Sunday, March 19, 2017
Chemical policy reform
Require safer substitutes and solutions
I think it is one of the most significant to remove the hazardous chemicals "by altering production processes, substituting safer chemicals, redesigning products and systems, rewarding innovation and re-examining product function." In our group's ideal chemical policy, I suggested that we can use the car alternatively by suing the number of car plate for the air pollution. Also, Samuel suggested the policies that reduce exhaust from both industrial, commercial, private, and public vehicles could reduce the total particulate matter levels within the air. In addition to that, he suggested the use of air conditioning and articulated filters, decreasing indoor combustion for heating and cooking, and smoking cessation in order to reduce indoor levels of particulate matter.
Phase out persistent, bioaccumulative, or highly toxic chemicals
Fragrance could be persistent, bioaccumulative and highly toxic chemicals when they are used directly into human body. Samuel explained that "the policy which would help in possibly reducing personal exposure to adverse chemicals within fragrances, would be to require companies and manufactures to disclose the chemicals used within the fragrances of their products."
Give the Public and Workers the Full Right-to-Know and Participate
Elena emphasized the educations about the importance of knowing the Air Quality Index(AQI) for the parents. She suggested that "pediatricians and nurses should discuss this with parents when a child is diagnosed with a respiratory disease." This is one of the most effective way to provide the full right to know in the public.
Act on Early Warnings
Our group didn't mention policy for this category. Especially, it is not easy to prevent until we experience the new chemicals. I can suggest that the government should regulate the law strictly about the new chemical before they release it.
Require Comprehensive Safety Data for All Chemicals
Providing the data for all chemicals is not a choice, but rather mandatory. However, many fragrance companies keep secret their ingredients since it would affect on their business. For fragrance policy, I and Elena suggested that the companies should create labels with detailed information about which chemicals they used.
Take Immediate Action to Protect Communities and Workers
Elena suggested using of the application that automatically send alerts to the parent about the AQI for the day. This leads the parents and people to act immediately in the communities. This will prevent the exposure of certain limit of chemicals "that pose a health hazard" in the air.
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Hi Yeana,
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job of synthesizing our policy recommendations to compare and contrast them against those of the Louisville Charter. Without having looked at this document prior to this module, I was surprised at how many of our recommendations coincided with the theirs. This substantiated my theory that many of these recommendations are common knowledge and should have been in place decades ago when scientists and environmentalists first recognized the harm associated with toxic chemicals.
Hello Yeana,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your very through overview of our collective ideas for an ideal chemical policy. I feel very strongly about including an incentive for those manufacturers who attempt innovative techniques to reduce their negative impact on the environment. This is a common practice for many policies that have been put in place within the United States. For instance, those healthcare entities which participate under the Meaningful Use act, are provided incentives for updating their methods of patient data collection. As incentives have already been proven to be an effective tool at implementing policies, including an incentive for positive chemical policy implementation appears to be a no-brainer.
Samuel