Scientists Lend Expertise to Green Chemistry Initiative

About two dozen of the nation’s top scientists and engineers will join the state Department of Toxics Substances Control (DTSC) to build the California Green Chemistry Initiative — a new program to cut toxic chemicals in consumer products.

The experts, including Nobel Prize winners, have agreed to serve on the Green Chemistry Science Advisory Panel. The panel will guide DTSC on scientific matters and provide the technical basis for the new regulatory initiative.

“These are the people who invent molecules we will use in the future,” said Maureen Gorsen, director of the Department of Toxic Substances Control. “If we want chemicals that will lead to environmentally sustainable products, these experts can tell us what policies will achieve that goal. Having these distinguished scientists on board is a big asset to the program,” she said.

Launched by California Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Linda Adams, the California Green Chemistry Initiative is the response by Gov. Schwarzenegger’s administration to reduce risks from industrial chemicals and waste while promoting innovation to build a robust economy.

Every day, the United States produces or imports 42 billion pounds of chemicals and global chemical production is expected to double every 25 years through 2030, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Toxic chemicals in toys, pet food, clothing, baby bottles and other items have led to a spate of headlines and product recalls in recent months.

The green chemistry initiative aims to expand California’s environmental leadership by eliminating toxic chemical hazards at the source before they reach consumer goods or hazardous waste dumps. For more information, visit: www.dtsc.ca.gov/PollutionPrevention/GreenChemistryInitiative/index.cfm

So far, 19 experts from across the nation have been confirmed as members of the Green Chemistry Science Advisory Panel. Gorsen, who formed the advisory panel, said more members may be added later. The group will advise her on scientific and technical matters in support of the goal of the California Green Chemistry Initiative to significantly reduce public health and environmental impacts, as well as costs, through the redesign of product formulations and manufacturing processes. Members of the panel will help guide the green chemistry initiative in order for its strategy, and policy that it champions, be based upon and governed by sound science. The volunteer group of scientists and academicians has been recruited from around the state and the nation to serve on the panel based upon a distinguished record of dedication and success to the furtherance of science and technology.

The Green Chemistry Science Advisory Panel members include:

Dr. Paul Anastas, Professor in the Practice of Green Chemistry, Yale University

Dr. Nicholas Ashford, Director, Technology and Law Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dr. John Balmes, Director, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, University of California San Francisco and Berkeley

Dr. Eric Beckman, Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh

Dr. William Carroll, Vice President, Occidental Chemical Corporation

Dr. Gail Charnley, Principal, Health Risk Strategies

Dr. Richard Denison, Senior Scientist, Environmental Defense

Dr. Daryl Ditz, Senior Policy Advisor, Center for International Environmental Law

Dr. Michael Dourson, Director, Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment

Dr. Ken Geiser, Professor of Work Environment and Director of Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

Dr. Lynn Goldman, Professor, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Dr. John Graham, Dean, Pardee RAND Graduate School

Dr. Robert Grubbs, Professor of Chemistry, California Institute of Technology

Dr. Neil Hawkins, Corporate Director, Sustainable Chemistry, The Dow Chemical Company

Dr. Vistasp Karbhari, Professor of Structural Engineering, University of California, San Diego

Dr. John Peterson Myers, CEO, Environmental Health Sciences

Dr. Barry Trost, Professor of Chemistry, Stanford University

Dr. John Warner, President and Chief Technology Officer, The Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry of Woburn, Massachusetts

Dr. Michael Wilson, Research Scientist, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, University of California, Berkeley

For more information on the members of the Green Chemistry Science Advisory Panel, please see the attachment.

The mission of the Department of Toxic Substances Control is to provide the highest level of safety, and to protect public health and the environment from toxic harm. FOR GENERAL INQUIRIES: Contact the Department of Toxic Substances Control phone: (800) 728-6942 or visit www.dtsc.ca.gov.

California Green Chemistry Initiative

Science Advisory Panel

Chair: John Warner, Ph.D.

