Green Science Policy Institute

Programs: The six classes is our overarching program. This is an innovative strategy to educate decision makers to reduce the use of the most harmful classes or families of chemicals in consumer products and move to safer alternatives. By focusing on entire classes or families of chemicals the common problem of regrettable substitution can be prevented. All too often when a toxic chemical is phased out after years of scientific research and advocacy, the substitute is a chemical cousin with similar properties and similar toxicity. See our accomplishments below and visit www. Greensciencepolicy. Org for more information. The six classes of chemicals of concern are: flame retardants; highly fluorinated chemicals (pfas); antimicrobials; bisphenols & phthalates; organic solvents; and certain metals. Six classes accomplishments in 2017: 1): our landmark "big idea" petition to the consumer product safety commission (cpsc) was approved. This petition bans children's products, furniture, mattresses, and electronics cases that contain any member of the class of organohalogen flame retardants. This means our government is using the class approach to ban an entire class of harmful flame retardants rather than regulating the chemicals one at a time - which can lead to the substitution of a similar chemical causing similar health harm. This is a huge step forward for our mission to protect our population's health from the most harmful chemical classes in consumer products. 2) the new six classes short video series and website: we completed a series of four-minute videos to inform decision-makers and consumers about the six classes of chemicals that are known to harm human health and the environment. Each video summarizes where one of these classes of chemicals is used, associated health problems, a success story, and a list of action to reduce exposure. This knowledge will better equip large purchasers, manufacturers, retailers, designers, and consumers to take the steps needed to limit the use of these problematic chemicals. Reducing the class of highly fluorinated chemicals (pfas): a main focus of our work was educating stakeholders and reducing the use of the class of highly fluorinated chemicals, or poly-and perfluoroalkyl substances (pfas) in consumer products and building materials. Accomplishments include: 1) addressing drinking water contamination by pfas: as the knowledge of drinking waster contamination with pfas across the us increases, we have become a trusted source of information for decision makers in local, state, and federal government. We met with more than forty house and senate staff members, as well as officials at the pentagon. We educated them about the pfas and avoiding the "regrettable substitution" of a new generation of poorly studied short-chain pfas for the phased out long-chain chemicals. We have been offering monthly webinars to educate hill staff on new developments around pfas. We have also provided information to the national governors association, the ca state assembly, the ca air resources board, the city of san francisco and others in government. Our education of decision makers, our scientific papers and the media generated from them encouraged the epa and states to set health advisory levels. Numerous communities are leaning their drinking water is contaminated, and this problem is now being remedied. 2) scientists' letter on the need for a coordinated response to pfas contamination in us communities: we authored a peer-reviewed letter calling for coordinated health research in us communities whose drinking water has been polluted by pfas. The letter was signed by 37 prominent scientists and published in the journal environmental health. We sent the letter to house and senate offices representing impacted districts, as well as officials at the department of defense and the centers for disease control. We also published a companion op-ed in "the hill". Numerous media interviews, beginning with this letter, provided us opportunity to share our message of reducing the use of this entire class of chemicals. Our interviews were included in cbs morning news, michigan radio and npr with a total pick up of more than 222 news outlets. We have developed relationships with reporters covering many of the pfas impacted communities. Our monthly hill webinars and the scientists letter contributed to the inclusion of $7m in funding in the 2018 national defense authorization act to begin the first nationwide study on the health effects of pfas in drinking water. We helped support a broader senate version of the language, which was implemented rather than the narrower house version. 3) reducing the use of pfas in food contact materials: food-contact paper packaging study: we published our collaborative peer-reviewed study finding that fluorinated chemicals were present in about 40% of the samples we collected from us fast food chains. We carried our a media campaign to publicize our results. Our paper garnered widespread media attention, and increased awareness of the use of toxic pfas chemicals in food contact materials. The article received the third highest media impact score of any study ever published in the journal environmental science & technology letters. The study inspired a group of us senators to send letters to major fast food companies urging them to move to safer alternatives. It also sparked proposed legislation in california and washington banning pfasin food contact materials and caused many other ngos to become involved in advocacy around this issue. 4) pfas workshop with food-packing industry: we convened a workshop to educate members of the food-packaging industry about the harm of pfas. Industry insiders tell us that as a result of our scientific paper and workshop, some major fast food companies have begun to remove pfas-treated paper and paperboard from their products. Discussions at the workshop have resulted in the standards changes so that in 2019, pfas-containing food service products will no longer be certified as compostable. 5) working with purchasers in our material buyers club to reduce the use of pfas: our material buyers club (google, facebook, the city of san francisco, genentech, kaiser and harvard university) are using their joint purchasing power to require chemical transparency in products they purchase and move the market away from pfas nad other toxics. 24 participants including representatives from each of the buyers club members attended our 2017 six classes toxics reduction retreat, which focused on strategies to limit the use of pfas, the buyers club decided to limit the use of antimicrobials, flame retardants, and pfas in their purchasing which encourages manufacturers to develop healthier product lines without these chemicals. For instance, the number of companies offering pfas-free carpets is increasing rapidly. Club members supported our florence statement on triclosan and triclocarban, a consensus statement on the health and environmental harm and lack of proven benefit of chlorinated antimicrobials in personal care, consumer and building products. Safer insulation without flame retardants: we work with scientists, engineers and building professionals to improve building codes so that use of halogenated flame retardants in foam plastic building insulation can be safely reduced. In 2016 and 2017, we designed and carried out research and testing of different insulation materials and compiled technical documentation in support of possible building code revisions. We plan to publish the results of our testing in 2018. We continued to serve on an advisory task force for researchers at oklahoma state university (osu) who received funding from the california office of the state fire marshall (osfm) to research potential code updates that would reduce use of flame retardants in building insulation. Gsp observed fire testing in oklahoma in march and provided extensive input to osu on their final report to the sfm, which states that insulation without flame retardants can safely be used in below-grade applications. Gsp will support he osfm in 2018 to ensure that osu's recommendations are adopted into state codes; gsp will also advocate for additional research to support the updates for other applications of building insulation (which have been more controversial) and will continue to work towards code updates on a national level. International electronics work: 1) we worked to prevent unnecessary international flammability standards that would lead to the use of flame retardants without providing a fire safety benefit. Our educational work helped prevent six proposed international standards that would have led to the use of millions of pounds of flame retardants in electronics enclosures. We have built a team of expert consultants to monitor flammability committees where flame retardant manufacturers are active and watch for any proposals that might lead to the increased use of these harmful