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Introduction to Toxics

Avoiding the use of toxic substances is the smartest, cheapest, and healthiest approach. From the Department of Ecology's Reducing Toxic Threats Agency Priority

Chemicals are everywhere in the environment. Some chemicals, such as antibiotics, greatly increase the quality of our lives. Unfortunately, there are also chemicals in the environment and our bodies that we now realize are harming us. We use federal and state laws to regulate toxic chemicals, including toxic wastes. It is becoming clear, however, that these laws do not do enough to protect people’s health and the environment.

Waste from toxic chemicals is hazardous. In Washington, this waste is both regulated and unregulated, depending on the source. The state strictly regulates business and government entities that generate medium to large quantities of hazardous waste (more than 220 pounds a month). While small quantities of hazardous waste from businesses (less than 220 pounds a month) are mostly unregulated, the state can cite businesses for polluting the environment due to mismanagement. Households, also unregulated, generate small quantities of hazardous waste, such as leftover cleaning supplies, pesticides, paints, and varnish.

There are roughly 4,000 regulated generators of hazardous waste in Washington. The Industrial Waste Initiative addresses strategies to work with this group. We estimate there are 65,000 small quantity generators (SQGs) of business hazardous wastes. These SQGs and the 2.5 million households that create household hazardous waste (HHW) are the subjects of the Small-Volume Hazardous Materials and Wastes Initiative (see page 17).

We can and should reduce chemicals and wastes from all these entities. We need to protect our environment and our health by reducing the use of the most toxic chemicals and using safer alternatives. The best way to accomplish this is to move toward a systematic, proactive approach and away from a chemical-by-chemical approach.

Since the adoption of the 2004 Beyond Waste Plan, there is much more awareness and concern regarding toxics in products, especially in children’s products. People are concerned that these toxics are now found in household dust and build up in food, animals, and people. The nation and states are adopting laws to minimize toxics in children’s products. National organizations and individual states are also working on toxics in other products, including cosmetics, electronics, and furniture. The European Union’s adoption of Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) legislation shows the issue is not going away.

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