Ann Arbor, Mich. — NSF International, an independent global organization that writes public health standards and certifies products for food, water and consumer goods, now offers chemical reviews in accordance with Clean Production Action’s (CPA) GreenScreen for Safer Chemicals program. GreenScreen reviews, which are offered through NSF International’s Sustainability division, allow organizations to substitute hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives.
The Clean Production Action (CPA) GreenScreen for Safer Chemicals is a comparative chemical screening method that focuses on hazard reduction and informed substitution. NSF’s team of toxicologists, chemists and biologists perform comparative chemical hazard assessments by reviewing product ingredients and formulations in accordance with the Green Screen protocol. Based on this analysis, chemicals earn one of four benchmark scores, each defining progressively safer chemicals. For example, benchmark one indicates a chemical of high concern, while benchmark four indicates a chemical with low hazard levels. Benchmark U is reserved for chemicals with insufficient data.
Offering GreenScreen chemical reviews complements NSF Sustainability’s expanding portfolio of green chemistry and sustainability services. NSF Sustainability helps companies make informed chemical and material decisions by evaluating specific products or full chemical inventories against a number of chemical hazard assessment programs. These include Green Screen, EPA’s Design for the Environment (DfE), and GreenBlue’s CleanGredients.
“The NSF Sustainability division possesses both the toxicology expertise and technical capabilities to perform high quality GreenScreen evaluations,” said Lauren Heine, consulting co-director for Clean Production Action. “With support from organizations like NSF Sustainability, GreenScreen will help to quickly and effectively move manufacturers toward the use of inherently safer chemicals.”
“NSF Sustainability’s Green Chemistry services help companies gain information and an understanding of a chemical’s potential risk so they can choose safer chemical alternatives. The GreenScreen program helps prevent the costly mistake of choosing an alternative chemical that is later found to be hazardous,” said Tom Bruursema, General Manager, NSF Sustainability. “NSF’s green chemistry programs contribute to the growing need for standardized chemical information programs that make it easier to choose safer, environmentally preferable chemicals.”
Organizations seeking additional information about NSF Sustainability’s Green Chemistry programs should contact Dennis Gillan at 734.476.2543, dgillan@nsf.org or visit nsfsustainability.org.