43 



other potentially hazardous sorts of activity. So we are geared to 

 basically managing those risks and understanding those risks to a 

 high degree. 



Users, especially small companies, especially what you might say 

 are the mom and pop sorts of companies, have to rely really on 

 their suppliers and that's why we as product stewards now are say- 

 ing we really have to make sure when we sell a chemical especially 

 if we're selling a chemical to a small manufacturer, that we make 

 very clear that the user knows what the hazards of that chemical 

 are through a safety data sheet, that they know how to handle that 

 chemical, and how to dispose of that chemical. And if they do not, 

 our Product Stewardship code goes as far as to say that we should 

 not be doing business with that user, or that we really take what- 

 ever means is necessary to bring that user into the fold. 



So it's an assumption on our part that especially the very small 

 users do not have the knowledge, resources and possibly the han- 

 dling sophistication. 



Senator Reid. Dr. Allenby? 



Dr. Allenby. I think that's right, Mr. Chairman. I think when 

 you're dealing with a company like AT&T or IBM, it's a different 

 universe than when you're dealing with, say, the printing industry. 

 The reason being that in many cases the larger firms have an in- 

 ternal ability to determine what materials to use within limits. 

 Whereas with the very small companies, especially when you have 

 sectors full of small companies such as the printing industry, they 

 pretty much have to be material takers. They don't have a lot of 

 independent R&D capability. They pretty much have to take what 

 they're given, 



I should note, by the way, that OPPT has recognized this and it 

 forms one of the bases for their allocating their resources, and I 

 think that's entirely appropriate. So it depends very much on what 

 kind of user you're looking at. 



Senator Reid. What do you see as the role for government in the 

 design for environment approach that was talked about by you. Dr. 

 Allenby in your written statement? 



Dr. Allenby. I think the government has a role in several ways. 

 The first is there is an enormous amount of data which extend 

 across the economy as a whole that are not available. The result 

 is that although we would like to choose environmental preferable 

 materials whenever we have a design choice, we frequently don't 

 know which material is preferable. There are some cases where it's 

 obvious, but there are a lot of other cases where it's not. So devel- 

 oping those kinds of data are certainly one role. 



The second role is prioritization, and here the example of 

 superconductors is a good one. Superconductors, when we finally 

 get large scale commercial production, will undoubtedly be toxic. If 

 nothing else, they're probably have copper in them, which is an 

 aquatic toxicant, and most of the current superconductors now 

 have other things in them — thallium, for example — that are more 

 toxic. 



On the other hand, superconductor technology offers the possibil- 

 ity of substantial improvements in our energy consumption and en- 

 ergy efficiency. 



