The Green Science Policy Institute recently launched sixclasses.org, a website featuring a series of four-minute videos on the "Six Classes" of chemicals that are known to harm human health and the environment.
Each video summarizes where each of these classes of chemicals is used, associated health problems, and how to reduce exposure. This knowledge will better equip large purchasers, manufacturers, retailers, designers, and consumers to take the steps needed to limit the use of these problematic chemicals.
The videos are divided into the following topics: highly fluorinated chemicals, antimicrobials, flame retardants, bisphenols and phthalates, solvents, and certain metals.
The Green Science Policy Institute was founded in 2008 in Berkeley, CA, by Executive Director and Berkeley alum Arlene Blum (Ph.D. '71, Chem. with Ignacio Tinoco Jr.) after she learned that the same chlorinated tris that her research had helped remove from children's pajamas in the 1970s was back in furniture and baby products. Blum is currently a visiting scholar in chemistry at Berkeley.