Basics of Informed Substitution & Alternatives Assessment: Considering safer alternatives to hazardous chemicals is not a new approach. Thinking about safer alternatives allows employers, workers, and decision-makers to identify solutions, rather than continuing to evaluate and quantify the problem. This approach can reduce costs and keep businesses competitive. On the other hand, continuing to assess a problem has no economic benefit. Several terms and phrases are commonly used to describe this type of solutions-oriented approach to chemical management. Informed substitution, replacing hazardous substances with safer alternatives, is the goal of a solutions-oriented approach to chemical management. It involves identifying alternatives and evaluating their health and safety hazards, potential trade-offs, and technical and economic feasibility. A safer alternative is an option that is less hazardous for workers than the existing means of meeting that need. Sometimes, this means choosing the option of not continuing an activity altogether; this also may include using chemical substitutes or product or process redesigns that completely eliminate the need for specific hazardous chemicals. Informed substitution is the goal of the seven step process presented by OSHA in this toolkit. Substitution planning is a process to systematically set goals and priorities to reduce hazards, develop a chemical use inventory, evaluate alternatives, identify preferred alternatives, and implement alternatives. Taken together, steps 1-7 outline a substitution planning process. An alternatives assessment is a process for identifying, comparing, and selecting safer alternatives for hazardous chemicals on the basis of their hazards, performance, and economic viability. An alternatives assessment is a key component of a substitution planning process and is used in the evaluation and comparison of alternatives. A number of tools and methods have been developed to evaluate hazards, performance, and economic viability as part of an alternatives assessment. For example, comparative chemical hazard assessment tools provide a method to compare chemical alternatives on the basis of their chemical hazards. Steps 3-5 of the toolkit - identifying, assessing, comparing, and selecting the alternatives - include tools employers and workers can use to perform an alternatives assessment. See more from topic source: https://www.osha.gov/html/a-z-index.html