About Us
The Green Science Policy Institute (GSP) provides unbiased scientific information to government, industry, and non-governmental organizations to facilitate more informed decision-making about chemicals used in consumer products in order to protect health and environment world-wide.
GSP was founded in 2008 in Berkeley, California by Executive Director Arlene Blum 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. Since its founding, GSP has stopped ten unneeded flammability standards and prevented hundreds of millions of pounds of toxic flame retardants from being added to consumer products.
Our Mission:
The Green Science Policy Institute provides unbiased scientific data to government, industry, and non-governmental organizations to facilitate more informed decision-making about chemicals used in consumer products. We are currently focusing on reducing the use of organohalogen flame retardants due to their adverse impacts on human and environmental health and our extensive experience in this area.
Green Science Policy Institute addresses toxicity issues by:
• Serving as a watchdog for emerging regulations and standards that could adversely impact human health and the environment.
• Motivating and participating in academic research for innovative solutions to key health and environmental challenges.
• Disseminating objective scientific research to industry, regulatory bodies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Our Accomplishments:
• Led the successful science-based campaign which stopped the unnecessary use of over a billion pounds of unneeded flame retardant chemicals in electronic housings each year.
• Contributed to a proposed federal furniture standard that addresses fire safety without the use of toxic chemicals in foam by preparing an economic analysis quantifying the large potential human health cost from exposure to flame retardant chemicals in furniture.
• Presented lectures and attended meetings in Beijing, Tokyo, and Brussels as well as in the U.S. and Canada to reduce toxics in consumer products.
• Contributed to the Senate Commerce Committee’s decision to drop provisions in the CPSC Reform Act of 2008 requiring flame retardant chemicals in both children’s toys and furniture.
• Helped inform decision makers in four states so they did not enact furniture standards which would have increased the use of toxics in their states.
• Postponed California TB 604, a proposed flammability regulation for bed coverings and pillows that does not consider adverse impacts upon human health or the environment.
Our Founders:
Arlene Blum, Ph.D.
Green Science Policy Institute Founder and Executive Director
Dr. Blum is a biophysical chemist, visiting scholar at UC Berkeley’s Department of Chemistry, and author of Annapurna: A Woman’s Place and Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life. Blum’s research contributed to the regulation of two cancer-causing flame retardants used in children’s sleepwear in the 1970s, and prevented unnecessary flammability standards that would have led to the use of hundreds of millions of pounds of persistent toxic chemicals each year. Dr. Blum was selected by the National Women’s History Project as one of 100 “Women Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet,” received the Society of Women Geographers’ Gold Medal, and a top Purpose Prize from Civic Ventures. Please see www.arleneblum.com for more information about adventures and a calendar of events.
Michael Kirschner
Green Science Policy Institute Associate Director
President of Design Chain Associates, LLC, which helps product manufacturers understand, develop strategies around, and comply with environmental regulations as well as improve product and operational environmental performance. Kirschner is a member of the California EPA Department of Toxic Substance Control’s Green Ribbon Science Panel.
Green Science Policy Institute Advisory Board:
- Lauren Heine, Ph.D., Senior Science Advisor, Clean Production Action, Lauren Heine Group LLC
- Don Kennedy, Ph.D., President Emeritus of Stanford University, former editor-in-chief of Science magazine and former FDA Commissioner
- Richard Luthy, Ph.D., Silas H. Palmer Professor and Department Chair, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University
- Nina McClelland, Ph.D., former Chairman of the Board, American Chemical Society; President of Nina I. McClelland, LLC, an environmental consulting group
- William Nazaroff, Ph.D., Professor, Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley