 So I've been active around chemical hazards for some 35 years starting a long long time ago when I was invited to go to a sort of a memorial conference in Bhopal, India, which was the place where probably the worst chemical accident we have had in the history of the world actually and while there I met the victims or make the families of some 2,500 people that died in one night from a chemical exposure and made a commitment to myself and Sort of about my life that I would really try to use this life to make a safer safer world out there and it's a pleasure to think that that is where materials matter came from materials matter turned out to be a Pretty simple book to write. I laid out a chapter 15 chapters and I started at one point and went right through I thought of is my good child. It worked really well This book was somehow much more difficult. It was I think of it as the bad child It was the child that just wouldn't settle down I think I revised this book five times in trying to write this book and the reason is because this book is much More about current affairs. It's really not just a history. Although. There's a part of it this history But it really is about the struggle that we're all going through right now as to What as to really try to move to a safer system of chemicals? Whether that's on the federal level the state level Whether it's in corporations whether it's in the nonprofit community's advocacy or whether it's just in mom and pop going to The market and trying to find something that's safe to bring home to their family In all those cases There are people out there really concerned about chemicals and trying to find a way for all of us to move to a safer system of chemicals And that inspired me to really write the book. I started the book three and a half years ago Really with the idea that I would try to inform the federal Legislation that had always been one of my big interests But it became pretty clear pretty fast that our Congress unfortunately in this country is so stalled at this point And so in unable to really move major pieces of legislation That I knew that it just wasn't going to be the place to really look for the for the drivers that would lead to safer chemicals And so instead of that I looked around at other places And that's in some ways where the book really takes office from that So the plan for the evening is I'm gonna do some reading from the book And then we're gonna have what is a really remarkable panel of people come up here And I'm gonna read little passages from the book and have them sort of kick off their ideas on it I think you'll find that this is a nice way to sort of engage some of the things here going on in California and Take a look at how Your own local Community and the people who are really active are moving on some of these very same issues So does that sound okay to you does that sound like a good way to do this that way You don't get an hour lecture from me which I can definitely do but I so Let me just start off. I'm gonna read a bit from the preface of the book and also A little from the conclusion of the book This book is about chemicals and chemical policy it starts from the premise that there is a problem with chemicals The economy that supports our lifestyle and has raised the prospects of millions of people around the world is based on hazardous chemicals People throughout the world lead richer more productive and more comfortable lives because of the products of the chemical industry However, many of these same chemicals can pose significant risks to human health and Disrupt and compromise the careful balances of natural ecosystems Over the last 50 years. We have invested heavily in regulations barriers and protections To control hazardous chemical exposures emissions and affluence However, a control strategy for chemical use is costly and it's never Never perfect and it leaves open all the points in the life cycle of chemicals Where chemicals leak and flow into air sheds water bodies and soils and where they persist Accumulate transform and reappear in different guises The problem with synthetic chemicals is similar to the problem with many other technologies We rush to develop and enjoy the fruits of novel technologies long before we fully understand Their consequences and create the systems needed to address their costs The hazardous chemical control strategy might have been a good one if there had only been a few hundred really dangerous chemicals But that did not turn out to be the case. There truly are really dangerous chemicals But there are many others that present varied types and degrees of hazard And there are also many that are safer We could spend the next 50 years trying to build better and better controls around more and more chemicals Or we could reconsider this strategy If we're going to make a big effort to address the chemicals problem It would be better if we worked to develop safer chemicals and move thoughtfully and progressively to convert our economy To safer and more sustainable chemicals In this writing I've wandered far from my original training in environmental law and policy That framework held a special place for government regulation and policy in Particular however the government that I studied and engaged with for some 40 years has now changed There is no big visions and grand gestures now We are quite far from the great society program the polo pod project the building of the National interstate highway system indeed. We have not seen a major new federal environmental statute in 30 years I'm aware of how difficult it would be in the foreseeable future to achieve major statutory changes in federal chemical policies That is why much of what I described here could be Accomplished through federal initiative or without it So it is not surprising that I looked elsewhere What I have found is hundreds of local state corporate trade union nonprofit and international initiatives That are struggling to advance a safer system of chemicals So my challenge became more like a auto mechanic picking up components here and there and Trying to assemble A new and different vehicle So the book goes on then to sort of talk about First of all kind of a history of the chemical control Legislation that has been our the general pat general structure It provides some criticism of that and shows what has not worked and builds out of that some lessons from that period from that those laws and Then moves to take a look outside the United States because while our Legislature and our Congress has not