Skip to main content

M8.5 Blog about an ideal chemical policy

After watching all of the provided videos and reading material blog about what you think is essential for an ideal chemical policy and then elaborate on one of the elements from a public health protection perspective.

 I think the most essential components of an ideal chemical policy are:

  1. Requiring the use of the safest chemical and product available 
  2. Requiring written justification and approval from the government on a narrow case-by-case basis for ANY chemical or product that is deemed hazardous or potentially hazardous for human health. (and requiring this approval be renewed with a new application appeal process annually)
  3. Elimination of use for all the most toxic chemicals across the U.S. and pushing out guidance to the rest of the world. 
  4. Regulating U.S. companies' use of toxic chemicals not only in the U.S., but abroad through tax structures that penalize any use of hazardous chemicals or products by the company anywhere in the world.
  5. Requiring comprehensive disclosure of all chemicals used in a product be made publicly available on a searchable database and also including information on safety risks, and all available information on the potential hazards or harms of a product and its components in a user-friendly language that the public can easily understand and access.
  6.  Protecting workers' and communities through prioritizing claims and allowing them to sue companies for any damage they have incurred or could potentially occur due to the increased risk the company has put them in.
  7. Regulating chemicals through a stringent process that requires proving the safety of every new chemical through rigorous study PRIOR to it ever being allowed to be used in any commercial setting. Every chemical should require government approval prior to use. This would essentially be a reversal of what is currently the standard. Instead of placing the burden on researchers and consumers after-the-fact to prove a chemical is having lasting hazardous impact on human health and communities, the burden should be placed on companies who would like to use a chemical to provide significant evidence of its safety to the government and public and receive approval for use, prior to ever allowing the chemical to come to market or be used in any process or product that could expose people to the chemical. 

Comments

  1. KJOctober 16, 2019 at 3:04 PM

    I love #4 and #7. Forcing ourselves to be accountable and also forcing the companies that ship items into our country to be accountable is the only way we can make a positive impact on the environment. It is crazy that a lot of chemicals and toxins weren't regulated for the longest and all of a sudden they are being regulated on our end, but if other countries aren't following suit we will end up with harmful products still.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

M3.2 Vulnerable Populations

Why are we still ONLY focused on sedentary lifestyles and diets when addressing obesity in the US?  Why are we not also looking at ways to decrease exposures to those chemicals that may be contributing to the epidemic? I think one main reason we are focused on sedentary lifestyles and diets instead of exposures is that the U.S. has a very strong individualistic culture that is biased towards making every problem about individual responsibility. It feeds into the narrative that we are individually responsible for our welfare and success and are able to determine our health based on the individual choices we make. Another main reason for this focus, and for this culture more generally, in my opinion, is that it is in the interest of major U.S. corporations to distract us and blame individuals for their poor health rather than take responsibility for the ways in which the chemicals they are exposing us to are contributing to this epidemic and others. Their interest first and f...
Post a Comment
Read more

M4.6 Radon

Given that there are an estimated 21,000 excess deaths from lung cancer associated with exposure to radon,   how would you develop a national awareness campaign?   Name some of your potential collaborators (stakeholders). Developing a national awareness campaign would be challenging because I think people generally don't like to pay attention to environmental exposures and associated health risks unless they have been directly affected by the toxin in question. For a national awareness campaign regarding radon exposure, I would collaborate with the following organizations: American Lung Association Lung Cancer Foundation of America Lung Cancer Alliance American Cancer Society American Public Health Association American Medical Association American Nurses Association Home Depot, Lowes and other local hardware stores (a campaign for them to sell more radon testing kits) First Alert (makers of radon testing kits to include them in a campaign to sell kits) I think th...
Post a Comment
Read more

M10.2 Blog about MSDS and ToxNet

Obtain a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) from your workplace or from the workplace of a family member or friend.   Material Safety Data Sheets are chemical information sheets created by chemical manufacturers that all employers are required to obtain and keep for any potentially hazardous chemicals in the workplace. For this blog post, I tried to find a material safety data sheet (MSDS) from UCSF. The MSDS I found is for "Equi-soft Foam Antimicrobial Handsoap"  Here is a link to the MSDS:  https://cleanhands.ucsfmedicalcenter.org/docs/Product%20information/Arichive/Equi-soft_Foam_MSDS.pdf Review  the MSDS and answer the following questions: What are the health risks associated with this chemical? There are four chemicals in the antimicrobial handsoap:  2-methylpentane-2,4-diol; amines, coco alkyldimethyl, n-oxides; Polyethylene Glycol; and benzalkonium chloride.  The health risk associated with these chemicals is they can cause eye irrita...
Post a Comment
Read more