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Hair and nail care products are contributing to smog: The California Air Resources Board has fined 19 companies for selling consumer products that violate air quality standards for smog-producing volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The products include hair care products, nail polish remover, bathroom cleaners and air fresheners responsible for over 11 tons of excess VOC emissions. Companies paying the highest fines include Bumble and Bumble, Wal-Mart, Stoner (car care and other cleaning… …

Plastics in turn, are a leading end use for flame retardants. They’re found in penguins and in mothers, breast milk and children across the United States; in household dust, ordinary supermarket food and in virtually every geographic location scientists have searched worldwide. These are the flame retardants known as PBDEs that have been used in plastics and textiles since the 1970s. Found to be persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic, these compounds are released from the products in which… …

Plastics Scorecard and Valuing Plastic, two recent reports demonstrate how companies need to pay attention to the chemicals in plastics and the end of life impacts of plastics. For companies looking to reduce their environmental footprint, including their use of hazardous chemicals, plastics are a huge challenge. BizNGO’s Plastics Scorecard found nearly 250 million metric tons of high-concern chemicals used in plastics annually that pose risks to workers, consumers, communities and the… …

Why companies need to do hazard assessments of alternatives … Testing for flame retardants in general consumer and children’s products by the state’s Department of Ecology found many “regrettable substitutions.”  Regulated flame retardants – PBDEs for example – are being replaced with unregulated and potentially toxic chemicals. Many tested products contain chlorinated Tris such as TDCPP (banned in pajamas in the 1970s) while others contained HBCD… …

Since 1976, when Congress enacted the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) the EPA released its second final risk assessment for trichloroethylene (the first risk assessment covered asbestos). It focuses on the health risks from TCE exposure through spray aerosol degreasers, spray fixatives and dry cleaning industry stain removers. At this rate the EPA will finish the other 82 chemicals awaiting risk assessments by the year 3408 (let alone the other 84,000 chemicals yet to be queued up for… …

Environmental impacts of plastic use are a business liability, says a new report from the Plastic Disclosure Project, United National Environment Program and business consultants Trucost. By quantifying plastics use, the report suggests, companies can increase their sustainability and reduce their environmental impacts. The report estimates that plastics used in consumer products eat up $75 billion annually in worldwide “natural capital costs.” Over 30% of these impacts come from… …

Is the chemistry safer? We’re excited about displacing fossil fuels as the feedstocks for plastics. Recent research in the UK demonstrates that plastics can be made out of chemicals extracted from lignin – a hydrocarbon that provides structural support in trees and other plants. As a wood products industry waste product, lignin could be an abundant and low-cost source material for bioplastics. As always our questions are, what are the chemicals being made from lignin? And are they… …

Are the alternatives to HBCD safer? The US EPA’s Design for Environment program released its final report identifying alternatives to the flame retardant HBCD (hexabromocyclododecane). A persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic (PBT) chemical with adverse reproductive, developmental, and neurological effects, HBCD presents significant environmental and human health concerns. The “safer” alternative identified by EPA, butadiene styrene brominated copolymer, has the advantage of being… …