• North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC)
• Canada
• China
• US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• US State of California
• US City and County of San Francisco, California
• US State of Washington

North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC)
http://www.cec.org/

The CEC is an international organization created by Canada, Mexico and the United States under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC). It was mandated to address regional environmental concerns, to help prevent potential trade and environmental conflicts, and to promote the effective enforcement of environmental law. One of the CEC's programs, the 'Pollutants and Health program', aims to establish cooperative initiatives in North America to prevent the adverse effects of pollution on human and ecosystem health. As far as toxic chemicals concern, three projects are notable, including as the (1) Sound Management of Chemicals, (2) North American Pollutant Release and Transfer Register, and (3) Children's Health and Environment in North America.

The North American Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) project tracks and publishes information on the amounts, sources and handling of toxic chemicals from industrial activities in North America. Meanwhile, the Children's Health and the Environment in North America project seeks to reduce environmental risks to children's health by facilitating collaboration with interested institutions and groups. An important focus of the work is to foster a better understanding of the interrelationships between environmental quality and the health of children, and to build a foundation for informed decision-making for policy makers, health and environmental professionals, parents and others.

Canada - Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) & CEPA Environmental Registry
http://www.ec.gc.ca/envhome.html

The CEPA, first passed in 1988, was amended significantly in 1999. A major part of the Act is to address potentially dangerous chemical substances, acknowledging the need to eliminate the most persistent toxic substances. As such, the renewed CEPA provides a backbone in Canada for governing the assessment and management of chemical substances and engaging in collective efforts with the Government of Canada, provinces and territories, municipalities, industry, health and environmental groups and other countries.

With regards to the control of toxic substances, CEPA requires the government to (1) establish firm time frame for a response and follow up action; (2) require all substances on the 'Domestic Substances List' to be categorised and screened for potential risks to human health, life and the environment; and (3) set a new goal of virtual elimination of persistent, bioaccumulating, and toxic substances. Meanwhile, the CEPA Environmental Registry was established under the CEPA with the mandate to improve public access to environmental information. In addition to providing up-to-date copies of current CEPA 1999 instruments, the primary objective of the Registry is to encourage and support public participation in environmental decision-making by facilitating access to documents arising from the administration of the Act.

China - Administrative Measures on the Control of Pollution Caused by Electronic Information Products (known as 'China ROHS')
http://www.chinarohs.com/docs.html
http://english.mofcom.gov.cn/aarticle/policyrelease/domesticpolicy/200605/20060502132549.html

China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) recently released the nation's new "Administrative Measures on the Control of Pollution Caused by Electronic Information Products" (also known as China RoHS law), which took effective as of 1 March 2007. The three main objectives of this legislation are: (a) to control and reduce pollution caused by discarded electronic information products, (b) to promote the production and sales of low-pollution electronic information products, and (c) to protect the environment and human health.

This legislation was largely influenced by the EU RoHS legislation and bans the use of same 6 classes of hazardous substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE). Nevertheless, the China RoHS appears to have a broader scope and tougher provisions. The main difference is that, unlike the EU RoHS directive, which applies primarily to producers, the China RoHS law will apply to every operator in the supply chain - manufacturers, distributors, importers, and retailers, and any failure to comply may result in penalties for everyone in the supply chain.

The China RoHS takes a two-phase approach. The first phase (starting from 1 March 2007) imposes only marking & disclosure requirements. These require that products sold to end users be appropriately marked and any component containing one or more of the hazardous substances be disclosed in writing (in Chinese) in a document shipped with the product. The actual restriction on hazardous substances begins in the second phase.

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
http://www.epa.gov/

Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)
http://www.epa.gov/region5/defs/html/tsca.htm

The TSCA was enacted by the US Congress in 1976 to give EPA broad authority to identify and control substances that may pose a threat to human health and the environment. While repeatedly screening about 75,000 industrial chemicals currently produced or imported into the US, the EPA can require the reporting or testing of those substances that may pose an environmental or human-health hazard and ban the manufacture and import of these chemicals if necessary. In addition, the EPA has mechanisms to track the thousands of new chemicals that industry develops each year with either unknown or dangerous characteristics.

Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) & Toxic Release Inventory (TRI)
http://www.epa.gov/Region5/defs/html/epcra.htm
http://www.epa.gov/tri/whatis.htm

Because of a series of chemicals accidents in the early 1980s both at home and abroad, the US Congress enacted EPCRA to inform communities and citizens of chemical hazards in their areas. EPCRA requires businesses to report the locations and quantities of chemicals stored on-site to states and local governments in order to help communities prepare to respond to chemical spills and similar emergencies.

