Launched in April 2007, California’s “Green Chemistry” regulations are administered by the CAL/EPA’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). This column is about an unusual approach being taken by the DTSC, what it might mean, and what it might have meant to Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and Otto von Bismarck.

A TIME FOR SCIENCE
These new laws require DTSC to develop a comprehensive approach for assessing potential hazards from chemicals in consumer products and for finding safer alternatives for harmful chemicals used in those products and in the manufacturing processes of goods sold in California. There is a promise that the procedure will be based on openness, transparency, and science. Surely no one could argue with that aim, and I don’t.

WIKI
In Hawaii, this phrase means right now, or quickly; the HNL airport inter-terminal bus is called the “wiki wiki bus.” On the internet, a single “wiki” suggests Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia invented by Jimmy Wales and developed by contributors worldwide, or the phrase underlying it and other wikis: “What I Know Is.”

The DTSC has created a wiki to collect input from which recommendations may be made in six areas in order to:

• Expand pollution prevention programs;
• Develop green chemistry workforce education and training;
• Create an online product ingredient network;
• Create an online “toxic clearinghouse”;
• Accelerate the quest for safer products; and
• Move toward a “cradle-to-cradle” (not “cradle-to-grave”) economy.