The Essential-Use Approach: A Policy Tool for Reducing Exposures to Toxic Chemicals

Exposure to toxic chemicals in consumer and industrial products and the environment puts people at increased risk of disease and death. Yet, current regulatory methods for managing chemical production, use, and disposal have failed to protect people and the environment from widespread pollution and exposure to harmful chemicals. This issue brief outlines an alternative, practical policy approach, known as the “essential-use approach,” that has the potential to more efficiently reduce the use of toxic chemicals to protect public health.

As is implied by the name, the essential-use approach is designed to aid policymakers discontinue any non-essential uses of chemicals with known or suspected hazards (often referred to as “chemicals of concern”) in products or processes where they are not critical for health, safety, or the function of society. Fundamentally, this approach proposes that chemicals of concern should not be used in products that are not critical for these purposes, for nonessential functions within products, or when there are safer alternatives. The idea of the essential-use approach is not to ban products, but to phase out all non-essential uses of chemicals of concern. Implementing this approach as described here is an important step in reducing exposure to toxic chemicals across the country.