Certainly. Just to take one off the top of my head, Sweden was the first country in the world to prohibit the use of polybrominated diphenyl ethers, which is a horrendously long chemical word. It's a family of brominated flame retardants, which causes a wide range of adverse effects on human health when humans are exposed to it.
Sweden was the first country in the world to ban the use of PBDEs in manufacturing and also in products. This raises a point we haven't discussed here today. Canada just last week completed a very drawn-out regulatory process for PBDEs, under which we have now banned the three major groups of this chemical compound, but our regulations, unlike the Swedish regulations and the European regulations, continue to allow the use of PBDEs in consumer products. These are flame retardants that are added to things like children's pyjamas, mattresses, televisions, and computers. It's to reduce their flammability.
In Sweden and the European Union, they have used the process of substitution to find alternatives that are less toxic and less dangerous, and they have completely eliminated the use of these PBDEs. That's an example of how substitution can work in a very important fashion.
As a related note, when we're talking about a risk-based approach versus a hazard-based approach, one of the problems we've encountered with the risk-based approach is that our science is constantly evolving. We are learning that substances like lead and benzene and PBDEs are actually more harmful to human health at lower concentrations than we previously determined. With a risk-based approach, you're having to respond over time and are continually lowering the amounts in which you'll allow exposures. With a hazard-based approach, you flip that around and you just don't allow it unless it can be proven safe. It's a more expeditious way of dealing with these toxic substances.