Toxic Chemical Use Research Articles

Occupational Safety, Best Practices, and Legislative Review on Small-scale Mining in the Philippines

Introduction. Small-scale mining (SSM) has been in the Philippines since the early 1900s and significant contributor to the local economy. SSM has contributed 14% of the country's total Gross Domestic Product and has a revenue share of about 19 billion pesos (380 million USD).
 Objectives. This study aims to document mining occupational safety and health in SSM in the Philippines and identify best practices among miners and communities to reduce toxic chemical use in mining. It also aims to evolve laws and legislative measures on mining in the country as the basis for more aggressive policies and programs for SSM in the Philippines.
 Methods. The data were based on gray literature, peer-reviewed journals, databases, government statistics, and secondary literature. Data were analyzed through critical appraisal on the impacts of mining in terms of occupational safety, mining issues, hazards, and disasters, environmental and health impact, as well as documentation of best practices in mining to reduce the use of toxic chemicals, and the current laws and legislations on mining in the Philippines.
 Results. SSM or artisanal mining is categorized as part of the informal sector of the market economy. In the Philippines, the leading types of accidents in the mines are being hit by falling objects, suffocation from chemical fumes, and crushing injuries, exposure to intense heat, poor ventilation, vibration, dust, fumes, repetitive stress injury, intense noise, manual handling (e.g., lifting) of heavy machinery, and biological and chemical hazard. Occupational illnesses include skin diseases, emphysema, chronic obstructive lung disease, and hearing loss. Due to these risks, the Philippines has adopted mercury-free mining, cyanide reduction, and green and climate-smart mining. The use of borax in recovering gold from ore instead of mercury originated in the Philippines, which is now widely known as the mercury-free gravity-borax method adopted in Africa and Asia. The Philippines also has a plethora of laws covering mining as a whole. Developmental directives include enacting specific SSM laws and regulations, including a separate set of safety rules, and decentralizing the issue and control of SSM permits and licenses through local government units. Some noted legislative measures, Presidential Decrees, and Administrative Orders have been crafted to cover the safety net, equity, safety, and health for small-scale miners, among the most vulnerable working populations.
 Discussion. Hazards and risks have been documented in SSM in the Philippines. However, the policies, legislation, and protective measures on SSM warrant more comprehensive coverage, implementation, and provision of social safety nets.
 Conclusion. The study concludes that mining in the Philippines continues to be a problem as it produces adverse effects on workers' health, the community, and the environment. It is crucial to ensure the health and safety of mining workers, and all players and stakeholders must fulfill their respective roles. Governments and communities need to perform their regulatory and monitoring functions dutifully to build up their capacities to benefit mining communities that contribute much to the local economy.

Expanding the multiple streams framework to explain the formation of diverse voluntary programs: evidence from US toxic chemical use policy

This article demonstrates the explanatory power of an expanded policy stream, as part of Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework. Product substitutes, corporate social responsibility, the global economy, and the market maverick rationalize the incentives under which regulators, consumers, businesses, and environmental NGOs interact to explain the formation of two landmark voluntary programs on mercury and arsenic use, respectively. Arsenic and mercury are ranked first and third, respectively, on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s priority list of hazardous substances. In both cases, the existence of a product substitute that performed on par with the original product but generated less negative environmental impact motivated the private sector to go beyond compliance in their environmental management. Notwithstanding, the push and pull of variables in the problem, politics, and policy streams, and the interplay of diverse actors led to the emergence of diverse forms of voluntary programs. In the mercury case, an industry association steered the technocratic process of the chlor-alkali industry’s voluntary stewardship program, which led to marginal reductions in toxic chemical use, as part of the global phase-out of mercury already under way. By contrast, in the arsenic case, an environmental activist campaign successfully compelled the pressure-treated wood industry to concede to a voluntary cancelation of chromated copper arsenate, an arsenic compound, in residential uses. Subsequently, arsenic use fell to levels not seen since the 1920s. In both cases, strong coalition building—the former by businesses and the latter by environmental NGOs—combined with a fragmented or nonexistent opposing side shaped the final form of each voluntary program.

Regulatory effectiveness and the long-run policy horizon: The case of U.S. toxic chemical use

Abstract This paper employs state-of-the-art time series analysis to examine the long-run economic and institutional drivers of toxic chemical use behavior in the U.S. Toxic chemicals are classified into growth , Environmental Kuznets Curve ( EKC ), and kinked-growth chemicals, according to their long-run use trend behavior. Cointegration analysis shows that while some toxic chemicals have been successfully reduced by regulatory efforts, a majority of the toxic chemicals used in commercial products share a long-run equilibrium with national accounts and industrial production, suggesting that toxic chemical use has been largely driven by changes in GDP, industrial production, and private R&D investments, rather than by government regulations. Estimated structural break results indicate that the 1986 Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, which created the Toxic Release Inventory has had impact on the consumptive use of more poisonous industrial chemicals than command-and-control regulations.

