These two methods are complementary: the demand-side strategy provides the necessary impetus for supply-side solutions by generating market demand for new science and technology. In other words, demand stimulates the private and public investment necessary to promote green chemical innovation. The importance of market demand as a driving force for industrial innovation has been fully confirmed in the environmental sector. A survey of executives of 90 leading companies operating in 13 EU countries found that public policy and market demand are the two most important and necessary factors for stimulating corporate environmental innovation (Henzelmann et al. 2007). Recent reports from agencies such as the U.S. Government Accountability Office (2009) and the Environmental Protection Fund (Denison 2009) call for policy changes to improve the incentive structure of the chemical market, such as strengthening the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s power to obtain information on chemical hazards from producers , And transfer more responsibilities to the producers to prove the safety of their products.

Significant chemical policy reforms in the United States will generate new research questions that must be informed by environmental health sciences. From the perspective of these three policy gaps, these issues include:

Data difference
What is the most useful and achievable standardized hazard and exposure information system that chemicals should generate? How should the sales volume and inherent hazard characteristics of chemicals drive the scope of data requirements?

When generating these data, what is the appropriate role of the producer? How to ensure the credibility, standardization and quality of this data?

In what ways can emerging predictive toxicity testing and exposure methods meet these data needs?

What information about the hazards, exposure and use of chemicals will be provided to the public, which will most effectively protect the health of the public and the environment and promote the development of safer alternatives?

What is the most effective way to communicate chemical hazards and exposure information to stakeholders (including product formulators, downstream companies, communities, workers, consumers, and government agencies)?

Security gap
Priority should be given to the hazards and exposures of chemicals (such as environmental persistence, bioaccumulation potential, toxicity, or presence in consumer products) and identify safer alternatives?

To what extent (in what manner) should manufacturers bear the responsibility for demonstrating chemical safety?

To what extent is the evidence of potential health or environmental hazards sufficient to prompt the government to take action?

What combination of actions should the government take to effectively deal with the identified hazards?

In the life cycle of chemicals and products, what are the appropriate boundaries of producer responsibility? What policy can best ensure that producer responsibility falls within these boundaries?

Technology gap
How can the development of environmental health sciences (such as biological monitoring results or endocrine-disrupting chemical sciences) be notified to chemical companies in the best way, so as to promote the continuous improvement of chemical design?

Which high-priority chemical substances and processes require government-funded research on green chemical alternatives?

What are the scientific, technical, and practical barriers to implementing these alternatives? How can these barriers be best addressed?

How should green chemistry guide the development of a new generation of environmental technologies, such as alternative energy sources and building materials, to reduce their impact on health and the environment, and improve their overall sustainability?

How to design green chemistry education to make scientists, engineers and decision makers better prepared to meet the challenges of sustainable development?
Although some leading companies have adopted green chemistry methods, the huge potential of green chemistry has not yet been exploited. This mainly reflects the priority of the US chemical market, where the safety of chemicals is underestimated relative to function, price and performance. Therefore, although society bears a lot of costs for the production, use and final disposal of hazardous chemicals, they are still competitive. These market conditions are caused by chemical data gaps, security gaps and technological gaps, and these gaps are caused by weaknesses in the TSCA language and implementation. A new chemical policy in the United States may solve the social costs that accompany the development of chemical companies-human, environmental and economic costs.

The new chemical and product laws of the European Union provide opportunities for the reform of the chemical policy of the United States.