California Update: The Green Chemistry Initiative

Green chemistry is a complicated idea with a simple goal: to protect our families and children from harmful chemicals. The philosophy of green chemistry is to do this by encouraging innovation and creation of chemicals that are not harmful to us or the environment.

Governments do this by phasing out the use of the most harmful chemicals and encourage the development and use of safer chemicals, implementing tax incentives, and creating chemical clearinghouses (databases of the “worst of the worst” chemicals that should be avoided).

The state of California has had a Green Chemistry Initiative in place for two years, and now the law is being subjected to final rules before it goes into place in 2011.

The regulations put into place this year will determine whether the law stays as strong as it was intended, or whether it is weakened by industry interests.

In a strongly worded editorial, the Los Angeles Times pushed for strong regulation:

"With the law slated to go into effect in 2011, the state Department of Toxic Substances Control is scrambling to finalize its green chemistry regulations — a process wracked by technical challenges and policy disagreements. Amid a tug-of-war among manufacturers, environmentalists, scientists and policy makers, there's a danger that the initiative could falter. That would be bad for just about everybody."

"Rising rates of autism, low sperm counts and other reproductive problems, immune disorders and other woes have been traced to environmental sources such as manufactured chemicals, which until now have mostly been assumed safe until a clear link to illnesses has been shown. New laws encouraging manufacturers to find nontoxic alternatives are overdue."

The draft regulations seem to favor industry over our protection, and this was underlined by Change California's policy director Ansje Miller. She told the Capitol Weekly "It is a little frustrating that we had some really good promise in what was happening with the Green Chemistry initiative ... How it has turned out in implementation seems a lot weaker."

Industry focus on this law may be stronger in California than it would be in other states -- California's population often makes it the tipping point for industry, and strong California regulations may change the way that chemicals are regulated around the country.