Chemicals in Household Products: Problems with Solutions

The success of a regulatory regime in decreasing point-source emissions of some harmful chemicals has highlighted the significance of other sources. A growing number of potentially harmful chemicals have been incorporated into an expanding range of domestic household products and are sold worldwide. Tighter regulation has been proposed, and the European Commission has introduced the Regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, and Authorisation of Chemicals to address this concern. However, it is clear that in addition to the regulation, there is a potential to effect change through retailer and consumer attitudes and behaviours. Interviews were conducted with 7 key stakeholder groups to identify critical issues, which were then explored using a public survey questionnaire (1,008 respondents) and 8 subsequent focus groups. The findings demonstrated that the issue of chemicals in products is of concern to consumers for reasons of personal health rather than environmental protection. Key obstacles to the wider purchase of “green-alternative” products included perceived high cost and poor performance, lack of availability of products, and poor information concerning such products. Although improved regulation was seen as part of the solution, consumers must also play a role. It was clear from this study that consumers are not currently able to make informed choices about the chemicals they use but that they would be receptive to moving toward a more sustainable use of chemicals in the future if empowered to do so.     

化学品泄漏致大气环境损害的量化评估初探

以某化学品泄漏造成大气污染为例,采用虚拟治理成本法,通过对污染物单位治理成本的调查,污染物危害系数的确定等步骤量化生态环境损害的数额。针对生态环境损害价值量化过程中主要污染物的选择、单位治理成本的确定、危害类别的判断等技术关键点,提出,应结合环境质量标准限值,污染物危害系数等综合因素选择主要污染物;采用成本函数法来确定某一地区单位治理成本更容易被采纳;利用标签制度（GHS）危险性类别的结论能够快速确定污染物危害系数,以期为大气环境损害鉴定评估技术方法的完善提供参考和借鉴。     

Export inherent safety NOT risk

The author presents a personal view that production of bulk chemicals and the attendant risks are being transferred from developed to developing nations. Some evidence is presented on the transfer of production. The transferred risk is increased because of the larger scale plants that are now built in locales that are less able to cope with the increased hazards. Bhopal was an example of an inherently unsafe plant, with major hazards that could have been avoided or drastically reduced by design. It behoves the industry to adopt the inherently safer philosophy and practice in the new plants that it builds, in order to minimise the opportunity for another accident like Bhopal and the threat to our industry that such an accident would pose.     

略论工业化学品的风险评价

工业化学品的日益增多和广泛使用，给环境带来了很大的压力。工业化学品的风险评价问题，对环境管理至为重要，国家环保局及国内的工业企业正在讨论有关化学品毒性的控制问题。该文讨论了化学品风险评价的常用术语及基本程序，对生态毒性在评价中的地位特别予以强调，并提出了与其相关的评价程序，即理化参数分析；毒性扫描；亚急性毒性试验和慢性毒性试验或微生态系统试验。     

Toxics Use Reduction in the Home: Lessons Learned from Household Exposure Studies

Workers and fence-line communities have been the first to benefit from the substantial reductions in toxic chemical use and byproducts in industrial production resulting from the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act (TURA). As TURA motivates reformulation of products as well as retooling of production processes, benefits could extend more broadly to large-scale reductions in everyday exposures for the general population. Household exposure studies, including those conducted by Silent Spring Institute, show that people are exposed to complex mixtures of indoor toxics from building materials and a myriad of consumer products. Pollutants in homes are likely to have multiple health effects because many are classified as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), with the ability to interfere with the body’s hormone system. Product-related EDCs measured in homes include phthalates, halogenated flame retardants, and alkylphenols. Silent Spring Institute’s chemical analysis of personal care and cleaning products confirms many are potential sources of EDCs, highlighting the need for a more comprehensive toxics use reduction (TUR) approach to reduce those exposures. Toxics use reduction targeted at EDCs in consumer products has the potential to substantially reduce occupational and residential exposures. The lessons that have emerged from household exposure research can inform improved chemicals management policies at the state and national levels, leading to safer products and widespread health and environmental benefits.     