Banned: a history of pesticides and the science of toxicology

Rachel Carson's eloquent book Silent Spring stands as one of the most important books of the twentieth century and inspired important and long-lasting changes in environmental science and government policy. Frederick Rowe Davis thoughtfully sets Carson's study in the context of the twentieth century, reconsiders her achievement, and analyzes its legacy in light of toxic chemical use and regulation today. Davis examines the history of pesticide development alongside the evolution of the science of toxicology and tracks legislation governing exposure to chemicals across the twentieth century. He affirms the brilliance of Carson's careful scientific interpretations drawing on data from university and government toxicologists. Although Silent Spring instigated legislation that successfully terminated DDT use, other warnings were ignored. Ironically, we replaced one poison with even more toxic ones. Davis concludes that we urgently need new thinking about how we evaluate and regulate pesticides in accounting for their ecological and human toll.

Dispatches

Dispatches

Higher Hazard Substances under the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act: Lessons from the First Four Years

The Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act (TURA) has achieved significant reductions in toxic chemical use in Massachusetts, using a combination of regulatory and voluntary measures. Historically the program has regulated only users of relatively large quantities of toxic chemicals, with services provided to facilities of all sizes on a voluntary basis. Statutory amendments adopted in 2006 created an authority to designate Higher and Lower Hazard Substances (HHS and LHS). The HHS designation extends TURA program requirements to smaller quantity chemical users. This article reports on experiences from the first four years of implementing this new authority. A case study of trichloroethylene is provided as an example. The article also discusses steps taken to regulate n-propyl bromide, a drop-in substitute for TCE that is minimally regulated at the federal level. TURA program experiences may be of interest to other jurisdictions that are working to reach small-quantity chemical users, and to categorize and prioritize chemicals.

Program assessment at the 20 year mark: experiences of Massachusetts companies and communities with the Toxics Use Reduction Act (TURA) program

The Toxics Use Reduction Act (TURA) model is widely cited as an effective blend of mandatory and voluntary components, and is considered a model nation-wide and internationally. There is ample documentation of the reductions in toxic chemical use achieved by Massachusetts facilities under TURA. The present study was designed to gather other information about the experience of these facilities. Through an online survey and telephone interviews, the study investigated how these facilities are achieving toxics use reduction, how TURA affects internal company dynamics, what benefits and difficulties facilities experience, and how their experiences in the program have changed over time. Survey results indicate that the benefits experienced most frequently by facilities subject to TURA requirements are increased management attention to environmental practices; improved worker health and safety; and financial savings. Most frequently cited obstacles to TUR implementation are technical feasibility problems; financial costs; concerns about product quality; and customer requirements. Survey results also indicate that the TUR planning process is most useful in the first and second planning cycles, although most respondents indicated that they sometimes identify useful TUR options in subsequent planning cycles as well. Over all, the results indicate that facilities are continuing to experience significant benefits from the TURA program, while they also continue to face some challenges. These results provide a snapshot of the experience of Massachusetts facilities 20 years since the inception of the TURA program. They also provide baseline information that will be useful for later evaluations of the effects of statutory changes to TURA adopted in 2006 and implemented in subsequent years. The study also included a preliminary assessment of the experience of Massachusetts municipal agencies, community organizations, small business associations and others that receive assistance from the TURA program.

Toxics use reduction in the home: lessons learned from household exposure studies

Workers and fence-line communities have been the first to benefit from the substantial reductions in toxic chemical use and byproducts in industrial production resulting from the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act (TURA). As TURA motivates reformulation of products as well as retooling of production processes, benefits could extend more broadly to large-scale reductions in everyday exposures for the general population. Household exposure studies, including those conducted by Silent Spring Institute, show that people are exposed to complex mixtures of indoor toxics from building materials and a myriad of consumer products. Pollutants in homes are likely to have multiple health effects because many are classified as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), with the ability to interfere with the body’s hormone system. Product-related EDCs measured in homes include phthalates, halogenated flame retardants, and alkylphenols. Silent Spring Institute’s chemical analysis of personal care and cleaning products confirms many are potential sources of EDCs, highlighting the need for a more comprehensive toxics use reduction (TUR) approach to reduce those exposures. Toxics use reduction targeted at EDCs in consumer products has the potential to substantially reduce occupational and residential exposures. The lessons that have emerged from household exposure research can inform improved chemicals management policies at the state and national levels, leading to safer products and widespread health and environmental benefits.

