Q: How much do you know about the use of your products or their foreseeable misuses? And how much do you know about how people are getting exposed to your chemicals?

A: Much of our information about exposure to our products comes from our experience with our own employees in our manufacturing facilities or in our customer facilities. Dow has had considerable experience conducting industrial hygiene surveys during the manufacture and use of our products. We also learn from the experience of government agencies and professional societies, as well as the experiences of other companies.

Dow seeks information about the use and potential misuse of our products through dialogue with our customers, distributors, and other downstream users of our products. Commensurate with product risk, Dow seeks to gather information about the use of its products. For products with higher hazard, we inquire about the end use, handling, storage, transport and disposal of substances to ensure that our customer is aware of the potential hazards and has appropriate risk management measures in place. Dow’s ongoing dialogue with downstream partners is an essential element to the continuous improvement of our product stewardship practices.

Dow educates and trains employees, based on their job function, on the proper handling, recycling, use and disposal of products and known product uses. We have a system that encourages employees, such as our sales force and technical service personnel, to feed back information on new uses, identified misuses or adverse effects for use in our product risk characterizations.