November 2011
 

A Fond Farewell to Topher Buck

After nearly six years at GreenBlue leading the development of CleanGredients, last week marked the last full day of Senior Project Manager Topher Buck after he moved to Concord, MA with his family this fall. We're delighted to announce that Topher will continue to be a GreenBlue Senior Fellow and will work with James Ewell on our chemicals-related projects on a part-time basis in the coming months, but the entire organization is very sad to see him leave his former role. Under Topher's leadership, CleanGredients has grown annually and is used by hundreds of chemical formulators and suppliers. He also has been an integral part of the organization and we are grateful for all that he has done for GreenBlue. Please join us in wishing him the best of luck and check out a special blog post in honor of Topher from the staff here.

Green Screen Workshops

James Ewell, Director of GreenBlue's Chemicals Program recently attended a conference hosted by Clean Production Action (CPA) entitled "Managing Chemicals in Products." The conference was sponsored by Nike and the State of Washington's Department of Ecology and included a full day training session on using CPA's Green Screen, a tool for conducting comparative hazard assessments. The purpose of the workshop was to introduce non-scientific professionals to the concepts of hazard evaluation with an in-depth review of the Green Screen and its unique approach for benchmarking chemicals based on inherent hazard. The next Green Screen workshop will be held hosted by NSF International on May 8, 2012 in Ann Arbor, MI.

New Report Reveals Secret Chemicals in Common Household Cleaners

New independent lab testing commissioned by the nonprofit Women’s Voices for the Earth on 20 top household cleaning products revealed that numerous top-selling cleaning products and detergents contain toxic chemicals not revealed to the consumer. The results of the lab tests found that cleaning products commonly contain hidden chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects and pregnancy complications. You can download the entire report entitled Dirty Secrets: What’s Hiding in Your Cleaning Products? here.

The report was released at the same time that Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) introduced the Cleaning Product Right-to-Know Act of 2011, national legislation to change the lax regulations around the disclosure of cleaning product chemical ingredients. Currently, cleaning products are not required to list all ingredients on the label, unlike personal care products and food. The Cleaning Product Right-to-Know Act will require companies to list all of the product ingredients directly on the label and will create a uniform system for labeling.

Special Issue of New Solutions Journal

A special issue of the journal New Solutions, which focuses on environmental and occupational health policy and is edited in part by faculty at UMASS Lowell, is now available. The special issue entitled Designing a Chemically Safer Future focuses on a new vision and approach to solving the problem of toxic chemicals and their adverse impacts. The issue brings together leading voices from academia, labor, environmental and public health organizations, and businesses to highlight the need for the development and use of safer chemicals. The issue includes an article entitled "The Business Case for Transitioning to Safer Chemicals" authored by GreenBlue Board member Roger McFadden. PDFs of the entire issue and of individual articles are available at here.

In the Loop

A Path Forward for Identifying Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals?: An Interview with Pete Myers

The following is an excerpt from a blog post on GreenBlue's blog, In the Loop. Read all recent posts.

James Ewell of GreenBlue’s Chemicals Program asked Pete Myers, CEO of Environmental Health Sciences (EHS), for an interview to explain their joint project with Advancing Green Chemistry to work with the scientific community to develop a protocol for testing chemicals for their endocrine disrupting potential. James wanted to share this information with GreenBlue’s readership because it is a unique method for addressing a very important issue using a "front-of-pipe" as opposed to "end-of-pipe" design approach. Read More

Select In the Loop posts will now be featured in GreenBiz, so please be sure to follow us there as well.

 
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