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Life Cycle Factor

THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY'S Design for the Environment (DfE) Program allows safer products to carry the DfE label, through its Safer Product Labeling Program. The DfE mark enables consumers to quickly identify and choose products that can help protect the environment and are safer for families. The process is complicated as illustrated in a letter sent to the EPA this month by the American

THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY'S Design for the Environment (DfE) Program allows safer products to carry the DfE label, through its Safer Product Labeling Program. The DfE mark enables consumers to quickly identify and choose products that can help protect the environment and are safer for families.

The process is complicated as illustrated in a letter sent to the EPA this month by the American Cleaning Institute, which questions proposed new criteria in evaluating hazardous chemicals. ACI calls for clarity.

Under EPA's plan, substances will be categorized as either “High,” “Moderate” or “Low” concern. For any specific endpoint, one could place each substance on a continuum of relative hazard, ACI said. “The agency needs to clarify how one would utilize these categorization criteria to compile one continuum for a group of alternative materials being assessed against an existing material,” wrote Paul DeLeo, ACI's senior director of environmental safety.

He points out that the EPA's approach on hazard evaluation fails to consider other factors that influence health and environmental impacts associated with a product. For cleaning products, changes in certain components often can have significant impacts on the energy and water consumption characteristics associated with the use of the products. Any alternative assessment should examine all phases of a product's life cycle.