The Oregon Center for Environmental Health has been able to promote implementation of several major efforts that are moving the agenda for comprehensive chemical policy reform forward in a significant way: OCEH advocated our position in the legislature and in meetings with the Governor’s office and is pleased that two interim work groups have been formed to address toxics reduction issues.

The Governor’s Office has included Toxics Reduction as one of four top natural resource issues for the upcoming 2009 legislative session. The Environmental Quality Commission is following Toxics Reduction issues closely, and has expressed interest in the Call for Safer Chemicals as well as what can be done under current regulatory authority to reduce exposures to toxic chemicals.

The Governor’s Toxics Reduction Work Group is embarking on a collaborative effort to address toxics issues that affect environmental quality, public health and our natural resources at the state agency level. The Workgroup on Pesticide Use In and Around Schools is developing information and policy options for more precautionary and preventive approaches to potentially harmful chemicals initially focusing on schools as one of the most important settings for children’s exposure.

The Center has also had an opportunity recently to speak directly to the Environmental Quality Commission as they engage in strategic planning for the direction DEQ will take over the next three years. OCEH testimony emphasized the need to move beyond end of the pipe controls and clean up of contaminated sites to development of new policies that require proof that chemicals do not harm public health or the environment and if they do, to limit their use and promote safer alternatives.

OCEH is also convening a Roundtable Planning Group to bring together professionals in the areas of hazardous waste, pollution prevention, toxics reduction and safer chemicals. The Roundtable mission is to serve, protect and advocate for Oregonians and the environment that sustains us through achieving toxics reduction and safer chemicals policy reform.

Toxics Reduction Strategy using Precautionary Principle Adopted

On May 10 and 11, 2006 Portland and Multnomah County became one of the first cities and counties in the nation to adopt a comprehensive plan for management and reduction in the use of toxic chemicals. The municipalities voted unanimously to adopt the Toxics Reduction Strategy- A plan for minimizing use of toxic substances of concern in government operations by using the Precautionary Principle.

The Toxics Reduction Strategy uses the Precautionary Principle to identify alternatives to practices and products used in city and county operations that pose a threat to human health and/or the environment. The Strategy outlines an initial plan that will be refined and expanded in years to come. Short-term actions that have been identified in the strategy include establishing a purchasing policy with product specifications to support the reductions of toxics, installing mercury catching devices in county dental clinics, and choosing least toxic cleaning chemicals for use in city and county buildings.

The Toxics Reduction Strategy is the product of a resolution proposed by the Oregon Center for Environmental Health and the Sustainable Development Commission of Portland and Multnomah County and was adopted by both local governments in the fall of 2004. In early 2005, a Toxics Reduction Workgroup was formed, comprised of representatives from the community, environmental advocacy groups, local government, business, academia, and City and County staff. The strategy was prepared by the Oregon Center for Environmental Health, Multnomah County Sustainability Initiative and the City of Portland's Office of Sustainable Development with feedback from the workgroup and other stakeholders.

"The strategy aims to reduce toxics in government operations and protect public health and the environment by using the common-sense idea that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, said Strategy Workgroup member and PSU School of Community Health professor Stephanie Farquhar. "Rather than asking, how much harm is allowable, the Precautionary Principle is a tool that allows us to consider how little harm is possible?”