Is your shirt harming your health?

Have you ever contemplated the substances involved in manufacturing your smartphone? Your preferred faux-leather chair? The top you’re wearing? It requires numerous chemicals to create everyday items, and some of these might pose risks to your health and the Earth.

ChemFORWARD, the 2024 recipient of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnership, aims to enhance the safety of our products by developing a database detailing industrial chemicals and their implications for human and environmental health.

Heather McKenney, the lead scientist for safer chemistry at ChemFORWARD, collaborated with experts from the Kennedy School along with David Bourne, the chief sustainability strategist at Google, in a panel discussion last week at the Kennedy School’s Malkin Penthouse to elaborate on the organization’s initiatives and the obstacles the private sector encounters in minimizing chemical risks.

“We exist in a landscape filled with countless chemicals,” remarked Henry Lee, Jassim M. Jaidah Family Director of the Kennedy School’s Environment and Natural Resources Program and senior lecturer in Public Policy. “They infiltrate the garments we wear, the food and beverages we consume, the furniture in our residences, and even the health-related products we purchase. Therefore, emphasizing what society can undertake to safeguard public health in this chemical-saturated environment is critically vital.”

ChemFORWARD, a 501c3 organization based in Washington D.C., compiles and sustains a digital collection of “verified chemical hazard assessments,” or CHAs, which are accessible to corporate members to facilitate informed and ecologically responsible choices regarding the chemicals utilized in their supply chains.

“No industry-wide mandate exists requiring all chemicals to undergo evaluation prior to usage,” stated McKenney, who led the toxicology and product safety team at Honest Company, a manufacturer of baby and beauty goods, for six years.

McKenney mentioned that there are well-meaning companies aspiring to confirm their products as safe, yet they find it challenging to monitor every chemical present in their supply chains and understand the ramifications of those substances.

“A wealth of toxicology data exists, and how do we begin to implement and disseminate that information so that it isn’t merely confined to a REACH dossier in the EU or an isolated entity that developed that data?” she noted, referencing the EU’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals regulation. “We’ve established a methodology that aggregates the chemical hazard evaluations across more than 24 human and environmental health metrics.”

In terms of human health, ChemFORWARD evaluates a chemical’s carcinogenic properties, mutagenicity, reproductive toxicity, skin irritation, eye irritation, and neurotoxicity, among various factors. From an environmental standpoint, they assess criteria like persistence, or the ability of chemicals to decompose.

ChemFORWARD hazard classifications are categorized alphabetically (A, B, C, etc.) but are also segmented based on the availability of data regarding a specific substance. Certain chemicals are marked with a question mark when the data is considered inadequate.

Bourne remarked that companies like his are collaborating with ChemFORWARD as a critical measure towards developing healthier products within his organization and the broader private sector.

“What we recognize in collaboration with ChemFORWARD is that every time we conduct a chemical hazard evaluation, it’s not exclusive information for Google or for the entity that completed the assessment. It’s now accessible to anyone interested in the platform. Therefore, the scalability this facilitates is what we perceive as revolutionary,” he mentioned. “The analogy I often draw is if you wanted to view an outstanding television series, and you had to pay a Hollywood studio to create a show solely for you, it would be exceedingly expensive. However, with numerous subscribers to a streaming platform, everyone can contribute and access a vast array of valuable content.”

Charles Taylor, an assistant professor of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School, stated that this type of data collection could yield significant advantages beyond the private sector.

“This type of information is exceedingly crucial for disseminating to researchers and others who can act as guardians to evaluate, should we observe chronic effects or downstream implications,” he noted.

The Roy Family Award is granted biannually to honor an exceptional collaboration across sectors that improves environmental quality through innovative and creative methods.