New Chemical in Polymers and Textiles Under Scrutiny

In European harmonised classification and labelling news along the lines of CLP classification, the EU Committee for Risk Assessment RAC has adopted opinions on two proposals. 

Two chemical-substances in question

HBCDD, or hexabromocyclododecane is the first.

RAC agreed with the proposal from Sweden to classify HBCDD for reproductive toxicity due to effects on the unborn or breast-fed child.  The main downstream uses of HBCDD are in the polymer and textile industries.  HBCDD can be used on its own or in combination with other flame retardants.  The classification of HBCDD is not harmonised, to use the European spelling, now at the EU level, although various member states have approached classification of the substance.

Leucomalachite green is the second.

RAC also agreed with a proposal from the U.K. to classify leucomalachite green as a carcinogen and mutagen. Leucomalachite green is used as a cell stain in laboratories (histopathology stain).  The classification of this substance is not currently harmonised at the EU level.

Details of the new opinions are expected to be posted at this link, "in the near future," according to ECHA:  http://echa.europa.eu/about/organisation/committees/rac/committee_opinions_en.asp

Who is RAC?

RAC is the group responsible for providing scientific opinions for ECHA on proposals for chemicals' harmonised classification and labelling, also known as CLP or just C&L. The final decision for harmonised classification and labelling is made by the European Commission, by committee.  RAC falls under the risk assessment arm of Chemicals Management in the EU.

(Toby Sharp for CJ)

Building a Green Supply Chain: Top 10 Green Building Products

BuildingGreen, Inc., publisher of the GreenSpec^® Directory, directory of green building products, and Environmental Building News^™, recently announced the 2010 Top-10 Green Building Products.  The firm thereby recognizes exciting products the publishers have recently added to their directory or covered in their news.  See also a previous article on Safety by Design in building construction.

This year’s Top-10 selections include a cellular glass insulation with excellent compressive strength and no flame retardants, a high-performance modular wall system insulated with cellulose, and an advanced LED lighting module offering halogen light quality, using a quarter the electricity and lasting more than 20 times as long.

“Our selections of the Top-10 Green Building Products represent a wide range of product types in many different application areas,” noted BuildingGreen founder and executive editor Alex Wilson.

Leading the way in providing green building products are companies like Owens Corning, which develops glass fiber and foam products that use an average of 40% recycled glass content. Other companies such as Fastenal offer energy-efficient LED lighting systems.

“Many of our Top-10 products this year have multiple environmental attributes,” said Wilson. Approximately 180 product listings have been added to the GreenSpec database during the past year. The database, maintained by BuildingGreen, includes more than 2,200 product listings.

BuildingGreen.com provides an online version of GreenSpec where users can find products organized by LEED credits.  

The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED^® Rating System (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) says it continues to drive development of green products by awarding points for using green materials or through the use of energy-saving products. “Designers of LEED buildings are looking for green products, and manufacturers are responding,” said Wilson.

Guest blogger Laura Chidester has worked as a technical writer for over ten years, and is currently the Manager of Technical Documentation for Actio Corporation.

EPA Serious About Chemicals Used in Natural Gas Extraction

Seems now would be a good time for companies to make sure they have chemical books in order when it comes to hydraulic fracturing.

Mining for methane...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is conducting a congressionally-mandated study to examine the impact of the hydraulic fracturing process on drinking water quality - and Halliburton has been subpoenaed after failing to meet EPA’s requests for information.  Today, November 9, 2010, EPA issued a subpoena to Halliburton requiring submission of requested information that was never provided.

Fracking involves shooting incredibly high-pressure "fluids" into oil and methane gas deposits to fracture the rock around the deposit and release the gas.

In a recent documentary film, a filmmaker shows how a recently-drilled Pennsylvania town reports that "residents are able to light their drinking water on fire."  Wish we could find a picture of this!

Actually, here's a picture of people lighting water on fire, at the Sundance Film Fest web page for the movie.  The film won the 2010 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize for a Documentary and profiled fracking in the U.S.  The movie is called Gasland, more at bottom of page.*

The water-on-fire snippet makes a good film and great publicity; EPA is now charged with finding out what it means in fact, if people can light their water on fire after fracking.  Is that the chemicals used in fracking?  Is that methane somehow escaping into groundwater?  Is it some 3rd, 4th, or 5th option we hadn't heard of?

Fracking is, arguably, economically important -- possibly critical -- for the United States, as the companies doing the fracking will point out.  There are also attendant and significant environmental and human health issues with shooting the chemicals into the land and water table.