After establishing the world’s first Green Chemistry Ph.D. program, Warner now directs a large research group working on a diverse set of projects involving green chemistry using principles of crystal engineering, molecular recognition and self-assembly. He is the editor of the Journal “Green Chemistry Letters and Reviews.” He was awarded the American Institute of Chemistry’s Northeast Division’s Distinguished Chemist of the Year for 2002, and the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring in 2005. His recent patents in the fields of semiconductor design, biodegradable plastics, personal care products and polymeric photoresist films are examples of how green chemistry principles can be immediately incorporated into commercially relevant applications. Warner is co-author of “Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice.”

Vice Chair: John R. Balmes, M.D.

John Balmes is the Director of the Center for Occupational & Environmental Health at the University of California, San Francisco and University of California, Berkeley. He is a pulmonary physician by training, Professor of Medicine at UCSF, and Chief of the Divisions of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital. Balmes leads a group of investigators at UC Berkeley and UCLA to assist in developing a national program linking environmental hazards with health outcome data to track diseases that are potentially related to environmental exposures.

Paul Anastas, Ph.D.

Anastas serves as the Director of the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale University. He served as Chief of the Industrial Chemistry Branch at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Director of the U.S. Green Chemistry Program, where he is credited with establishing the field of green chemistry.

Nicholas Ashford, J.D., Ph.D.

Ashford is the Director of the Technology & Law Program at the Center for Technology, Policy & Industrial Development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is an advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme and is the Legislation, Regulation and Policy Editor of the Journal of Cleaner Production. Ashford has developed methodologies for decision-making in chemical regulation and has extensively investigated the effects of regulation on technological innovation in the chemical, pharmaceutical and automobile industries.

Eric J. Beckman, Ph.D.

Beckman serves as Professor of Chemical Engineering and Bayer Professor and Chair at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also Co-Director of the Mascaro Sustainability Initiative. Prior to joining the University of Pittsburgh, he held positions at Monsanto Plastics & Resins, Union Carbide’s Silicones and Urethanes Intermediates Division, and held a postdoctoral research appointment at Battelle’s Pacific Northwest Laboratory. Beckman’s research is in the use of carbon dioxide as either a solvent or raw material and polymer chemistry & processing.

William Carroll, Ph.D.

Carroll is the Vice President of Occidental Chemical Corporation and Adjunct Industrial Professor of Chemistry at Indiana University. While on loan at the Chlorine Chemistry Council, Carroll worked in policy areas related to product stewardship and science policy. He has served on expert groups commissioned by the states of Florida and Oregon. He contributed to the United Nations Environment Programme’s Best Available Techniques/Best Environmental Practices Guidelines for implementation of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

Gail Charnley, Ph.D.

Charnley is a Principal at Health Risk Strategies with over 30 years experience in the biological, chemical and social policy aspects of environmental and public health protection. She lectures frequently on science policy issues and is the author of numerous reports evaluating the toxicity of chemical exposures, the environmental impacts on public health, the management of risks to health and the environment, children’s environmental health, and democratic science-based public policy and decision-making.

Richard Denison, Ph.D.

Denison serves as a Senior Scientist with the Environmental Defense. With more than 20 years of experience in the environmental arena, he specializes in chemicals policy, hazard, risk assessment, and management of industrial chemicals, in addition to responsible development of nanotechnology. He manages Environmental Defense’s participation in the U.S. High Production Volume Chemical Challenge Program. He has also authored numerous papers and reports, and is active in a variety of activities and forums, pertaining to chemicals and nanotech material regulation and policy at the international, and federal and state levels.

Daryl Ditz, Ph.D.

Ditz is the Senior Policy Advisor at the Center for International Environmental Law, Chemicals Program, and Coordinator of the National Education Campaign for U.S. Persistent Organic Pollutants Ratification. He has 20 years of U.S. and international experience dealing with environmental health threats through effective public policy and corporate management. Ditz is co-author of “Frontiers of Sustainability, Green Ledgers: Case Studies in Corporate Environmental Accounting,” and numerous reports and articles on environmental law, policy and management.

Michael Dourson, Ph.D.

