1st Edition
Product Stewardship Life Cycle Analysis and the Environment
Consider the Consequences of Bringing a Chemical to Market
Product Stewardship: Life Cycle Analysis and the Environment explores the regulatory and scientific aspects of the life-cycle consequences of bringing a chemical to market. Using case studies to bring critical points to life, this multidisciplinary text explores the factors that influence our risk management decisions. It bridges the academic study of life cycle analysis and the practical concerns of those in industry who produce goods for market within the web of global product stewardship regulations and under the eye of consumers concerned with sustainability.
This book:
- Discusses the technical tools that a product steward can use to predict the life cycle consequences of chemical manufacture and use
- Includes the techniques needed to characterize and predict the fate and transport of chemicals in the environment
- Explains the formal process of life cycle assessment, which is used to evaluate the potential effects on the environment
- Describes the regulation of both existing and new chemicals, using examples to illustrate the complexity of the factors that affect their regulation
- Provides case studies that integrate the technical and regulatory foundations of product stewardship which allows readers to explore past risk-management decisions
Product Stewardship: Life Cycle Analysis and the Environment describes critical product stewardship regulations and the concept of life cycle thinking in understandable and practical terms. It examines the balance between the benefits of chemical use against the possible consequences of exposure and can assist readers in learning to predict, understand, and regulate the consequences of using a chemical substance through its life cycle.
Introduction
Setting the Stage
Technical Building Blocks
Regulating Chemical Manufacture and Use
Telling the Story
Synthesis
References
Life Cycle Considerations
Basis for Life Cycle Assessment: Conservation of Matter
Mass Balance
Characterizing Risks
Life Cycle Assessment
Synthesis
References
Product Stewardship Regulations
United States
How Did We Get Here?
European Union and Member States
China
Voluntary Initiatives
Crossing Borders: Influence of Global Trade
Synthesis
References
Case Studies
Orthonitrochlorobenzene
Dichlorobenzene
Hexachlorobenzene
Microbeads
References
Conclusions
References
Index
Biography
Kathleen Sellers, PE, is a vice president and principal environmental engineer with ARCADIS U.S., where she supports clients’ product stewardship programs. Ms. Sellers holds a BS in Chemistry from Indiana University and a MS in Environmental Engineering from the University of Massachusetts. She is currently on the board of directors of the Product Stewardship Society. This is her fourth book for CRC Press. Previous works include Nanotechnology and the Environment (2009), which she edited and co-authored.
"Ms. Sellers presents a comprehensive review of how substances are currently assessed and managed, as well as the limitations in how regulators make decisions. She takes readers from a review of current regulations and laws related to controlling emissions to a broader field of vision, looking beyond bringing a chemical to market to include how chemicals and substances can have effects around the planet. Readers will benefit from the wider perspective to chemical manufacture and use that she provides."
—Journal of Cleaner Production, August 2015"The chapter on product stewardship regulations provides… a well-written, scholarly, and useful overview of product regulation that manufacturers and others in this space would find essential as they tackle this fast-evolving and exceedingly important regulatory area."
—Lynn L. Bergeson, Bergeson & Campbell, PC"This text introduces the reader to the broad concepts of life cycle analysis, and summarizes the evolution of product regulations in the US, the EU, and China. The case studies bring to life the complexities of product regulation -- from early identified chemical hazards that are now nearly obsolete, to emerging potential hazards that, at present, are somehow largely ignored. The case studies -- in their systematic presentation -- help the reader begin to form a framework that may be applied to examine consumer and intermediate products of the past, present, and future..."
—Steven E. Lacey, PhD, CIH, CSP, Chair, Department of Environmental Health Science, Indiana University Fairbanks School of Public Health