EPA wants to know, well, EPA pretty much has to find out by public demand:  what the *bleep* is in the fluid that does the fracking? 

What the *bleep* is in the fluid that does the fracking?

The congressionally-mandated hydraulic fracturing study that EPA is under public pressure to get underway will look at the potential adverse impact of fracking on drinking water and public health in the United States. The agency is under a tight deadline to provide initial results by the end of 2012.  The study depends on timely access to detailed information about fracturing methods.

Here's a list of chemicals used in a recent fracturing event in Pennsylvania:  Fracturing List of Chemicals.

Give Marcellus credit for releasing this list.  (List is compiled from MSDS data, which is great, but some trade secrets can be held back. For more on that see previous post on MSDS data.)

Halliburton

Halliburton is the world's 2nd-largest oilfield services corp. It employs over 50,000 people.  HQ is in Dubai, UAE of all places, with offices in the North Belt office in Houston, Texas; the company remains incorporated in the United States.

Halliburton's major business segment is the Energy Services Group (ESG). ESG provides technical products and services for petroleum and natural gas exploration and production. Halliburton's former subsidiary, KBR, is a major construction company of refineries, oil fields, pipelines, and chemical plants. Halliburton announced on April 5, 2007 that it had finally broken ties with KBR, which had been its contracting, engineering and construction unit as a part of the company for 44 years -- and had been the brunt of terrible and presumably untenable Public Relations.

The post-KBR era isn't exactly winning warm-fuzzies in the hearts of the public.  For instance, what Tech Eye has to say - although as left as usual - isn't going to make readers feel very good.  Happy to share that link, though, largely for the links used in the article: a good resource if you want to know more.

What happened in this case

On September 9, 2010, EPA reached out to nine leading national and regional hydraulic fracturing service providers – BJ Services, Complete Production Services, Halliburton, Key Energy Services, Patterson-UTI, RPC, Inc., Schlumberger, Superior Well Services, and Weatherford – seeking information on:

1. the chemical composition of fluids used in the hydraulic fracturing process
2. data on the impacts of the chemicals on human health and the environment
3. standard operating procedures at their hydraulic fracturing sites
4. the locations of sites where fracturing has been conducted

Except for Halliburton, the companies have either fully complied with the September 9 request or made unconditional commitments to provide all the information on an expeditious schedule, says EPA.

More information on the subpoena and mandatory request for information on Halliburton’s hydraulic fracturing operations: http://www.epa.gov/hydraulicfracturing

------
*About the movie Gasland:
"The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a 'Saudia Arabia of natural gas' just beneath us. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown."

photo courtesy http://www.kmhurley.com

Intel, Starbucks, and Kohls Purchase Green Power

Intel Corporation tops the list as EPA's Green Power Partnership’s largest single purchaser of green power.  Green power is defined as being generated from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, and low-impact hydropower.  

Intel received a 2010 EPA Green Power Leadership Award for their excellent record of green power purchasing. Intel uses more than 1.4 billion kWh annually, equivalent to avoiding the CO2 emissions from the electricity use of nearly 125,000 average American homes.

Here is a helpful Kilowatt Hour Translator -- you can calculate and convert kilowatt hours into more meaningful metrics, such as a number of passenger vehicles, number of homes, and so on.

Other honorable companies were Kohl’s Department Stores, who came in second this quarter in purchasing green power; Kohl's was also recognized as a 2010 Green Power Partner of the Year.  Whole Foods Market natural and organic grocery - no surprise - who also received the 2010 EPA Green Power Partner of the Year Awards - came in third.

Reaching the top five for the first time: Starbucks (came in 4th) more than doubled its annual green power purchase to more than 573 million kWh of green power; that is equivalent to avoiding the CO2 emissions from the electricity use of nearly 50,000 average American homes annually.

Photo courtesy Nature's Reflections

Also in the top ten largest purchasers of green power:

1. the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which increased its green power purchase to 500 million kWh of green power annually
2. the City of Houston
3. Dell Inc. 
4. Johnson & Johnson
5. the U.S. Air Force
6. the City of Dallas

A Growing Population Needs Clean Water

As the population grows, the nation's clean water supply needs to be managed knowledgeably and carefully. Withering wetlands, vital to replenishing drinking water, are under constant pressure to maintain not only our need for water but the environment's as well.  The idea is to keep chemicals out of the watershed and and the supply of water itself at a sustainable level.  Environmental Leader recently published an overview of U.S. Wetlands and Water Policy.  Environmental Leader deserves kudos for its excellent product-stewardship-oriented web site for Green.

