Friday, November 18, 2011

Tools to Evaluate Chemical Ingredients in Products

Tools to Evaluate Chemical Ingredients in Products
http://www.greenchemistryandcommerce.org/retailer.overview.php
 
"Introduction
Increasing regulatory requirements and consumer and media pressure to sell safer or "green" products are driving retailers "to understand more about the chemical ingredients in the products they sell and to find safer alternatives to chemicals of concern. Some retailers are developing their own tools or systems to evaluate the chemical content of the products they buy and sell, some are working with developers of 3rd party evaluation systems to develop customized tools, and others are working collaboratively to develop tools useful to a whole industry sector. Many retailers lack the resources to educate themselves about the tools and systems available so the Retailer Portal database and summary document have been designed to help retailers begin the education process.

Tools
The tools included in the Retailer Portal are either free or commercially available and enable retailers to evaluate chemicals or chemical-containing products for their potential human health and environmental impacts and identify chemicals or materials that are regulated or are of concern and not yet regulated. Most of the evaluative systems go beyond ensuring compliance with existing environmental regulations and provide additional information to retailers and manufacturers whose goal is to "green" their product lines by selling chemicals and chemical-containing products that are safer throughout the supply chain. A weakness of all tools and systems assessed is a lack of available data on product chemical content and toxicity through supply chains."

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