Promotion of responsible replacements
Our third aim is to engage stakeholders and partners from government and non-government agencies to promote strategies, policies, and regulations that will ensure the appropriate selection of “safe” alternatives as replacement chemicals. We will focus on those chemicals for which our research reveals widespread exposure and adverse health effects.
Aiming to better understand, in order to avoid, the phenomenon of ‘regrettable substitution’, the team brings together a range of relevant expertise, such as: business perspectives on chemical risks and how they are translated into commercial risks; ethical, legal and regulatory perspectives on chemical risks, and the analysis of regulatory alternatives. Conceptual and empirical research will be done primarily “upstream”, “concurrent” and in a proactive manner and “downstream” in a responsive manner in relation to the research proposed.
Our varied organizations and affiliations, with universities in Canada and South Africa, with government/public organizations, such as Health Canada and the Institut national de l’environnement industriel et des risques (INERIS), with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and NGOs, such the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) and the Chemical Industry Association of Canada (CIAC), ensure that we will reach knowledge users at multiple levels.
Study lead: Jaye Ellis, (D.C.L.) - McGill University