Under EPCRA, the EPA and the States are required to annually collect data on the release and transfers of certain toxic chemicals from industrial facilities, and make the data available to the public in the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The goal of TRI is to empower citizens, through information, to hold companies and local governments accountable for how toxic chemicals are managed. The scope and coverage of the TRI program has expanded significantly since its inception in 1987. As the number of chemicals that are included in the TRI has doubled, 7 new sub-sectors have been added to the original covered industries. Most recently, the EPA has raised the reporting thresholds for certain persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) chemicals, which lowers the amount of information required to be reported.

Pollution Prevention Act (PPA)
http://www.epa.gov/region5/defs/html/ppa.htm

The PPA was enacted in 1990 to establish the national policy that pollution should be prevented or reduced at source. Source reduction practices seek to eliminate pollutants in all media - water, air and land. One of the key elements of the Pollution Prevention policy is that it focuses on reducing or eliminating waste at its source by modifying production processes, promoting the use of non-toxic or less-toxic substances, implementing conservation techniques, and re-using materials rather than disposing them into the waste stream.

US State of California
http://www.calepa.ca.gov/

US City and County of San Francisco
http://www.sfenvironment.com/aboutus/

Precautionary Principle & 'Less Toxic Purchasing' program

As the first city in the US to do so, San Francisco adopted the 'Precautionary Principle' as a general city policy in 2003. The Precautionary Principle is described as follows: "If a practice poses threats to human health or serious environmental damage, the Precautionary Principle uses the best available science to identify cost-effective measures that would prevent harm." San Francisco has come up with a number of successful environmental ordinances applying a precautionary principle approach to specific City purchases and programs such as the (1) 'Less Toxic Purchasing' program, (2) 'Less Toxic Pest Management' program, and (3) 'Green Building' program.

The 'Less Toxic Purchasing' program aims to minimize the purchase of products containing hazardous ingredients used in the City's custodial services, fleet maintenance, and facility maintenance in favor of using alternate products that pose less risk to City employees and the environment. The program develops guidelines to determine when the City should make purchasing changes to support the goal of using less harmful products and will create a list of environmentally preferable practices and products for departments to use every day. This is a significant move given that the City's annual purchasing power is over US$600 million.

Stop Toxic Toys Bill

The Stop Toxic Toys bill, signed into law in June 2006, prohibits the manufacture, sale, and distribution of children's toys and feeding products that contain two toxic chemicals - phthalates (a reproductive toxin) and bisphenol-A (an endocrine disruptor). The law was scheduled to take effect on December 1, 2006, but the chemical industry, toy manufacturers and retailers sued the city and county of San Francisco to prevent the Stop Toxic Toys law from going into effect. If this law were implemented as is, San Francisco would be the first city in the US to ban these chemicals in children's products.

US State of Washington - The Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction programs
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/ecyhome.html

The State of Washington has been taking significant steps forward in terms of policies and measures relating to hazardous chemical substances. This is reflected in the fact that the Department of Ecology, the governing body for environment affairs, has set four strategic priorities, one of which is 'reducing toxic threats, with special concern for infants and children.' The following rule and action plan are the by-products of its efforts to reduce toxins that threaten human and environmental health.

Chapter 173-333: Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxins (PBT) Rule
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/biblio/wac173333.html

The goal of this chapter is to reduce and phase out PBT uses, releases and exposures in Washington. This chapter establishes a process in which the Department of Ecology will evaluate and identify the actions, particularly targeting PBT's. Designed to enhance actions being taken under other laws and regulations, the process includes: (1) establishing criteria the department will use to identify PBTs; (2) establishing a list of PBTs; (3) establishing procedures to review and periodically update the list; (4) preparing chemical action plans; and etc.

Polybrominated Diphenyl Ether (PBDE) Chemical Action Plan
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/biblio/0507048.html

The purpose of the PBDE Chemical Action Plan (CAP) is to identify, characterize and evaluate uses and releases of the class of PBDEs, and ultimately to recommend actions the state should take to reduce threats posed by this specific class of PBTs. On the basis of a great deal of scientific evidence, the CAP recommends Washington State prohibit or ban the manufacture, distribution or sale of new products containing all three types of PBDE which are widely used for consumer products.

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