In related news, the EPA will be holding its 7th annual drinking water workshop August 8th -10th in Cincinnati, OH.  Details here.

Also: EPA is seeking small business input on proposed stormwater rule, inviting small businesses and municipalities to nominate representatives who will provide input on a proposed stormwater rule.  Selected participants would provide input to a Small Business Advocacy Review panel.

More information about participating in the panel, go to: http://www.epa.gov/sbrefa/stormwater.htm 
For more information about the rulemaking, go to: http://www.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater/rulemaking 

The proposed stormwater rule would strengthen the national stormwater program under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and focus on stormwater discharges from developed sites, such as subdivisions, roadways, industrial facilities, and commercial buildings or shopping centers.

For further information on the EPA's drinking water strategies:
A New Approach to Protecting Drinking Water and Public Health

RoHS exceptions: toxic materials in electronics - notable exemptions

RoHS is far reaching and surprisingly penetrating. We have written an overview of RoHS in this blog previously, including the Top 5 Questions about RoHS as well as General RoHS Information.

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Got RoHS?  You may not need to...

The electronics industry already has standards and legislation and tools for compliance in place.  Manufacturers, of course, must understand and manage the requirements of the RoHS Directive to ensure that their products, and their components, comply.  Yes, RoHS is enforced.  As ubiquitous as RoHS is becoming, there are exceptions to the rule.  Sometimes - and here's where it gets complicated - there are exemptions for use of *mercury, lead, cadmium (see SVHC list here) in the manufacture of electronics and electronic devices.  Below is a list worth browsing.  It might be too much detail for most but do scan it to get a feel.  Then, you may want to keep it handy for reference. 

RoHS Exemptions as of March 2010

1. Mercury in compact fluorescent lamps not exceeding 5 mg per lamp
2. Mercury in straight fluorescent lamps for general purposes not exceeding: — halophosphate 10 mg
3. Mercury in straight fluorescent lamps for general purposes not exceeding:  — triphosphate with normal lifetime 5 mg
4. Mercury in straight fluorescent lamps for general purposes not exceeding: — triphosphate with long lifetime 8 mg
5. Mercury in straight fluorescent lamps for special purposes
6. Mercury in other lamps not specifically mentioned in this Annex
7. Lead in glass of cathode ray tubes, electronic components and fluorescent tubes
8. Lead as an alloying element in steel containing up to 0,35 % lead by weight, aluminum containing up to 0,4 % lead by weight and as a copper alloy containing up to 4 % lead by weight
9. Lead in high melting temperature type solders (i.e. lead-based alloys containing 85 % by weight or more lead)
10. Lead in solders for servers, storage and storage array systems, network infrastructure equipment for switching, signaling, transmission as well as network management for telecommunications
11. lead in electronic ceramic parts (e.g. piezoelectronic devices)
12. Cadmium and its compounds in electrical contacts and cadmium plating except for applications banned under Directive 91/338/EEC (1) amending Directive 76/769/EEC (2) relating to restrictions on the marketing and use of certain dangerous substances and preparations
13. Hexavalent chromium as an anti-corrosion of the carbon steel cooling system in absorption refrigerators
14. DecaBDE in polymeric applications. Exemption ended 30 June 2008
15. Lead in lead-bronze bearing shells and bushes
16. Lead used in compliant pin connector systems
17. Lead as a coating material for the thermal conduction module c-ring
18. Lead and cadmium in optical and filter glass
19. Lead in solders consisting of more than two elements for the connection between the pins and the package of microprocessors with a lead content of more than 80 % and less than 85 % by weight
20. Lead in solders to complete a viable electrical connection between semiconductor die and carrier within integrated circuit Flip Chip packages
21. Lead in linear incandescent lamps with silicate coated tubes
22. Lead halide as radiant agent in High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps used for professional reprography applications
23. Lead as activator in the fluorescent powder (1 % lead by weight or less) of discharge lamps when used as sun tanning lamps containing phosphors such as BSP (BaSi2O5:Pb) as well as when used as specialty lamps for diazoprinting reprography, lithography, insect traps, photochemical and curing processes containing phosphors such as SMS ((Sr,Ba)2MgSi2O7:Pb)
24. Lead with PbBiSn-Hg and PbInSn-Hg in specific compositions as main amalgam and with PbSn-Hg as auxiliary amalgam in very compact Energy Saving Lamps (ESL)
25. Lead oxide in glass used for bonding front and rear substrates of flat fluorescent lamps used for Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD)
26. Lead and cadmium in printing inks for the application of enamels on borosilicate glass
27. Lead as impurity in RIG (rare earth iron garnet) Faraday rotators used for fibre optic communication systems until 31 Dec-09
28. Lead in finishes of fine pitch components other than connectors with a pitch of 0.65 mm or less with NiFe lead frames and lead in finishes of fine pitch components other than connectors with a pitch of 0.65 mm or less with copper lead frames
29. Lead in solders for the soldering to machined through hole discoidal and planar array ceramic multilayer capacitors
30. Lead oxide in plasma display panels (PDP) and surface conduction electron emitter displays (SED) used in structural elements; notably in the front and rear glass dielectric layer, the bus electrode, the black stripe, the address electrode, the barrier ribs, the seal frit and frit ring as well as in print pastes
31. Lead oxide in the glass envelope of Black Light Blue (BLB) lamps
32. Lead alloys as solder for transducers used in high-powered (designated to operate for several hours at acoustic power levels of 125 dB SPL and above) loudspeakers
33. Hexavalent chromium in corrosion preventive coatings of unpainted metal sheetings and fasteners used for corrosion protection and Electromagnetic Interference Shielding in equipment falling under category three of Directive 2002/96/EC (IT and telecommunications equipment). Exemption granted until 1 July 2007.
34. Lead bound in crystal glass as defined in Annex I (Categories 1, 2, 3 and 4) of Council Directive 69/493/EEC (1)
35. Cadmium alloys as electrical/mechanical solder joints to electrical conductors located directly on the voice coil in transducers used in high-powered loudspeakers with sound pressure levels of 100 dB (A) and more
36. Lead in soldering materials in mercury free flat fluorescent lamps (which e.g. are used for liquid crystal displays, design or industrial lighting)
37. Lead oxide in seal frit used for making window assemblies for Argon and Krypton laser tubes
38. Lead in solders for the soldering of thin copper wires of 100 μm diameter and less in power transformers
39. Lead in cermet-based trimmer potentiometer elements
40. Cadmium in photoresistors for optocouplers applied in professional audio equipment until 31 December 2009
41. Mercury used as a cathode sputtering inhibitor in DC plasma displays with a content up to 30 mg per display until 1 July 2010
42. Lead in the plating layer of high voltage diodes on the basis of a zinc borate glass body
43. Cadmium and cadmium oxide in thick film pastes used on aluminum bonded beryllium oxide
44. Cadmium in colour-converting II-VI LEDs (< 10 μg Cd per mm 2 of light-emitting area) for use in solid state illumination or display systems until 1 July 2014