Dourson directs the non-profit organization Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA) whose mission is to protect public health. TERA develops partnerships among government, industry and other interest groups to address risk assessments of high visibility chemicals such as perchlorate, chloroform, formaldehyde and soluble nickel. The organization forms cooperative ventures such as the Voluntary Children’s Chemical Exposure Program and the International Toxicity Estimates for Risk database. Prior to joining TERA, he worked for the U.S. EPA for 15 years on specific key projects such as the creation of the U.S. EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System.

Kenneth Geiser, Ph.D.

Geiser serves a Professor of Work Environment and as the Director of the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He co-authored the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act and served as Director of the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute from 1990 to 2003. Geiser’s research and publications focus on pollution prevention and cleaner production, toxic chemicals management, chemicals policy, safer technologies, and green chemistry. In 2001, Geyser authored “Materials Matter: Towards a Sustainable Materials Policy.”

Robert Grubbs, Ph.D.

Grubbs is the Victor and Elizabeth Atkins Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, where he has been a faculty member since 1978. His research group is involved in the design and synthesis of organic chemicals. Grubbs is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Lynn Goldman, M.D., M.P.H.

Goldman is a Professor at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, focusing on environmental health policy, public health, and children’s environmental health. She served as Assistant Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances. Prior to that, Goldman served in several positions at the California Department of Health Services, where she conducted public health investigations on pesticides, childhood lead poisoning and other environmental hazards.

John D. Graham, Ph.D.

Graham serves as Dean of the Pardee RAND Graduate School and Distinguished Chair in Policy Analysis. He is the author or co-author of some 200 books, articles, and reports in the areas of risk estimation and management of health, safety, environment and energy. Graham founded and led the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis from 1990 to 2001. He served as the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget and as Professor of Policy and Decision Sciences in the Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health.

Neil C. Hawkins, Ph.D.

Hawkins is Corporate Director of Sustainable Chemistry at The Dow Chemical Company. He manages Dow’s Sustainable Chemistry initiative, which guides Dow’s investment, research, and business decisions to meet Dow’s sustainability vision and objectives. Hawkins’ previous roles at Dow included leading environmental health and safety programs, and global issues management activities for chlorine, vinyl, and related products. Prior assignments include regulatory affairs, product stewardship, and risk assessment leadership roles. Hawkins is an expert in environmental risk assessment and environmental policy.

Vistasp M. Karbhari, Ph.D.

Karbhari is a Professor of Structural Engineering and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Program at the University of California, San Diego. He leads research groups in such areas as the processing and mechanics of composites, durabi lity of polymers and composites, and bio-materials. He is the author/co-author of over 160 papers in archival journals. He is the American Editor for the International Journal of Materials and Product Technology and is an Editorial Board Member of Composite Structures.

John Peterson Myers, Ph.D.

Myers is the founder, CEO, and Chief Scientist of Environmental Health Sciences based in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is also coauthor of “Our Stolen Future,” which explores the threats posed by man-made chemical contaminants to fetal development and human health. Myers is Senior Advisor to the United Nations Foundation. From 1990-2002, he was director of the W. Alton Jones Foundation, a private foundation supporting efforts to protect the global environment and to prevent nuclear war. Myers is also senior advisor to Commonweal and to the Jenifer Altman Foundation on environmental threats to children’s health.

Barry Trost, Ph.D.

Trost serves as a Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and is the winner of the 1998 Presidential Green Chemistry Award in Academics. He developed the concept of atom economy, which involves reducing the use of nonrenewable resources, minimizing the amount of waste, and reducing the number of steps used to synthesize chemicals. Atom economy is one of the fundamental cornerstones of green chemistry, and is a concept widely used by those who are working to improve the efficiency of chemical reactions.

Michael P. Wilson, Ph.D.

Wilson is a Research Scientist at the Center for Occupational & Environmental Health, University of California, Berkeley. In his doctoral research, Wilson developed data on workers exposure to volatile organic compounds in the vehicle repair industry, which shed light on the first-reported cases of hexane-induced peripheral neuropathy in this industry. He was the chief author of the University of California report, “Green Chemistry in California: A Framework for Leadership in Che micals Policy and Innovation,” requested by the California Legislature in January, 2004.