World view: A tale of two sciences

An innovative approach to reducing toxic-chemical use scrambles to stay alive as big science prospers, says Daniel Sarewitz.

Improving the health of workers and the environment: twenty years of toxics use reduction: for the 20 th Anniversary Symposium of the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Program November 4–5, 2009

The Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act (TURA) was passed and signed into law in 1989. Since its passage this legislation has had an important impact on environmental and occupational health, not only in Massachusetts but also nationally and internationally. In order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of this important program, a two-day symposium will be held on November 4–5, 2009. The two days will have different foci. The first day will be a scientific meeting, devoted to the general topic of toxic chemical use reduction (TUR). The second day will focus on the Massachusetts TURA program, its past successes and challenges, and prospects for the future. This Call for Papers is for the scientific meeting on the first day. Accepted papers will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Cleaner Production (JCLP), as described below.

Toward Just Sustainability in Urban Communities: Building Equity Rights with Sustainable Solutions

Two concepts that provide new directions for public policy, environmental justice and sustainability, are both highly contested. Each has tremendous potential to effect long-lasting change. Despite the historically different origins of these two concepts and their attendant movements, there exists an area of theoretical compatibility between them. This conceptual overlap is a critical nexus for a broad social movement to create livable, sustainable communities for all people in the future. The goal of this articleis to illustrate the nexus in the United States. The authors do this by presenting a range of local or regionally based practical models in five areas of common concern to both environmental justice and sustainability: land use planning, solid waste, toxic chemical use, residential energy use, and transportation. These models address both environmental justice principles while working toward greater sustainability in urbanized areas.

Pollution prevention: progress towards sustainable development?

Emphasis in recent years on pollution prevention (P2) is being driven both by the limits to what can be achieved by traditional "end-of-pipe" pollution control methods and by the rise in attention to the concept of sustainable development. P2 strategies have been employed to realise reductions in toxic chemical use, waste, accidental release, and worker exposure, which can simultaneously reap environmental, human health, and economic benefits. P2 is therefore a means of making progress towards sustainable development. With the evolution of development theory as a reference framework, this paper explores the concept and application of "sustainable development" as operationalised through industrial P2 approaches. An analysis is performed on how progress towards sustainable development is influenced by P2 strategies, as well as how that progress is affected by the strengths and weaknesses of sustainable development as a development approach.

Toxics reduction in ten large companies, why and how

Environmental management can be directed to the various aspects of environmental performance. As toxics are a main concern for companies toxics reduction has to be one of these aspects. To achieve a substantial reduction in toxics, companies should develop a strategy with clear targets, a program, an evaluating procedure for toxics reduction and integrate the toxics reduction in all components of the environmental management system (EMS). Monitoring, including materials accounting of toxic chemical use and byproduct generation, and requirements for the purchased products and raw materials, should be part of the activities. The toxics reduction strategy should be extended to the whole field of potential impacts of toxics, the general environment, the working environment and products. The aim of this survey is to find out why and how companies are reducing toxics (releases and use) and to which extent companies fulfil the requirements mentioned for a substantial reduction of toxics. All but one of the studied companies mentioned compliance (with environmental regulation) as one of the reasons for toxics reduction, product (safety) was mentioned by four companies and the working environment was mentioned twice. Six of the studied companies have substantial programs for toxics reduction. That compliance is a reason for toxics reduction is reflected in the programs for toxics reduction mainly focussing on toxic release reduction. The programs for toxics reduction were very different in complexity, varying from a black list to the execution of a complex program. The ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of toxics reduction seems to be strongly related. Most companies fulfil only a limited part of the requirements for a substantial toxics reduction. Only one company was found that met most of the requirements.

Optimizing anodizing baths with diffusion dialysis

Summary Diffusion dialysis for acid recycling has many benefits. It reduces acid purchases and eliminates or lowers neutralization or hazardous waste hauling costs and the related liability. Toxic chemical use is reduced and the required reporting and handling of hazardous materials and associated labor is greatly reduced. Consistent bath strength yields greater product uniformity and better quality with lower operating costs. Diffusion dialysis can dramatically improve a facility's quality and economic performance.

Toxic chemical use reporting debated on state and national levels

Toxic chemical use reporting debated on state and national levels

Peer Reviewed: Massachusetts Tries to Cut Toxic Chemicals Use

An evaluation of statewide effort reveals toxic chemical use and waste generation have declined.