporting government initiatives that will disseminate best chemical management practices across the entire economy downstream users are making a difference in our chemical economy.

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