This is one in a series of documents that follow my UCLA winter 2010 course titled Cradle to Cradle: Closed Loop Systems. This interdisciplinary course contributes to the school's Certificate of Global Sustainability.

1. UCLAx class 10 1
UCLAx Cradle to Cradle: class 10
For our tenth class, we continued a discussion begun the week prior during our field trip to
Steelcase regarding toxic substances. Prior to the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of
1990 knowing what was in our food or what nutritional its ingredients contained was
anyone’s guess. Even though many people today, after twenty years, still don’t know how
to read or understand the ingredients list or nutritional facts label. Even though that
information does not currently include notification of genetically modified content, can be
confusing, and some ingredients difficult to pronounce, at least it offers consumers help in
making purchasing decisions based on dietary of health needs. The same is not true of
other products that have equally important impact on our health. The EPA estimates that
we spend more than 90% of our time indoors in buildings with no direct access to outside
air. And unless you’ve done significant research ahead of time, few of us know what
ingredients those indoor environments are composed of. The same is true for the vast
majority of the consumer products we purchase and use in those buildings.
In 1976 the US Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act which also created the
Environmental Protection Agency. At the time, it was decided that too many existing
chemicals and compounds were already on the market to test for long term human or
environmental exposure. Therefore, 62,000 substances were grandfathered in and added
to their database. Since then, another 35,000 substances have been added, yet few have
ever undergone extensive testing for safety. The EPA itself estimates that 95% of all
chemicals and compounds on the market today have never undergone rigorous testing for
potential human health risks or environmental impacts. In the thirty-four years of its
existence, the EPA has only banned five substances - lead-based ingredients (such as
paints and gasoline), PCBs, Asbestos, DDT, and CFCs.
Our class discussion focused on volatile organic compounds (VOCs), added formaldehyde,
mercury, vinyl or polyvinyl chloride (PVC), brominated flame retardants, dioxin, bisphenol A,
and phthalates. Most of these are substances are regulated by the EPA and found in many
common products. Phthalates and bisphenol A are both plasticizers. Phthalates are added
to plastics and polymers to make them more pliant and soft. Everyone is familiar with that
new car smell - that’s phthalates being released. They off-gas from the dashboard and
other interior components for as much as two years. Phthalates have been linked to
reproductive damage and can have a dramatic effect on young boys by diminishing their
production of testosterone. Bisphenol A is added to clear plastics to harden them. It
mimics human hormones and does not follow the normal patterns of toxicity. Generally
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2. UCLAx class 10 2
speaking, for most potentially harmful substances, the greater the exposure the greater the
risk of impact, and the smaller the exposure the smaller the risk. But hormones do not
follow this same pattern. Small, even trace, amounts can have large and continual impact.
The normal toxicity exposure to impact ration is not applicable, which is one reason so
many are actively pressing the EPA to ban bisphenol A.
The reason to discuss chemicals and compounds and understand potential human and
environmental exposure concerns is that the issue relates to life cycle assessment, or LCA.
No material or resource can be harvested, mined, or extracted, then manufactured,
manipulated, or used without impact. Making informed material decisions requires some
knowledge about potential impacts so that they can be evaluated as part of an overall
assessment. The EPA identifies five phases of production to consider in an LCA - raw
materials, manufacturing, packaging and transport, use and maintenance, and recycling or
waste. With each of these phases, there are inputs and outputs. For example, during the
packaging and transport phase there is fuel consumed as input, and potential solid wastes
generated as output. Both input and output can be weighted and prioritized to determine
whether there significant value gained or probable impact experienced. These can be
interpreted and analyzed by each individual to direct selection decisions.
It’s also important to understand the potential harm substances pose to people or the
environment as part of a cradle to cradle system. If a chemical is a known carcinogen or
ecosystem contaminant, then keeping them within a closed loop system potentially
perpetuates their impact. For some substances, continued exposure mean accumulation
of damage. Nature cannot process some chemicals and compounds. They are persistently
bio-accumulative. From the list discussed in class, formaldehyde, mercury, and dioxin fall
into this category.
Although it was a tough subject to cover, I feel we all have a better understanding of why
we all need to be vigilant in pressing manufacturers to be transparent about ingredients
were possible so we can make informed decisions. Designers and consumers alike have to
know what’s in the materials we specify and consume in our move toward healthier
sustainable processes.
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➜ threadcollaborative
11250 morrison street no. 201, north hollywood ca 91601