Thursday 10th May 2018

Using safer  Eco-friendly cleaning products or chemicals makes sense for our economy, health, and environment. Designing new chemicals to be safer from the start reduces the costs of regulation, costs of hazardous waste storage and disposal, costs of providing worker protections, and potential liabilities.

The benefit of comprehensive chemical regulation for cleaning products in businesses:

1. It helps level the playing field, by requiring existing chemicals to meet the same testing requirements as new chemicals and cleaning products.
2. Expanding markets for safer and greener products.
3. Creating a more predictable regulatory system.
4. Reducing the costs and risks, especially product liability (for example, asbestos), associated with managing toxic chemicals in products across supply chains.
5. Lowering expenses from chemically and cleaning product induced employee illness and enhancing productivity from improved employee health.
6. Identifying the presence of chemicals of high concern in cleaning products.
7. Increasing trust among consumers, employees, communities, and investors, leading to a more positive business environment.
8. Improving transparency and communication throughout the supply chain of cleaning products and chemicals, leading to increased confidence for users and reduced risks from supply chain interruptions.
9. Creating a more competitive, innovative, and economically sustainable chemical industry in the Ireland.
10. Reduces the damage to the water table by encouraging companies to use phosphate free Eco-friendly chemicals and cleaning products in rebuilding and strengthening the economy of the Ireland.

We need a new chemicals and cleaning product policy that limits the use of toxic chemicals and prioritizes green chemicals. The pressure will continue to increase on chemical producers and cleaning product manufacturers to develop and market safer and more sustainable chemicals and cleaning products. Not only is the public increasingly sensitive to the human and environmental risks of conventional chemicals and cleaning products, national and international governments are increasing scrutinising and tightening regulations on many of the chemicals and cleaning products of highest concern, as both global and domestic markets respond, the competitiveness of Irish companies will depend on their capacity to deliver cleaning products with lower toxic impacts