moved other nations and the European and the international Organizations have moved on chemical policy So there's some good lessons from around the world to look at and I try to incorporate that and then what I do is I sort of Step back and say okay in a big way How can we reframe the chemical problem? How can we get away from thinking the chemical problem is simply a set of really dangerous chemicals? How can we see something deeper here? Why these chemicals really are dangerous? Why is it that our chemical industries produce these chemicals? Not necessarily in a malevolent way, but simply in a business way Why does business drive on what you might consider hazardous chemicals? and why is the market full of products with hazardous chemicals and Instead of focusing simply on the chemicals themselves look at this the underlying structure of Our economy and why it would sort of beget a chemically intense hazardous chemical intense market so I Ended up with sort of six principles for thinking about what might be what might be the way to design a safer chemical Safer chemical Policy framework was what I call a policy framework, and I'll just list them for a moment first It should be comprehensive. It should cover all chemicals. It should not just cover the most hazards We should look at a policy that really goes from the most dangerous to the least dangerous So that we really get a good idea of what's out there? Second it should be transparent It should promote more promote more information, and it should disclose more so that we have more public information on What are the chemicals in products? What are the chemicals in workplaces? What are the chemicals in the waste stream and we are better able to manage it if we can actually see what's there? Third it should be participatory Right now we relied tremendously on the federal government to do almost all of the work That's just it's the budget isn't there and as we know with the restrictions that a very conservative Administrations have it means that not much work. It's done in this area It needs to be participatory so states Corporations advocacy community Professionals scientists are all engaged and really looking at developing safer chemicals It should be what I call and what I just call hazard based The risk sort of approach which we've used for the last 30 years at the federal level I believe has limited Innovation and limited the capacity of our corporations to really promote safer chemicals because it's always created a bright line Well, you don't have to be better than what the risk standard would say It needs to be transformative. It needs to move us in a kind of substitution way from Dangerous chemicals to safer chemicals and then to safer chemicals and then to safer chemicals so that we're on an evolution of Constantly looking for what is a safer way to do things our current Approach has been simply to stop when we think we've gotten to a certain point or in the process We replace one chemical with another often to be regretting what we actually replaced and lastly it should be innovative It should really promote innovation itself green chemistry all of the new uses of Science to develop alternatives Even alternatives to chemicals or as I think Debbie would say to show us that it's just not necessary to do that So and maybe I stole your line So in conclusion the book offers a way forward that recognizes current initiatives Initiatives and offer strategies to extend and better focus them rather than a single government policy The policy framework envisioned here is composed of many policies among many private and public institutions The first and most the fundamental recommendation is to reframe the chemicals problem from a focus on a small or even a large number of hazardous chemicals to a broader focus on the on the system of chemical production and Consumption the chemical industry and the chemical market The second recommendation is to address this broader definition of the chemical problem with solutions that are more comprehensive Hazard-based and systems changing Fully addressing the chemical production and consumption systems means addressing all chemicals from the most to the least of Concern and employing new instruments and tools to guide the conversion of the system from hazardous chemicals to safer alternatives The third recommendation is to recognize the multiple forces that are now Driving the development and adoption of safer chemicals and to integrate and coordinate these Strategic drivers into a more effective vehicle for change Restructuring government capacity needs to be coordinated with forces that are driving the chemical market changing the chemical and product Manufacturing industries and read that redirecting chemistry There are solutions to the chemical problem We can have a vibrant innovative and rewarding economy and it can be founded solidly on highly effective synthetic chemicals But new and different ones. We need a sustainable chemicals industry and a robust product manufacturing industry They need to be more Sorry, they need to be more broadly directed at delivering safer and safer chemicals and products There is no argument here that this transition into a safer system of chemicals is easy Transforming our economy to safer chemicals is a grand mission and it will take more than a generation But if we are ever going to create an economy that is truly safer and more sustainable We should get moving and pull together the many forces that are working to build that economy Better integrate and support them and develop the goals and plans and policies that will guide us in the future That's kind of the way the book ends So it's a book which I think is the intent is to be positive to really look at is what is there to not stumble over what we're So at this point unable to do at the federal level But really to look at all of the things that are really moving us and to try to say it's important that we bring all this together Americans have always risen to the challenges that have faced them and done well by that and I think by Tapping all of the initiative and power that we've had together. We really can solve these problems That's the mission of the book. I'm hoping you buy it. I'm hoping you look at it I hope you read it and I hope you discuss it Because it is an attempt to really move away from thinking that this is simply going to be done by individual action It is collective action that's going to take all of us through this. We need to build a movement for it So thank you very much