First report on development of quantitative interspecies structure-carcinogenicity relationship models and exploring discriminatory features for rodent carcinogenicity of diverse organic chemicals using OECD guidelines

Different regulatory agencies in food and drug administration and environmental protection worldwide are employing quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models to fill the data gaps related with properties of chemicals affecting the environment and human health. Carcinogenicity is a toxicity endpoint of major concern in recent times. Interspecies toxicity correlations may provide a tool for estimating sensitivity towards toxic chemical exposure with known levels of uncertainty for a diversity of wildlife species. In this background, we have developed quantitative interspecies structure-carcinogenicity correlation models for rat and mouse [rodent species according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) guidelines] based on the carcinogenic potential of 166 organic chemicals with wide diversity of molecular structures, spanning a large number of chemical classes and biological mechanisms. All the developed models have been assessed according to the OECD principles for the validation of QSAR models. Consensus predictions for carcinogenicity of the individual compounds are presented here for any one species when the data for the other species are available. Informative illustrations of the contributing structural fragments of chemicals which are responsible for specific carcinogenicity endpoints are identified by the developed models. The models have also been used to predict mouse carcinogenicities of 247 organic chemicals (for which rat carcinogenicities are present) and rat carcinogenicities of 150 chemicals (for which mouse carcinogenicities are present). Discriminatory features for rat and mouse carcinogenicity values have also been explored.     

Aquaculture effects on environmental and public welfare - the case of Mediterranean mariculture

Aquatic farming has been considered, during the last decades, as the fastest growing food production industry powered by governmental and technological impulsion. Compensation for fisheries decline, creation of new jobs and source of financial windfall are the most important benefits. However, similar to most of the human food-production activities, aquaculture raised several issues related to the environmental welfare and consumer safety. An effort to record the aquaculture-environment and -human safety interactions with regard to the Mediterranean mariculture, is attempted herein. We focused on this geographical area due to its individualities in both the hydrological and physicochemical characteristics and the forms of aquaculture activities. The cage farming of euryhaline marine fish species and more recently of bluefin tuna and mollusk farming are the dominating aquaculture activities. The impacts of these activities to the environment, through wastes offloads, introduction of alien species, genetic interactions, disease transfer, release of chemicals, use of wild recourses, alterations of coastal habitats and disturbance of wildlife, are analytically considered. Also the consumer safety issues related to the farming are assessed, including generation of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms, contaminants transferred to humans though food chain and other hazards from consumption of aquacultured items. Within these, the major literature findings are critically examined and suggestions for scientific areas that need further development are made. The major tasks for future aquaculture development in this region are: (i) to ensure sustainability and (ii) to balance the risks to public or environmental health with the substantial economical benefits. In regard with monitoring, tools must be created or adapted to predict the environmental costs and estimate consumer impact. At a canonistic and legal basis, the establishment of appropriate legal guidelines and common policies from all countries involved should be mandatory.     

SBR法处理化学药物制剂废水

采用 ＳＨＲ法处理化学药物制剂废水． 调节 ｐＨ至７．５,进水 ＣＯＤｃｒ ２２４～１５３０ ｍｍ／Ｌ,曝气１０ ｈ, ＣＯＤｃｒ容积负荷达２．５８ｋｇ／ｍ~３·ｄ,ＣＯＤｃｒ的去除率高达９４．２％,处理后出水ＣＯＤｃｒ＜１００ｍｇ／Ｌ,达到综合排放标准（ＧＢ８９７－９６）一级标准。ＣＯＤｃｒ容积负荷至３．８４ ｋｇ／ｍ~３·ｄ, ＣＯＤｃｒ去除率仍＞８５．９％。     

弘扬安全文化、强化安全管理的成功举措——有毒有害化学品信息卡推广和应用

有毒有害化学品信息卡的推广和应用,正在全国范围内从点到面,逐步深入开展。各级工会精心组织、发动群众,党、政、工、团齐抓共管,同时采用多种宣传教育、培训形式,充分发挥了群众的积极性和创造力,在统筹规划、认真落实的推广和应用活动中,使全员上下的安全意识显著增强,安全素质普遍提高,安全措施合理到位,安全形势有所好转。实践证明,这是一项弘扬和普及企业安全文化、强化企业安全管理的成功举措,提高了安全管理水平,保护了职工的安全与健康。     

中国有毒化学品环境管理立法原则

在环境法律中有毒化学品概念应依据生态安全性予以界定。其立法原则应包括；全面管理，重点控制与“推定有毒”原则，全过程管理原则，风险管理原则，环境，安全，质量管理“三位一体”原则，分类管理和区域控制原理等。