Again - as of March 2010.

For more information on RoHS:  http://www.rohs.gov.uk/Docs/Links/RoHS%20directive.pdf
For more information on WEEE:  http://www.rohs.gov.uk/Docs/Links/WEEE%20directive.pdf

* The second three of six substances of very restricted use under RoHS are:

1. Hexavalent chromium (Cr⁶⁺)
2. Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB)
3. Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE)

Chemical ingredients in Perfume, Fragrances, Cosmetics: Endocrine-Disrupting?

A new analysis reveals that top-selling fragrance products contain a dozen or more secret chemicals not listed on labels.  

Okay, trade secrets are allowed.  In fact, at a large conference in Denver on May 24th, manufacturing executives will be discussing just that:  trade secrets and material disclosure regulation and compliance.  Hot topic, timely conference.

Fragrance sprays contain chemicals not listed on labels.

(Photo by Tina Schofield, courtesy Environmental News Service)

Manufacturers' role
According to the report, multiple chemicals in popular men's and women's fragrances can not only trigger allergic reactions but can disrupt hormones.  Many substances have not been assessed for safety by the beauty industry’s self-policing review panels.  

This is not so "okay." 

This is not good news for anybody: not for manufacturers, nor for male or female - adult or child - consumers, nor for health officials, nor for chemical regulatory agencies, like EPA (see TSCA) or the FDA.  

At this point, consumers should probably be developing a little common sense about health risks and chemicals.

However, manufacturers, at this point, should also be a little more sensible.  They must be prepared for this type of exposure.  The way to be prepared is to have reports ready: have ingredient-data available, with CSR reports, and similar ways to show efforts at the very least toward greening in advance of being exposed.  Risk management demands it. This is like the Toyota fiasco, where the company should've been ready to show Responsibility efforts.  Supply chains can mess up, a manufacturer or distributor may mess up, and an executive board may make some weak choices; but still, ingredients do not have to be invisible in this day and age and manufacturing practices should be defensible.

