Get off your soapbox - if you're for environmental stuff, so be it. You can try to avoid any responsibility, but it won't work with me.
Yes, NASA made the decision; yes, NASA might have gotten an exception. However, that does not exempt the fact that an environmentally friendly and people killing material may have been used.
To blame the loss of a shuttle on using enviro-friendly foam, that's avoiding responsibility. The final decision is to launch -- are all things needed to make the launch safe in place. People try this, try that -- well, if you pour gasoline in your heating oil tank, don't blame Amoco.
To use a reformulation, for any reason besides *increasing* safety in the space shuttle -- is a perverted decision. NASA was stupid, institutionally they are incapable of common sense. That IS the nature of a mature bureaucracy, and exceptions are exceedingly rare. NASA is NOT one.