A toxic free environment
Toxic pollution started to become widespread with industrialisation in the 19th century. Early on, most people realised that high doses of some chemicals could make people ill or even kill them. But it took a long time to realise that also long-term exposure to low doses could have effect on human health and the environment.
Eventually authorities realised that long-term exposure to low doses of hazardous substances could create cancer. But the response to this was not to ban the substances that may cause cancer.
Instead they tried to define a safe level by estimating at which levels cancer was caused by testing them on animals. These levels were then translated into a tolerable intake for humans. If the average intake among the average population was estimated to be lower than the estimated average tolerable intake, everything was considered to be fine…
Thus industry was permitted to use hazardous substances as long as levels in the environment were not alarmingly high.
After over a hundred years of this policy, these toxic chemicals have spread into every corner of the environment, even into our own blood. We are literally swimming in low doses of hazardous substances. There is hardly a place on earth where you will not find PCB, dioxins or phthalates in soil, food and water.
However, it soon became evident that some chemicals cause other illnesses and negative effects than cancer, and that this could happen at much lower levels. Authorities had to reduce the tolerable intake levels. Time and time again scientists have discovered new effects at lower and lower levels. Today it is increasingly considered among scientists and politicians that there is no such thing as a safe level, or a tolerable intake, of hazardous substances. If a substance is hazardous it should be banned.
Therefore, the aim for many chemical policies and regulations being developed today is a Toxic free environment. This includes the following:
- The concentrations of substances that naturally occur in the environment are close to the background concentrations.
- The levels of foreign substances in the environment are close to zero
Recommended Reports
Principles for a toxic free environment (pdf)
The Precautionary Principle:
A common sense way to protect our health and environment
