September 2025: A Lifeline for Bees and Butterflies

In this edition:

• Organic Plants: A Lifeline for Bees, Butterflies, and Hummingbirds
• Are There Batteries in Your Smoke Detector?
• Innocent Until Proven Guilty or Guilty Until Proven Innocent?
• Towards a Sustainable Chemical Industry
• Green Science Policy Institute in the News
• Calendar

I hope you enjoyed a good summer and are getting ready for fall.

This newsletter is of special interest because three of our senior fellows have contributed based on their expertise. For instance, you can read below how endangered pollinators—like bees and butterflies—are also getting ready for fall and winter and learn how you can help them to survive the colder months.

Our Institute had a productive summer. We are making progress on our projects to reduce the use of harmful chemical classes through our federal and state policy work, innovative industry collaborations, and communication strategy. For those in the Bay Area, we invite you to attend the open meeting of the American Chemical Society's local section this Saturday (13 September) in Berkeley. The event will feature an illustrated talk by Megan Arnett, Director of the UC Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry, and me, titled “Tackling Toxics: PFAS, Antimicrobials, and Safer Green Chemistry Alternatives." It’s a fun opportunity to explore how green chemistry principles can address persistent chemical challenges while enjoying networking opportunities and a buffet lunch. You can learn more and register here or pay at the door. I hope to see you there.

Toxics reduction and green chemistry is more important than ever. In addition to funding cuts and rollbacks in the U.S., environmental health setbacks are also occurring on the international stage.

The European Union's ambitious effort to restrict all uses of the class of PFAS, except where alternatives are lacking, is at risk of being weakened. After two years‘ consideration of thousands of comments and extensive lobbying from industry, the original strong restriction proposal was updated in August 2025 to list eight product categories that would not be included in the restriction due to lack of time for adequate assessment. The categories include sealants for which more than ten thousand tons are produced annually in the EU. The revised proposal also suggests that manufacturing of PFAS could continue for a few uses, including electronics and semiconductors, if emissions during production were more strictly controlled. These changes could become loopholes allowing for the continued production and use of PFAS in the EU.

Also, the recent global plastic treaty negotiations in Geneva did not result in a useful agreement as had been hoped. The talks collapsed over disagreements limiting plastic production, toxic chemical restrictions, and the question of whether to focus on
production caps or waste management. Many countries had refused to accept a proposed agreement because it was too weak and fell short of protecting environmental and human health.

“While a small group of countries actively denied the scientific evidence, we were encouraged by the overwhelming majority who engaged constructively with it,” said the Scientists’ Coalition, an independent network of experts providing scientific input into the treaty.

This underscores the importance of scientists sharing their research findings with policymakers. Indeed, this has proven to be one of our Institute’s most powerful strategies for creating positive changes in how chemicals are managed.

As was pointed out, policymakers don’t have the time or technical expertise to study scientific papers, while, “industry groups arrive at policy meetings with big budgets, polished arguments, and teams of lobbyists.”

If you’re a scientist who wants to translate your research into impact, our communications webpage has tips and templates for sharing research papers with the press.

Also, our senior fellows will each be mentoring a U.S. PhD student or postdoc who is interested in environmental health and green chemistry work. Please get in touch with [email protected] if you or someone in your network might be interested.

Kind regards,
Arlene and the Green Science Policy team
P.S. You can view my recent talk "Reducing Chemical Harm: Healthier People and Planet" for the Massachusetts Breast Coalition here.

Organic Plants: A Lifeline for Bees, Butterflies, and Hummingbirds

By Susan Kegley, Senior Fellow

Fall isn't just planting season—it's survival season for pollinators. After a very difficult year, with over 1.6 million honeybee colonies dying in the U.S. this past spring, the bees need your help.

As winter approaches, bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds urgently gather the last nectar and pollen they can find in the landscape. Our gardens can make the difference.

By choosing fall-blooming organic perennials like sedum, asters, Maximillian perennial sunflowers, spearmint, and the California Natives like Western Goldenrod, Monkeyflower, California Fuschia, and native buckwheats, we can ensure that pollinators have a clean, reliable source of food to get them safely through the cold months ahead.

Why Organic Flowers Matter
The problem with conventionally grown plants is often invisible. Many nursery plants are treated with systemic insecticides like neonicotinoids, chemicals designed to spread throughout the plant’s tissues. That means pollen, nectar, and the leaves can carry toxic residues that compromise the health of bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects. Even at low doses in honey bees, these insecticides cause queen failures and impair the immune system of bees, making them more vulnerable to pathogens. Two decades of research have built a scientific consensus that these and other harms are severely undermining honey bee survival. A 2024 study of milkweed near agricultural fields revealed that Monarch butterfly habitat is frequently contaminated with these chemicals—a stark warning that even plants meant to support pollinators can become toxic if grown near conventionally grown agricultural crops.

How Clean Forage Helps Bees
For honey bees, fall forage is particularly critical. Colonies depend on protein-rich pollen in autumn to raise a special generation of “winter bees.” Unlike summer bees that live just a few weeks, winter bees are built to survive for months. They cluster together, generate warmth, and keep the hive alive until spring brings fresh blooms. Without abundant, pesticide-free pollen and nectar in the fall, colonies struggle to raise these hardy workers—and many simply don’t survive the winter.

Your Role as a Gardener
By planting organically grown flowers, shrubs, and trees, we provide more than beauty in our gardens. We offer lifelines—clean nectar for hummingbirds, uncontaminated host plants for butterflies, and safe pollen for bees. Every organic plant we choose strengthens the web of life, ensuring that pollinators have the resources they need when survival is on the line. The Bees N Blooms nursery in Santa Rosa is certified organic. Several other Bay Area nurseries often have neonicotinoid-free plants, including Curious Flora (used to be Annie's Annuals) and Berkeley Horticultural. Avoid the big box stores like Home Depot and Lowe's.

