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• Air Pollution and Children's Health
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resources for kids and educators

• CEEIN
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• Internet Atlas
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OEHHA

Green Chemistry at OEHHA

OEHHA is the lead state agency for evaluating hazards and risks of chemicals, with extensive expertise in evaluating existing and emerging chemicals of concern.  Key initial steps in implementing any comprehensive chemicals policy include identifying toxic substances that pose significant risks to human health or the environment and determining acceptable alternatives.  OEHHA is beginning development of a framework to define safer chemicals, use new screening tools to speed the process of chemical hazard identification, and identify methods for evaluating safer substitutes.  OEHHA is committed to informing the public of its findings through online resources, workshops and community outreach.

Current OEHHA green chemistry activities address the following goals:

1. Define criteria for identifying safer chemicals
2. Identify and prioritize chemicals of concern
3. Use new information and tools to assess and evaluate existing and emerging chemical hazards
4. Identify safer alternatives to existing chemicals
5. Inform the public of safer alternatives

OEHHA green chemistry activities include:

• Researching safer alternatives to PBDE flame retardants, which are persistent, bioaccumulative compounds associated with adverse effects on the thyroid and brain development.  The objective of the research is to ensure that alternative chemicals or re-designed products being used to address fire safety do not have unanticipated impacts on human health or the environment.   
• Evaluating substitutes under the California Air Resources Board’s Consumer Products Program for volatile organic compounds that contribute to ground-level ozone.  The evaluations are intended to ensure that alternatives are acceptable from a human health perspective. 
• Identifying safer substitutes for perchloroethylene, a cancer-causing chemical being phased-out as a dry cleaning agent in California, by ensuring that alternatives are clearly less toxic to people and the environment.  OEHHA recently evaluated decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5; “Green Earth”) as a possible substitute for perchloroethylene and identified some potential health and environmental concerns.
• Conducting multimedia assessments of alternative fuels that could offer improved protection of public health and the environment, including air and water quality. 
• Developing green building guidelines and recommendations to improve indoor air quality and promote recycled products and low-emitting construction materials.
• Participating in the California Green Chemistry Initiative
  • OEHHA staff led and participated on teams that developed green chemistry policy options based on public input, and were lead authors of chapters in the Cal/EPA green chemistry report that was released in January 2008.
  • OEHHA staff are participating on interagency teams for Phase Two of the Green Chemistry Initiative, which will focus on selected early action items and development of recommendations.
  • OEHHA and the Department of Toxic Substances Control presented a talk entitled “Green Chemistry Initiative Update” to the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board In-House Training on Emerging Contaminants.

• Planning and participating in green chemistry workshops, forums, and hearings
  • OEHHA cosponsored an October 2007 workshop with the University of California’s Center for Occupational and Environmental Health on Practical Decision-Making Tools for Identifying Safer Alternatives.

• Developing expertise on tools for analyzing structure-activity relationships
  • As a follow up to recommendations made by commenters at the workshop on Practical Decision-Making Tools for Identifying Safer Alternatives, OEHHA is focusing on increasing technical capacity in the area of quantitative structure activity analysis.  As one element of this effort, OEHHA staff attended the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Sustainable Futures training on tools used for evaluating new chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act.