An Industrial Approach to Evaluating Environmental Safety of New Products

A systematic approach is presented for evaluating the safety of new products to employees, customers, consumers, and the environment. Upon initiation of a project to commercialize a new product, a safety assessment schedule is prepared which considers physical and chemical properties, use patterns, environmental persistence, physical and biological accumulation potential, interaction with environmental components, and toxicity. Safety data are obtained in a logical scheme from simple screening to confirmative studies, thus enabling hazard evaluations to be made continuously during product development. Application and utility of this concept to assess aquatic safety is demonstrated using results from a current detergent builder program.