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GreenScreen® Newsletter - April 6, 2015

Greetings from the GreenScreen® Team

Thank you all for the continued support and interest in GreenScreen. Do you have questions on how to become more involved? We would love to hear from you! There are a number of ways that people can engage, including introductory trainings, free… …

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Practitioner Program and Webinar Announcement

Lead the way in sustainable chemicals management with our most advanced training in the GreenScreen ® method: enroll in the GreenScreen Practitioner course and become an Authorized GreenScreen Practitioner™. Our next cohort begins May 5,… …

Selin Talks Global Chemical Challenges

Henrik Selin, Associate Director of the Division of International Studies at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, gave a talk on the global health challenges posed by chemical products. The March 19… …

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5 essential practices help assure safer chemicals in products

The U.S. is home to a vibrant network of “market campaigners” — environmental health advocates and social media active consumers — calling for safer chemical use in business practices. I’m one of them. To some… …

A Framework to Guide Selection of Chemical Alternatives

Concerns about the health and environmental impacts associated with some chemical products and processes have motivated a growing number of national, state, and local governments, manufacturers, and retailers to develop assessments and approaches for… …

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GreenScreen® Newsletter - January 26, 2015

Greetings from the GreenScreen® Team We hope there are great things in store for you in 2015! 2014 was an exciting year for us. Here are some highlights: There is continuing adoption of the method within organizations, standards, and eco-labels;… …

GreenScreen Practitioner Program Accepting Applications for May 2015

ENROLLING NOW FOR MAY 2015 Clean Production Action (CPA) is now accepting applications to the May 2015 GreenScreen® Practitioner Program.    This course is CPA’s premier advanced training course in the GreenScreen… …

The Business Case for Knowing Chemicals in Products and Supply Chains

New Report Makes Strong Business Case for Using Safer Chemicals in Products and Supply Chains Geneva, 15 December 2014 - Chemicals are all around us, present in the products we use every day. The demand for increased transparency on chemicals up and… …

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Shifting FR Markets

The FRs market is experiencing a massive transformation in chemistry. As of 2013, bromine manufacturers no longer manufacture and use decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE) in the U.S. according to the bromine industry association—Bromine Science… …

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Firemaster

One of the most studied of the new FRs is Firemaster 550—a bromine and phosphorous-based compound. Firemaster 550 highlights include:  Used in polyurethane foam products, including seating applications, as an alternative to the now… …

New & Emerging BFRs–Where are the tox data?

But what are manufacturers offering instead of decaBDE and HBCD, also on the phase out pathway due to its restriction by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants? Albemarle, Chemtura, and ICL are the leading producers of BFRs… …

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BFRs in Electronics & Electrical Devices

Electronics and electrical devices account for 50% of global brominated flame retardant (BFR) consumption. The dominant end uses of BFRs in electronics are in cabinets, housings and printed circuit boards—together they account for roughly 80%… …

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Alternatives: Are FRs Necessary?

A critical approach to chemicals in products in general and plastics in particular is to ask: Is it necessary? For example, is a flame retardant in nap mats even necessary? Driven by government regulations and industry standards, manufacturers now… …

Four GreenScreen® Sessions at GreenBuild 2014

Dear Colleagues, I am looking forward to seeing many of you at GreenBuild, and want to invite you to join me at some interesting sessions (see below for dates and times).  Our team has launched the next cohort of the GreenScreen Practitioner… …

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Government policies drive, somewhat ironically, both the use and restriction of FRs. International, regional, national, state, and local fire safety regulations and flammability standards drive demand for FRs. At the same time the trend in government… …

Facts on Flame Retardants

Global consumption in 2012: 3.9 billion pounds (lbs). With consumption expected to increase to 5.2 billion lbs by 2018 for a compound annual growth rate of 5% for the next five years. (BCC Research) Government regulations, with a major push from FR… …

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Health Effects of Flame Retardants (FRs)

FRs and their adverse health effects are a seemingly ubiquitous topic in scientific journals. Today we provide a snapshot in the table below of the primary health effects of widely used flame retardants. This is a summary table of a few FRs. For… …

Strategies for Identifying Safer Alternatives to Plasticizers

The solution to hazardous plasticizers like DEHP is not necessarily another plasticizer. The figure to the left from the Plastics Scorecard identifies five solutions to the use of chemicals of concern in plastics. Companies, for example, are… …

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Solutions to Hazardous Plasticizers

The dominant movement in the marketplace is to alternative plasticizers to DEHP and other phthalates. Yet this is the less preferred solution to avoiding PVC and plasticizers altogether. Some recent assessments on alternative materials and… …

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Recent Studies—Health Effects of Phthalates

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Chronic Hazard Advisory Panel (CHAP) on Phthalates released its final report in July. Its literature review suggests that prenatal phthalate exposure may contribute to male reproductive developmental… …