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RE: Endocrine Disruptors
Yep, there's no "right" way to weight the various
impacts, and there's nearly always some sort of
tradeoff.
Maybe to help companies decide between products,
there could be an environmental rating and a site-
specific efficacy rating, as you suggest -- only
make the environmental rating based in part on
what the company's environmental values are. The
companies themselves would decide how to weight
worker exposure compared to global warming (for
example), which would then affect the
environmental ratings of the products they're
considering.
Assuming, of course, that all the products under
consideration meet reg requirements.
For the NRDC project, we're talking about a
homeowner's stew of products and not a switch
from one or two products to one or two other
products. We've chosen to focus only on chronic
toxicity for now. Hopefully, the focus of the
calculator we're creating will expand to include
regional and global effects due to consumer
choices as well as impacts in the home itself, at
which time we'll be working with tradeoffs in
different kinds of impacts.
Our calculator is going to include how much of
each product is used as well as the ingredients
it contains and what their concentration in the
product is. By considering the amount used,
we're taking into account any losses or gains in
product efficacy. The other thing we're
including is whether the product is rinsed down
the drain, wiped off, or left in place.
So we're taking a simplistic look at chronic
toxicity, but more detail would require too much
time and effort on the part of visitors to the
website. Also, we went the results and the
pathway to the results to be intellectually
accessible for people who don't have a PhD in
toxicology. In the end, you could add endless
layers of sophistication to the toxicity
assessment without adding much to the usefulness
of the rating as a means of guiding efforts to
reduce the use of toxics in the home.
---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2002 10:37:59 -0700
>From: "Callahan, Mike"
<Mike.Callahan@Jacobs.com>
>Subject: RE: Endocrine Disruptors
>To: "'Kirsten Sinclair Rosselot'"
<ksrosselot@processprofiles.com>, "David Herb"
<herbdw@michigan.gov>
>Cc: p2tech@great-lakes.net
>
>Kirsten/David,
>
>My interest in toxicity ratings deals primarily
in how one weighs all of the
>competing attributes. Solvents tend to exhibit
risk due to ozone depletion,
>global warming, flammability, and central
nervous system effects. Aqueous
>cleaners tend to exhibit risk due to corrosive
action (pH), aquatic
>toxicity, and endrocrine disruption. The
regulatory push to ban solvent use
>has tended to heavily weigh the risk attributes
related to solvents and to
>downplay or ignore the attributes related to
aqueous cleaners.
>
>Somewhere in here one also has to look at
product performance. Most rating
>systems leave this out because it is too
subjective a term to quantify.
>However, the use of low risk products may be
just as bad or worse for the
>environment if one needs to use so much more of
it. How the product is used
>and where it is used should also be part of the
risk assessment equation.
>Perhaps a rating system that provides a general
usage rating and a site
>specific rating would help one identify which
products they should be using.
>
>Just my two cents,
>
>Mike Callahan, PE
>Principal Chemical Engineer
>Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.
>1111 S. Arroyo Parkway
>Pasadena CA 91105
>(626) 568-7005
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Kirsten Sinclair Rosselot
[mailto:ksrosselot@processprofiles.com]
>Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2002 9:36 AM
>To: David Herb
>Cc: p2tech@great-lakes.net
>Subject: Re: Endocrine Disruptors
>
>
>If you go to Scorecard's site at
>http://scorecard.org/health-
effects/chemicals.tcl?
>full_hazard_name=Endocrine%20Toxicity&all_p=t,
>you'll find a list of suspected endocrine
>disruptors. There isn't an official list of
>known disruptors. The sources ED used to place
>the compounds on their list are described at
>http://scorecard.org/health-
>effects/explanation.tcl?short_hazard_name=endo
>
>I'll be interested to hear what you come up
>with. I'm helping to develop a website for NRDC
>where people will enter information about the
>cleansers and pesticides they use in their home
>in order to obtain a personal quantitative
>chronic toxicity rating based on their choices.
>The site will include guidance on making product
>choices that will lower the home's chronic
>toxicity rating. I'm relying partly on MSDSes
>for ingredient information -- it's a mess. It
>seems to me that the MSDS regs are only loosely
>observed.
>
>---- Original message ----
>>Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2002 10:24:21 -0400
>>From: "David Herb" <herbdw@michigan.gov>
>>Subject: Endocrine Disruptors
>>To: <p2tech@great-lakes.net>
>>
>>If anyone can provide a link to a list of
>specific chemicals that are
>>either known or suspected endocrine disruptors,
>I would be most
>>grateful. I am attempting to address a concern
>that various aqueous
>>cleaners contain endocrine disruptors (such as
>nonylphenol) in
>>concentrations below the 1% level requiring
>disclosure on the Material
>>Safety Data Sheet. Sincerely,
>>
>>
>>
>>David Herb
>>Environmental Engineer
>>Pollution Prevention Section
>>MDEQ - Environmental Assistance Division
>>Constitution Hall
>>1st Floor, North Tower
>>525 West Allegan
>>P.O. Box 30457
>>Lansing, MI 48909-7957
>>
>>Phone: 517-241-8176
>>Fax: 517-241-7966
>>Email: herbdw@michigan.gov
>>
>>MDEQ - Environmental Assistance Center 800-662-
>9278
>>MDEQ - EAD Website
>http://www.deq.state.mi.us/ead/
>>
>>
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>===============================
>Kirsten Sinclair Rosselot, P.E.
>Process Profiles
>P.O. Box 8264
>Calabasas, CA 91372-8264
>
>ksrosselot@processprofiles.com
>http://www.processprofiles.com
>
>(818) 878-0454
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Process Profiles
P.O. Box 8264
Calabasas, CA 91372-8264
ksrosselot@processprofiles.com
http://www.processprofiles.com
(818) 878-0454
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