Tools and Resources

• Science Resources
• Health Care Action Kit
• Failure of Current Chemical Policy — and Better Solutions
• Green Chemistry
• Chemical Exposure and Occupational Hazards
• Choosing Alternatives to Pesticides
• Choosing Greener Cleaners
• Choosing Safer Disinfectants
• Reducing Fragrance Exposures

Science Resources

Websites

• The CHE Toxicant and Disease Database is a searchable database that summarizes links between chemical contaminants and approximately 180 human diseases or conditions.
• Through the Human Toxome Project at the Environmental Working Group, researchers use cutting edge biomonitoring techniques to test blood, urine, breast milk and other human tissues for industrial chemicals that enter the human body as pollution via food, air, and water, or from exposures to ingredients in everyday consumer products.
• The book Our Stolen Future brought world-wide attention to scientific discoveries about endocrine disruption and the fact that common contaminants can interfere with the natural signals controlling development of the fetus. This website tracks the most recent developments.
• Environmental Health News, published daily by Environmental Health Sciences, a non-profit organization working to advance the public's understanding of environmental health issues by providing access to worldwide news about a variety of subjects related to the health of humans, wildlife and ecosystems. Their daily e-letter, Above The Fold, is available for free.
• This nationwide survey of more than 1,500 nurses suggests associations between the health of nurses and their children from nurses' long-term exposures to the many hazardous chemicals, drugs, and other agents to which they are exposed over the course of a workday.

Reports

• Common Substances in Hospitals May Cause Asthma: HCWH report (pdf) Read the press release
• State of the Evidence 2008: The Connection Between Breast Cancer and the Environment, Edited by Janet Gray, Ph.D., published by the Breast Cancer Fund
• American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts & Figures 2007 (pdf)

Safer Chemicals: Health Care Action Kit

The Guide to Choosing Safer Products and Chemicals was developed by Health Care Without Harm to help health care institutions understand chemicals policy and determine what steps the institution will take to protect the health of their staff, patients and the environment in a climate of inadequate chemical regulation.

Download the entire Guide to Choosing Safer Products (pdf) or download individual sections below.

Failure of Current Chemical Policy — and Better Solutions

Reports

• Chemical Regulation: Options Exist to Improve EPA's Ability to Assess Health Risks and Manage Its Chemical Review Program, Report by US Government Accounting Office, June 2005, GAO-05-458 (pdf)
• Nanotechnology's Invisible Threat: Small Science, Big Consequences, by Jennifer Sass, Report by Natural Resources Defense Council (pdf)
• Green Chemistry in California: A Framework for Leadership in Chemicals Policy and Innovation, by Michael Wilson, Report by California Policy Research Center (pdf)
• Healthy Business Strategies for Transforming the Chemical Economy (pdf)

Books

• Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry, by Stacy Malkan, New Society, 2007. This award-winning book by former HCWH communications director Stacy Malkan reveals the toxic truth about everyday personal care products and describes the ongoing efforts to give the beauty industry a safety makeover.
• Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power, by Mark Schapiro, Chelsea Green, 2007. Investigative journalist Mark Schapiro takes the reader to the front lines of global corporate and political power, where tectonic battles are being waged that will determine the physical and economic health of our children and ourselves.
• The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens our Health and Well-Being, by Nena Baker.
• Poisoned Profits: The Toxic Assault on our Children, by Phillip Shabecoff and Alice Shabecoff, Random House, 2008. In this shocking and sobering book, journalists Alice Shabecoff and Philip Shabecoff directly and definitively link industrial toxins to the current rise in childhood disease and death. This is an eye-opening account of a country that prizes money over children's health.

Green Chemistry

• 12 Principles of Green Chemistry, posted on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website
• Green Chemistry in California: reports, research and latest information about efforts to spur green chemistry innovations in California
• Report: Healthy Business Strategies for Transforming the Chemical Economy (pdf)

Chemical Exposure and Occupational Hazards

• EWG Survey links chemical exposures on the job to diseases in nurses
• Common Substances in Hospitals May Cause Asthma: HCWH report (pdf) Read the press release
• For more information about the science linking chemical exposures and chronic disease, see the Safer Chemicals section.

Choosing Alternatives to Pesticides

Take Action

• Healthy Hospitals: Controlling Pests Without Harmful Pesticides Report (pdf)

  This joint report with HCWH and Beyond Pesticides details the results of a survey of hospital pesticide use and provides guidance on safer pest management practices, 11/03

• Integrated Pest Management for Schools: A Catolog of Resources (pdf 15MB)

  This report by the University of Florida contains a wealth of information, including technical material, that is applicable to health care facilities.

Links: More on IPM and Pesticide Alternatives

• Beyond Pesticides
• Californians for Pesticide Reform
• Bio-Integral Resource Center

Sites for More on Health and Environmental Impacts of Pesticides

• Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides
• Pesticide Action Network of North America
• Extoxnet's Pesticide Information Profiles

Choosing Greener Cleaners

Fact Sheets

• Fact Sheet: Cleaning Chemical Use in Hospitals (pdf)
• 10 Ways to Find Safer, Greener Cleaners (pdf)

Reports

• Cleaning for Health: Products and Practices for a Safer Indoor Environment, Report and Toolkit. INFORM, Inc., 8/02

Take Action

• Sustainable Hospital Project, a database of alternatives
• Green Seal Environmental Standard for Cleaners used for Industrial and Institutional Purposes
• Safe Cleaning Products Initiative,
  Women's Voices for the Earth
• Procuring Greener Cleaners, State of Minnesota

Choosing Safer Disinfectants

• 10 Reasons to Eliminate Glutaraldehyde, Sustainable Hospitals Project, 10/01 (pdf)
• Glutaraldehyde: Occupational Hazards in Hospitals (website), Centers for Disease Control National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Take Action

• Glutaraldehyde Control in Hospitals, by the Sustainable Hospitals Project
• Replacing Ethylene Oxide and Glutaraldehyde, Environmental Protection Agency (pdf)

Reducing Fragrance Exposures

Reports

• Common Substances in Hospitals May Cause Asthma: HCWH report (pdf) Read the press release
• Not Too Pretty: Fragrance, Phthalates and the FDA (pdf)

  Health Care Without Harm report finds hazardous phthalates in more than 70% of personal care products tested

• Pretty Nasty: Phthalates in European Cosmetic Products (pdf)

  Health Care Without Harm, Women's Environmental Network, and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation

Take Action

• Scent-Free Policies for the Workplace, by the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety
• Safe Cleaning Products Initiative, by Women's Voices for the Earth
• Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, by Fragranced Products Information Network
• Environmental Health Network support network for people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
• The Cleaner Indoor Air Campaign