U.S. Campaigns Promoting Safer Chemicals
Alliance for Safer Alternatives
The Alliance for Safer Alternatives is focused on strategies that will shift the market away from products such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic, which are made with or create persistent toxic chemicals during production, use, and disposal. On the front end, groups are working to (1) get statewide policies enacted that will eliminate the sources of these dangerous products, and (2) shift state and local purchasing policies away from these products. At the back end, Alliance partners are working to create policies to ensure that harmful products such as PVC are disposed of in a safe manner instead of being burned in incinerators or burn barrels. All of these policy initiatives promote safe, practical and cost effective alternatives. For more information, please visit the Alliance’s website.
Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow
The Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow is a coalition of citizens, scientists, health professionals, workers, and educators working to establish new government policies that will promote safe alternatives to materials and practices that cause harm to human health and the environment. The Alliance recently worked with Massachusetts’ legislators to introduce a bill: An Act For A Healthy Massachusetts, Safer Alternatives to Toxic Chemicals. This bill will promote safe alternatives for the following harmful materials:
- Lead
- Formaldehyde
- Trichloroethylene
- Perchloroethylene
- Dioxins and Furans
- Hexavalent chromium
- Organophosphate pesticides
- Pentabromodiphenyl ether (Penta BDE)
- di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP)
- 2,4,Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4, D)
For more information, visit the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow website.
The Environmental Health Strategy Center
The Environmental Health Strategy Center, based in Maine, has a number of issue specific campaigns working to reduce exposure to toxic chemicals by expanding the use of safer alternatives and building partnerships that focus on the environment as a public health priority. The Environmental Health Strategy Center aims to phase out the use of persistent toxic chemicals in Maine within a single generation. Maine’s Public Health Partnership to Phase In Safer Alternatives has prioritized the following harmful chemical for phaseout:
- Mercury
- Dioxin and PVC
- Arsenic
- Lead
- Cadmium
- Brominated Flame Retardants
- Pentachlorophenol
- Lindane
- Endosulfan
For more information, visit the Environmental Health Strategy Center website.
Washington Toxics Coalition
The Washington Toxics Coalition (WTC) is campaigning to phase out a harmful class of chemicals called persistent bioaccumulative substances (PBTs). As a result, the state of Washington has enacted an Executive Order that mandates the phaseout of some of the most dangerous PBTs (e.g, dioxin, lead, and mercury). Following suit, the City of Seattle has adopted a resolution to reduce the use of PBTs through their purchasing program.
The following list of PBTs are prioritized for phaseout in the state of Washington:
- Aldrin
- 4-Bromophenyl phenyl ether
- Cadmium
- Chlordane
- DDT/DDD/DDE
- Dicofol
- Dieldrin
- Dioxins and furans
- Endosulfan
- Heptachlor epoxide
- Hexachlorobenzene
- Hexachlorobutadiene
- Hexachlorocyclohexane (Lindane)
- Lead
- Methoxychlor
- Mercury
- Pendimethalin
- Pentabromo diphenyl ether
- Pentachlorobenzene
- Pentachloronitrobenzene
- Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
- Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
- Toxaphene
- Trifluralin
- 1,2,4,5-Tetrachlorobenzene
Visit the Washington Toxics Coalition website for more information on their PBT campaign.
