California Regulations & Alternatives Assessment - New Report & Webinar Today

October 27, 2015 Blogs Bulletins

Also, it's time to register for the BizNGO-Chemical Footprint Conference! Join us in Boston on December 8 & 9.

Webinar TODAY! Safer Alternatives to Methylene Chloride in Paint Strippers

Join us for today’s webinar on BizNGO’s new report on alternatives assessment. Molly Jacobs of the Lowell Center’s Environmental Health Program and Bingxuan Wang of ToxServices will discuss safer alternatives to methylene chloride in paint/varnish strippers in the context of compliance with the California Safer Consumer Products Regulations. On behalf of all of us working to advance safer alternatives to chemicals of con cern, and to avoiding regrettable substitutes, we hope that this report contributes to the growth and development of the emerging field of alternatives assessment. Please see below for a short summary. The full report is available here. 

New Report: Alternatives to Methylene Chloride in Paint and Varnish Strippers: Availability of Safer Alternatives & Requirements for Meeting Stage 1 of the California Safer Consumer Products Regulations

Summary:
In 2013, California finalized its Safer Consumer Products (SCP) regulations, which establishes a process for evaluating chemicals of concern in consumer products and their potential alternatives.  This landmark legislation addresses the critical need to reduce toxic chemicals in consumer products – chemicals that are responsible for known human health and environmental harms. The regulations require “responsible entities” (which includes manufacturers, importers, assemblers, and/or retailers) of a “priority product” (a consumer product containing a chemical of concern) to complete an alternatives analysis to determine whether feasible alternatives are available to minimize public health and environmental impacts. 
 
BizNGO – a collaboration of leaders from businesses, environmental groups, universities, and governments – initiated a demonstration project to a draft priority product under the California SCP regulations: paint and varnish strippers with methylene chloride (also known as dichloromethane).  Using the GreenScreen® comparative hazard assessment method, the goals of this demonstration project were three-fold: (1) to identify whether less hazardous alternatives to methylene chloride in formulated paint stripper products are available on the market; (2) to identify candidate alternatives for methylene chloride in paint stripping formulations that will likely be considered in actual/future Stage 1 submissions for this “priority product” in California; and (3) to identify challenges and needs confronting compliance with the alternatives analysis process under the California SCP regulations.
 
Lesson Learned #1: Information is readily available about functional requirements, performance requirements, and potential alternatives for methylene chloride based paint strippers.    
 
Lesson Learned #2: Safer alternatives to methylene chloride for use in chemical paint strippers are widely available based on assessing the hazards of eleven chemical alternatives.
 
Lesson Learned #3:  The type and range of alternatives to consider should be informed by a business entities’ capacity to adopt those alternatives. 
 
Lesson Learned #4:  Whether or not GreenScreen® is sufficient to meet the California SCP regulations concerning hazard assessment criteria remains to be determined.
 
Lesson Learned #5:  When conducting an alternatives assessment on formulated chemical products, the hazards of other chemicals in the formulation should also be considered.

Download the report