eChem – The Eco-Chemicals Portal

American children are “guinea pigs in an uncontrolled experiment,” according to Senator Frank Lautenberg D-New Jersey   who spoke to the Senate Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health on October 26th.

toxins Among the many shocking facts shared at the hearing was that only 1 percent of the 84,000 chemicals commonly used in the US today have been studied for safety.  Lautenberg sited lax EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] standards, and the ineffective Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, which has only banned five chemicals in its 34-year history.

That’s really a shocker, isn’t it?

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The U.S. Green Building Council recently released a LEED Pilot Credit for eliminating the use of halogenated flame retardants and phthalates in building materials.  The credit calls for the elimination of several chemicals under each category, and can be used with the commercial LEED rating systems.

For documentation of the credit, project teams are asked to compare standard building materials with the selected materials without the chemicals.  From that process they are to quantify the health effects to occupants using the selected materials, focusing on VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) or toxic content measured in consistent units.  This analysis will assist USGBC in deciding whether the credit is having its intended effect.

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New research from Denmark shows that girls are reaching puberty earlier than ever before, at age 9! While some fear this will lead to increased sexual activity at a younger age, others are more concerned about what’s causing girls to develop breasts and have their periods so soon. Scientists point to chemicals in the food chain along with obesity and a high meat diet for the change.

The study of 1,000 girls found that on average breast development started at 9 years and 10 months, while a similar look at puberty in 1991 showed it occurred a year later.

“We were very surprised that there had been such a change in a period of just 15 years,” Anders Juul, head of the Department of Growth and Reproduction at the University hospital in Copenhagen told The Sunday Times. “It’s a clear sign that something is affecting our children, whether it’s junk food, environmental chemicals or lack of physical activity.”

Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of the chemicals most often blamed for interferring with hormones and sexual development. BPA can start building up in girls when they’re merely a fetus, and the chemical is found in common places such as canned foods and plastic baby bottles. The Danish scientists are continuing their research to look for a direct link between puberty and BPA.

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Last year, it was reported on the resurrection of olestra—a chemical once touted as the great fat alt in chips and crackers that tumbled when it turned out that it triggered gastrointestinal problems in those who chomped products containing it. The new use of olestra’s chemical cousins had nothing to do with food but rather with making ecofriendly paints and lubricants.

At the time, scientists for Procter & Gamble, which makes olestra, weren’t available to dish on the new olestra-like chemicals. But since then, we’ve had a chance to chat with them and find out a bit more info about the new line of chemicals dubbed Sefose.

According to Robert Starghill, a P&G chemical engineer, Sefose is made  from a combo of sugar and vegetable oil (usually soybean). Starghill and P&G chemist Victor Arredondo say Sefose could be used to replace two harmful ingredients commonly found in oil paints: resins (which make the paint’s pigment stick to surfaces) and solvents (which prevent the paints from becoming too gooey to brush over surfaces).

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Q What would it take to produce “green” tires? The tire industry is huge and I understand that tires contain a large amount of petroleum products. Is there an alternative?

A Tires are indeed no friends to the environment. Most tires on the road today are constructed of roughly equal parts natural rubber, petroleum and “carbon black” filler (derived partially from burned fossil fuels), along with a dash of other chemical additives to improve functionality.

The tire industry has embraced recycling in recent years, but still some 25 percent of tires wind up in landfills, according to Michael Bloch of the GreenLivingTips.com website. Still others are incinerated, which releases benzene, lead, butadiene, styrene and other potential carcinogens into the air we breathe.

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Makers begin disclosing chemical ingredients amid health concerns

If you’ve ever wondered whether the products you use to clean your home could be causing health issues, you’re not alone.

And now, amid pressure from environmental, health and consumer groups, makers of household cleaning agents are beginning to reveal more about the chemicals in their products, in some cases hoping to head off requirements for greater disclosure.

New York was the first state to require makers of household cleaners to reveal the chemical makeup of their products. Although the law has been on the books for 34 years, only recently has the state begun enforcing the law, bowing to pressure from environmental groups.

As many as 59 percent of Americans say they’re concerned about chemicals in their household cleaners, according to a survey released in June by Shelton Group, an advertising firm representing environmental advocates. Credit the green movement and new research that has shown a rise in occupational asthma among custodial workers and linked chemicals in cleansers to breast cancer in humans and infertility in mice.

The consumer concern isn’t lost on major manufacturers. Just this year, Clorox Co., SC Johnson and Proctor & Gamble have begun disclosing what’s inside their cleaning products on the Internet and through toll-free phone numbers.

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The Neem is sometimes called ‘Nature’s Pharmacy’, because of its many uses as a mild antibiotic, pesticide and insect repellent.

