The Design for the Environment (DfE) Program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency developed the Alternatives Assessment Criteria for Hazard Evaluation as a transparent tool for evaluating and differentiating among chemicals based on their human health and environmental hazards. The Criteria are applied in all of DfE Alternatives Assessments and can be used by other organizations.

To ensure that the Criteria remain relevant and useful for distinguishing among chemicals, DfE may update criteria based on experience conducting alternatives assessments and on stakeholder input.

The full Criteria as well as updates and stakeholder input are provided in the documents below.

• Design for the Environment (DfE) Program Alternatives Assessment Criteria for Hazard Evaluation Version 2.0 (August 2011) (PDF)(50 pp, 1 MB)
• Comments on the DfE Alternatives Assessment Criteria for Hazard Evaluation (PDF)(101 pp, 689 K)
• Response to Comments on the DfE Alternatives Assessment Criteria for Hazard Evaluation (PDF)(17 pp, 191 K)