Which perfumes in particular?  The who and what
For this study, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a national coalition of health and environmental groups, commissioned tests of 17 fragranced products at an independent laboratory. Campaign partner Environmental Working Group assessed data from the tests and the product labels.  The analysis reveals that the 17 products contained, on average:

• Fourteen secret chemicals not listed on labels due to a loophole in federal law that allows companies to claim fragrances as trade secrets. American Eagle Seventy Seven contained 24 hidden chemicals, the highest number of any product in the study.
• Ten sensitizing chemicals associated with allergic reactions such as asthma, wheezing, headaches and contact dermatitis. Giorgio Armani Acqua Di Gio contained 19 different sensitizing chemicals, more than any other product in the study
• Four hormone-disrupting chemicals linked to a range of health effects including sperm damage, thyroid disruption and cancer. Halle by Halle Berry, Quicksilver and Jennifer Lopez J. Lo Glow each contained seven different chemicals with the potential to disrupt the hormone system.

Hormone disruptors that may play a role in cancer were found in many of the fragrances analyzed for this study.  The Cancer Panel report recommends that pregnant women and couples planning to become pregnant avoid exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals due to cancer concerns.  “This monumental study reveals the hidden hazards of fragrances,” said Anne C. Steinemann, Ph.D, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Professor of Public Affairs, University of Washington. 

“Secondhand scents are also a big concern," said Steinemann. "One person using a fragranced product can cause health problems for many others.”  Like second-hand smoke.

Additional resources:

1. FDA has precious little about fragrance regulations
2. TSCA has nothing on perfumes or fragrance
3. Actio Corp tracks chemicals, compliance and product ingredients (for manufacturers)
4. EPA good January blog on fragrances
5. GC3 (Green Chemistry out of Lowell, MA) is looking into chemicals in cosmetics
6. Design for Environment (DfE)on fragrances
7. Environmental Working Group (EWG) (Stacy Malkan, 202-321-6963, stacy@safecosmetics.org)
   

“Something doesn’t smell right—clearly the system is broken,” said Lisa Archer, national coordinator of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics at the Breast Cancer Fund. “We urgently need updated laws that require full disclosure of cosmetic ingredients so consumers can make informed choices about what they are being exposed to.” 

“Fragrance chemicals are inhaled or absorbed through the skin, and many of them end up inside people’s bodies, including pregnant women and newborn babies,” said Jane Houlihan, senior vice president for research at Environmental Working Group.

Perfumes on display  

(Photo by Alastair Dunning, courtesy Environmental News Service)

A recent EWG study found synthetic musk chemicals Galaxolide and Tonalide in the umbilical cord blood of newborn infants. The musk chemicals were found in nearly every fragrance analyzed for this study. Twelve of the 17 products also contained diethyl phthalate (DEP), a chemical linked to sperm damage and behavioral problems that has been found in the bodies of nearly all Americans tested.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is a national coalition of nonprofit women’s, environmental, public health, faith and worker safety organizations. The mission is to protect the health of consumers and workers by securing the corporate, regulatory and legislative reforms necessary to eliminate dangerous chemicals from cosmetics and personal care products.

The mission of the Environmental Working Group (EWG) - says their documentation - is to use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment. EWG is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, founded in 1993 by Ken Cook and Richard Wiles.

Sceinceblogs.com writes it up this way:  "The President's Cancer Panel (PCP) report is very long (over 200 pages), which is why it's good that the executive summary does a good job of boiling down the vastness of the report into a more digestible chunk. I read the whole thing, but the report started to get repetitive fairly quickly. It begins, as all such reports do, by pointing out the enormity of the cancer problem in the U.S. and then proposes to address the question of environmental influences on cancer...."  View the summary. 

Is there a solution for manufacturers, suppliers, regulatory agencies, and consumers?  There actually might just be.  

More will be revealed at the conference in Denver, AIHce 2010, next week.  But here's a preview:

Material Disclosure

“Environmental compliance in a supply chain is necessary today for globalization,” said Actio Corporation co-founder and CEO Russell McCann. “Globalizing products requires in-depth knowledge of all raw materials and parts in a finished product – and the status of each in regards to environmental regulations. Risk managers must analyze each component in the Bills of Material or ‘BOM.' They must get this BOM information from suppliers.”

In the past, suppliers have resisted sharing ingredient information because of the threat of losing competitive advantage.

“Suppliers engage in ingredient-disclosure for environmental compliance when a tool enables them to do so,” McCann emphasized. “If suppliers don’t get decent tools for providing compliance information, then manufacturers and customers don’t get decent compliance information; it’s that simple.”

More on tools for material disclosure can be found at www.materialdisclosure.com.

Till next week.