Healthy Business Strategies - Clean Production Action

How are humans, whether infants or adults,
exposed to toxic chemicals anyway? In the
past, most chemical exposure occurred in the
environment, from polluted air, water and
soil. But scientists are finding the exposure
is shifting from environmental exposure to
indoor exposure from common household
Healthy chemical economy —
a market where manufacturers
make products entirely from
chemicals and materials that
are safe and healthy for humans
and the environments.
products such as carpet, electronics, plastic
toys, clothing and building materials. These
home, office and car exposures from consumer
goods have led public health advocates
to demand that manufacturers substitute
healthy and green chemicals for toxic
chemicals in these and other consumer
products.
As the Reebok and Pepsi Cola examples
suggest, firms don’t always adequately protect
consumers from toxic chemicals. Often
they rely on their contract manufacturers
to track chemical inputs into products. This
may be a risky strategy since chemicals are
frequently combined with other chemicals
into a mixture, shipped to a packager, then
shipped to a producer and only later incorporated
into a plastic or ink, and shipped
again to the final manufacturer/assembler.
It’s all too easy to lose track of the original
ingredients.
healthy business strategies for transforming the toxic chemical economy