Consumer Products

The Indiana Poison Center handles more than 60,000 phone calls a year involving potential poisonings from consumer products.  The Center provides outstanding guidance to the callers.  But they have not been able to mount a campaign aimed to prevent poisonings of specific chemicals.  IKE seeks to fill that gap and develop strong prevention strategies that work. 

With funding from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the East Central Solid Waste Management District, IKE has teamed up with Taylor University and the Indiana Regional Household Hazardous Waste Task Force, to analyze the information and develop strategies. 

IKE will analyze the Indiana Poison Center database, interview the Center staff, and review the follow-up conducted by the Center. The deliverables will consist of the following reports.

Prioritized list of hazardous materials that are the greatest threat to children and the public. The prioritization will be based on an evaluation on the potential exposures and potential impacts. The specific prioritization method cannot be determined at this time - it will become clearer as the project proceeds. The methods could include a numerical scoring system or high-medium-low rankings.

This list will primarily designed for program managers at the state, districts and health departments -- not the public. Its purpose is to help the program managers set priorities.

To provide context, IKE will also provide a brief assessment of the environmental impacts of the materials, especially the low priority materials. Since the priorities will be primarily driven by concerns for acute health hazards, this brief assessment of environmental impacts will minimize the implication that some materials should not be important to household hazardous waste programs because no one called the Indiana Poison Center.

Summary of the source reduction opportunities for the most important threats. IKE will discuss safer alternatives to high priority items as they arise but that will not be the primary focus of the project. IKE anticipates that many of the source reduction opportunities will addressed preventing the need for the chemical causing the threat rather than finding a safer substitute. The opportunities are also likely to include better storage technique and buying only what is needed.

Strategies to realize the source reduction opportunities. IKE will describe how state and local program managers can turn the source reduction opportunities into tangible improvements in their programs. These strategies may include proposals for legislative changes if appropriate.

Summary of the recycling and improved disposal opportunities for the most important threats to more safely get the hazardous materials out of the home. IKE will identify those opportunities that practical and reasonable for household hazardous waste disposal and recycling programs to handle.

Strategies to most effectively and efficiently realize the recycling and improved disposal opportunities. IKE will describe how state and local program managers can turn the recycling and improve disposal opportunities into tangible improvements in their programs. These strategies may include proposals for legislative changes if appropriate.

The reports will include packets to help program managers more quickly and simply translate the results of the project into action. IKE anticipates that the packets will be tailored to the different audiences such as health departments and solid waste management districts.

With this information, the State and its communities can improve their HHW source reduction, recycling, and disposal programs in three ways.

1. They can have numbers and anecdotes that they can trust and Hoosiers can relate to in order to help the state and its communities more effectively explain the hazards posed by these materials and the importance of addressing them. The mercury awareness program’s use of the number of exposures from mercury thermometers demonstrated the effectiveness of both numbers and anecdotes to deliver the message..
2. They can more effectively target their source reduction education programs funded through the HHW jumpstart grants to the most important materials. Many districts have not requested HHW jumpstart funding because they want a more focused, relevant source reduction effort. Through this project, they can have the information they need.
3. They can more effectively design their collection programs to make sure they get the most important materials out of people’s homes and the municipal solid waste stream..

Background:  Source reduction is at the top of Indiana’s solid waste management hierarchy. As the core part of the definition of pollution prevention, it is also at the top of the Indiana’s environmental protection hierarchy. In essence, source reduction for municipal solid waste (including household hazardous waste) is focused on not purchasing the hazardous materials that consumers may put in their municipal solid waste. The goal is not to generate household hazardous waste (HHW), or, better yet, not to reduce the potential for HHW.

Indiana’s Household Hazardous Waste Program is appropriately focused on source reduction. IDEM and districts emphasized it in the early days of the program by imploring consumers to avoid the purchase of hazardous materials that could become HHW. The discussion focused on areas where consumers had smarter choices to make. For example, the program recommended latex paints over oil-based paints. It promoted safer pesticides and mercury-free devices.

During this time, IDEM, many of the solid waste management districts, and several cities have developed an extensive infrastructure to handle household hazardous waste. This infrastructure pushed recycling using disposal or energy recovery as a last resort consistent with the solid waste management hierarchy.

With a track record of success and nationally-recognized innovation and cooperation, it is time to reevaluate priorities for the next ten years. Significant efforts are underway to address the most critical and obvious hazardous materials.

But hazardous materials remain in the home. The Indiana Poison Center gets thousands of calls from Hoosiers across the state. People, especially children, are injured everyday from consumer products in the home. We need to make sure our HHW program priorities reflect the materials that are actually injuring our children.

We need to know:

• What those hazardous materials are?
• How to get effectively get them out of homes?
• How to use source reduction to keep them out of homes?

The Indiana Poison Center does not do this type of analysis. They focus is primarily on helping those that call and on helping families know where poisons are in the home. Pollution prevention and source reduction is not in their mandate or program scope.

For an update see article in IKE's April 2000 Newsletter