Background
Integration of occupational safety and health (OSH) with sustainability and green chemistry practices is essential
to the effective realization of all of these endeavors. Sustainability has a plurality of definitions [1]. In the ecological
area “sustainability” calls for policies and strategies that meet societies’ present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs [2]. Green chemistry is a suite of 12 enabling principles intended to lead to chemical products and processes that are more efficient, use less toxic materials, and produce less waste in the environment (Figure 1) [3]. If green chemistry is applied and workers are not considered, there is the likelihood that workers
could be harmed and the full investment in green
chemistry will not be realized. There is increasing scientific
understanding of the human and environmental
health consequences of chemicals and the energy demands
associated with chemical processing. National
and international regulatory policies are inefficient in
keeping up with the myriad of chemicals used in commerce
today [4,5]. The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) uses the US Toxic Substances Control
Act (TSCA) to monitor approximately 80,000 chemicals.
In the European Union, the 2006 regulation on the
Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction
of Chemicals (REACH) requires manufacturers to provide
detailed information on compounds that are
manufactured, marketed, or imported [6]. Workers have
always been affected by chemical exposures. The history
of occupational safety and health has been punctuated
by research investigating the impact of chemical exposures
on workers and by regulatory efforts for chemicals
risk management. As society moves forward to balance