Are There Batteries in Your Smoke Detector?

Have you ever removed the batteries from your smoke detector because it annoyingly went off while you were cooking or showering, or for no reason at all?

Good, functioning alarm systems will protect us from fires in our homes; they are a much more effective and healthier option than adding toxic flame retardants to furniture, electronics, and other home products.

Photoelectric smoke alarms are a better alternative than the more commonly used ionization smoke alarms - they detect smoke from smoldering fires and do not give so many false alarms.

Photoelectric alarms provide much earlier warning in slow, smoky, smoldering fires, which are the most common cause of residential fire fatalities due to smoke inhalation. Studies report that ionization alarms generate many more nuisance alarms (especially near kitchens or bathrooms), leading residents to disable them at a much higher rate.

Photoelectric alarms are required in Massachusetts, and data shows that they have led to a decrease in fire deaths. You should periodically check your smoke alarms to verify that they are functioning. If you have disabled your smoke alarms because of frequent false alarms, consider installing a photoelectric alarm instead--it could save your life--and that of your family.

Innocent Until Proven Guilty or Guilty Until Proven Innocent?

By Lauren Heine, Senior Fellow

Fortunately, we live in a country where, under the law, people are considered innocent until proven guilty; but should the same grace be applied to chemicals? In some cases, the hazards associated with a chemical are the same across an entire chemical class. In that case the chemical should be assumed problematic unless there is compelling evidence to the contrary.

Years ago, I received a call from a manufacturer of yoga mats who wanted to be sure that their mats did not contain harmful chemicals.

They had just completed some analytical testing and asked for my help with interpretation. The mat material contained over 40% by weight DEHP, a harmful ortho-phthalate (phthalate). There was also a small amount of one other phthalates. The chemicals were added to make the mat flexible and “sticky”. Of course, yoga can be a sweaty endeavor whereby close skin contact and deep inhalation can lead to lots of exposure.

They wanted to know if the results were good or bad since they found only 2 of the 6 phthalates for which they tested. I had to explain that ortho-phthalates are a chemical class. There is usually no need for more than one member of the class to be added as a plasticizer. I told them that I was sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the results showed that over 40% of weight of their product was a plasticizer tied to negative human health effects and probably the most problematic one within the class. I explained that the other phthalates tested were likely not used because they were not necessary; but if they were, they were likely to have related adverse health effects based on similar chemical characteristics. The caller was concerned.

Over the next year, I saw that this company developed new yoga mats that were “phthalate free”. The new mats felt a little different, but they were well received and both the company and yoga practitioners could breathe a little easier thanks to the availability of safer and effective alternatives.

Towards a Sustainable Chemical Industry

By Joel Tickner, Senior Fellow

The chemical industry is at a crossroads. While its products have played a critical role in driving a higher quality of life, it is also a primary industrial contributor to the climate, toxic pollution, and plastic waste crises that now threaten human and planetary health. The chemical industry is the largest industrial energy user and greenhouse gas emitter and chemicals are often designed without consideration of toxicity. As a result, we are rapidly approaching a “planetary boundary,” the point at which industrial chemicals are altering the “vital Earth system processes on which human life depends.”

The current structure of the chemical industry – which is rigid and non-innovative – is a fundamental challenge that must be addressed to ultimately be sustainable. For example, while a chemical company may be able to make a safer chemical, it more often than not originates from a “building block” chemical, produced from fossil fuels that is both greenhouse gas and energy intensive as well as problematic for workers and communities where that chemical is produced.

Addressing the climate, toxics, and circularity challenges of the industry requires five major transformations: in the energy sources that fuel the industry, in the feedstocks from which chemicals are made, in the actual molecules created, in the production processes that make the chemicals, and in the products which incorporate chemicals and materials.

The question of how to build a different chemical industry is challenging as the current chemicals and manufacturing processes have been optimized, subsidized, and integrated into global supply chains for decades. Changing this locked-in structure to drive sustainable chemicals will take effort and investment over decades.

I am using my time as a Senior Fellow to tackle this challenge as well as how best to align government, investment, and advocacy efforts to drive a fundamental transformation.

Green Science Policy Institute in the News

By Rebecca Fuoco

Below are recent news articles, blogs, podcasts, newsletters, and more that have featured our Institute’s work and expertise.

• Arlene explained to Chemical Watch that fluoropolymers have a problematic life cycle because they are made from small-molecule PFAS and can degrade back into these harmful substances over time.
• Urban Land recommended our Six Classes website as a resource for designing indoor spaces to promote brain health.
• Tony Stefani, founder and president of the San Francisco Firefighters Cancer Prevention Foundation, mentioned our work together in an interview with the Fire and Safety Journal Americas.
• This Sierra Club blog links to our PFAS in building materials report.
• This Ecology Center blog notes our PFAS Central website is helpful for learning how to avoid PFAS.
• Green Transition Denmark cited our report finding PFAS in building materials.

Calendar

Saturday September 13, noon - 3 pm Pacific
At the American Chemical Society meeting at Comal Restaurant in Berkeley, CA, Megan Arnett, Director of the UC Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry, and Arlene will present an illustrated talk on "Tackling Toxics: PFAS, Antimicrobials, and Safer Green
Chemistry Alternatives." This is an open meeting of the local section of the American Chemical Society including buffet lunch and networking.
Learn more and register to attend here or pay at the door.

Wednesday, October 29, 11am-12:30 pm Pacific
Arlene Blum will present a webinar for the Outdoor Industry Association:What's Next? Are Antimicrobials the next PFAS? How is scientific research driving policy changes to phase out harmful chemicals and promote safer alternatives?