Late last year, Congress passed the Consumer Product Improvement Act, whose central objective is to lower in toys and other children's items the presence of compounds considered to pose particularly high potential of toxic injury. This legislation was stimulated by the extensive discovery that imported children's playthings contained levels of lead and other chemicals believed to endanger the health of children coming into contact with these items.

The Act, which gives enhanced powers to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), focuses primarily on lead in paint used as surface coating on assorted items and lead content of the items themselves with which children come into contact reasonably frequently and on specified chemicals present in children’s products (phthalates; others may be added later). CPSC has already established a standard for phthalates which went into effect in February 2009 in addition to the creation of three levels of standards for lead content, all with separate enforcement dates. The first set of standards became enforceable in February 2009 while a second, more restrictive set of standards to become effective August 2009. The final, most stringent standards for lead content will come into effect in August 2011. Moreover, lead paint, which is to be regulated under a separate set of standards, one currently in effect and the second, more stringent to be established in August 2009, also represents a new regulatory hurdle for manufacturers and importers. Most importantly, compliance must be achieved BEFORE a regulated product can be granted the right of importation into and sale in the United States.

Determining compliance consists of several factors:
(1) measurement of the chemical in each type of children's product by a CPSC approved laboratory; (2) assessment of exposure (How much can a child be exposed to predominantly by ingestion but also by other routes of contact); and (3) third-party certification of compliance. Actual implementation can at times be complex.

The Sapphire Group, Inc., by virtue of its regulatory affairs experience and analytical laboratory alliances, has been helping toy importers and manufacturers with understanding the provision of the legislation and regulations. It has also the combined expertise in laboratory analyses and exposure to provide third-party certification acceptable to CPSC.

The Sapphire Group offers relevant and advanced guidelines for the implementation of risk analysis to chemical and chemical products worldwide.  The Sapphire Group’s unique approach allows for the application of new scientific methodologies underlined by sound scientific policies and practice.  Their course of action is structured to strategically align with an organization’s goals and overall human health and safety.  The Sapphire Group’s scientists offer definitive experience in exposure assessment, risk management, product stewardship, occupational safety, regulatory affairs, and crisis management.  More information may be found at www.TheSapphireGroup.com.

LOCATIONS

•  Washington, DC Area
3 Bethesda Metro Center
Suite 830
Bethesda, MD 20814
T: 301/657-8008
F: 301/657-8558

•  Cleveland, OH Area
2000 Auburn Drive
Suite 211
Beachwood, OH 44122
T: 216/514-8430
F: 216/514-8437

•  Dayton, OH Area
2661 Commons Boulevard
2nd Floor
Beavercreek, OH 45431
T: 937/427-4293
F: 937/458-0050

  •  United Kingdom
89 Heath End Road
Flackwell Heath
Bucks
HP10 9EW, UK
T: 44(0) 1628 520 494
F: 44(0) 1628 520 494

Sustainability is the concept of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the future and is one of the most important global environmental issues today. With natural resources diminishing, sustainability needs to be considered a global priority.

Aspects of sustainability include air quality, water quality, climate, renewable energy, ecology, coral reefs, and wildlife. While sustainability is not a new issue, global public awareness has increased greatly over the last decade. Currently, research is being conducted to develop biofuels, energy efficient technologies, new water purification systems to prevent water shortage, solar energy technologies, and wind energy technologies. There are seven principles of sustainability:

• human-ecological system integrity;
• sufficiency and opportunity;
• equity;
• efficiency and throughput reduction;
• democracy and civility;
• precaution; and
• immediate and long-term integration.

Sustainability is recognized to be an emerging science and is still very subjective and often a contested subject between individuals, governments, industry, and non-profit organizations. Sustainability involves balancing issues of complex integration of different systems and factors (e.g., integration of human and ecological systems). It also requires consideration of both temporal and spatial scales, as it involves looking toward the future. Currently, there is a global lack of guidance and/or policy documents for sustainability, and until such concepts are developed and associated documents are produced, sustainability will remain very ambiguous.

The Sapphire Group, Inc. is prepared to develop and adopt sustainable strategies and science policy for environmental stewardship programs. Because predicting future needs of both humans and the environment is so difficult and very sensitive to assumptions, sustainability conclusions, policies and recommendations are extremely subjective in application. Developing life-cycles and models in order to estimate environmental footprints will reduce the ambiguity of this science. The scientists of The Sapphire Group, Inc. and its alliance partners are extremely adept at such model development. Another key strength is our scientists’ experience in community relations, public comments, and media/public participation. Allowing for open communication with the public and government at all levels is a vital area in order to increase general understanding of sustainability issues.

Useful Links and References

EPA’s Sustainability website
http://www.epa.gov/Sustainability/

Science Daily - sustainability news
http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/earth_climate/sustainability/

Sustainability Forum
http://sustsci.aaas.org/

United Nations
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/

European Sustainability News
http://www.euractiv.com/en/sustainability

Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy journal
http://sustainabilityscience.org/content.html?contentid=1026
http://ejournal.nbii.org/

United Nations Science Policy for Sustainable Development
http://www.ias.unu.edu/sub_page.aspx?catID=587&ddlID=14

AAAS Center for Science, Technology and Sustainability
http://www.aaas.org/programs/centers/sd/ 

Focus on Key People at The Sapphire Group

Christopher R. Kirman, M.S., Program Manager of The Sapphire Group, Inc., is a toxicologist with over fifteen years expertise in regulatory toxicology, dose-response modeling, and computer programming/database design. Additionally, Mr. Kirman has extensive experience preparing chemical-specific risk assessments for private sector clients and for regulatory agencies (i.e., USEPA, ATSDR). Regarding regulatory toxicology, Mr. Kirman is very knowledgeable of USEPA guidelines for deriving reference doses and cancer potency factors. Further, he has excellent insights on the importance of the molecular mechanism of action and how this information impacts regulation of chemicals.

In addition, Mr. Kirman has specialized training in project management, chemical metabolism, physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling, chemical dosimetry, and probabilistic methods including Monte Carlo analysis. With respect to computer programming skills, Mr. Kirman has helped design and implement relational databases and user interfaces for managing and evaluating site and toxicological data.