At least 35 active chemical principles have been found in its leaves, bark and seeds. The use of neem as a pesticide and the practice of cleaning one’s teeth with neem twigs have already been mentioned in Footsteps, and there are many other uses for this tree. For example, fresh green leaves mixed with grain in closed containers will keep the grain free from pests for two to three months. Farmers in Pakistan know this, and regularly plaster the inner surfaces of large storage bins for wheat with a mixture of mud and neem leaves. Neem leaves dried in books and kept at the bottom of drawers and in woollen clothing, keep away silverfish and moths.

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Biopesticides are pesticides with living organism which intervene in life cycle of the insect pest and will kill it by causing diseases. Biopesticides are important in ecofriendly pest management.

Many synthetic insecticides used during the last 40 years in Agriculture, forestry & household do not fulfill the requirement for IPM. Application of synthetic pesticides in crop protection has not only contributed effective management of insect pests but also lead to development of resistance against that insecticides & contamination of ground water and food stuffs.

Neem, the versatile tree having many good and useful qualities is indigenous to India from where it has spread too many Asian & African countries.

Neem and its allelo chemicals have variety of effect on pests. 140 active components have been identified to date that occur in different parts of tree. The most important component identified has been the tetratripernoids the azadiractin It has low risk of pest resistance due to different mode of action, specific effect on pests.

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Almost every photographic chemical which as ever been produced commercially includes compounds which are known to be hazardous to human health and/or the environment. Film and print developers are typically classed as MQ or PQ types, referring to combinations of Metol/Hydroquinone or Phenidone/Hydroquinone. Other developing agents such as Pyrocatechin, Pyrogallol, Amidol, Aminophenol, Glycin etc, are less commonly used, and have even higher levels of toxicity. Hydroquinone is perhaps the worst of the commonly used developing agents in terms of its potentially harmful effects, but nevertheless remains present in virtually all developers. Commercial photographic fixers commonly contain borates and other compounds which are known to have adverse environmental effects.
ECO PRO (formerly Silvergrain) products are completely free of the following chemicals:

* Hydroquinone
* Metol
* Borates (Boric Acid, Borax, Sodium Metaborate)
* EDTA

During the 1980′s and early 1990′s the large photographic manufacturers conducted research into developing new darkroom chemicals based around isoascorbic acid (vitamin C). Ascorbic acid had been known as a safe developing agent for many years, but difficulties in designing effective photochemicals which used isoascorbic compounds resulted in only a few products ever reaching the market, and these continued to use hydroquinone in the solution. The most common developing agent, Metol, is a known toxic skin allergen and has a relatively short shelf life. In the latter part of the 20th century, new formulas replaced Metol with Phenidone compounds. Phenidone has a much longer shelf life and is virtually non-allergenic, but chemists continued to rely on Hydroquinone as the second developing agent, which is needed to produce effective contrast.

The ECO PRO line of chemicals is the most eco-friendly and least toxic darkroom chemistry on the market today. ECO PRO chemicals are designed to produce truly outstanding results and to have a shelf-life which exceeds that of most other products.

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Excerpts from an article in ICIS

* Increasingly, both clothing manufacturers and retailers see an advantage in bringing greener products to the consumer, and they are putting pressure on suppliers to adopt more eco-friendly practices.

* About 54m tonnes of fiber is processed each year, which requires approximately 1m tonnes of dyes and 7m tonnes of other chemicals and accounts for nearly one-third of global water usage and 4.3% of worldwide energy consumption – second only to pulp and paper processing. And much of this activity occurs in 50,000 or more small manufacturing plants across Asia.

* Chemicals are used not only to produce fibers, but also for scouring, bleaching, desizing, softening, mercerization, “We are responding to the stronger demand for ecological textiles” Janardhanan Ramanujalu, head of global business management for textile chemicals, BASF dyeing, printing and finishing textiles. They include specialty materials such as biocides, flame retardants, water repellants, stain blockers and antistatic agents, as well as more common ingredients including surfactants, waxes, starch and oxidizing agents.

* Flame retardants, particularly poly­brominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), have become a concern.

* “While most manufacturers in the US have halted production of many PBDEs, there still must be an effort to prevent future release of these chemicals into the environment,” says principal author Kimani Kimbrough. Because there are large quantities of PBDEs found in consumer products, disposal of these products must be accomplished in such a way as to not further contaminate the environment, he adds.

* New alternatives include Teijin’s Super Extar, which chemically bonds to polyester fiber, preventing release to the environment. Even when burned, no cyan or halogenated toxic gases are generated, according to the company.

* Formaldehyde content on textiles has also become an issue in the US and Europe. One response is BASF’s formaldehyde-free Helizarin pigment printing system, which ensures “zero add-on” of formaldehyde during production and needs no further treatment. Helizarin is part of a comprehensive BASF initiative to address consumer safety, resource conservation and climate change within the textile industry. Other elements include two new fluorocarbon finishing systems for stain repellency and release. Both contain C6-based Lurotex fluorocarbon finish and Perapret booster for enhanced performance. With C6 technology, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) levels are reduced to below the detectable limit using state-of-the-art analytical methods.