the challenges faced by chemicals in today's society and the general methods of dealing with che

In order to prepare for the next seminar, several speakers talked about the challenges faced by chemicals in today's society and the general methods of dealing with chemical risks.

Lynn R. Goldman, Dean of the George Washington University School of Public Health and former Assistant Director of Toxic Substances of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), first provided some historical background. Twenty years ago, she joined the Environmental Protection Agency and was responsible for the management of chemicals and pesticides. The concerns at that time were very similar to those of today. "In fact, all of the problems we are facing today were problems before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was introduced." She pointed out that chemical regulation is a very difficult and complex area, but over the years, it is clear that the EPA Not enough progress can be made under current requirements.

A basic concept for dealing with chemical hazards is risk. This concept has been widely promoted by the National Academy of Sciences. It began in the Federal Government Risk Assessment: Process Management (NRC, 1983) published in 1983, known as the Red Book. The "Red Book" describes the four steps of risk assessment: (1) hazard identification, (2) dose-response assessment, (3) exposure assessment, and (4) risk description. Goldman Sachs has expanded on two of these components-risk and risk exposure. Goldman said that hazard refers to the ability of a chemical to cause harm at different dose levels, while exposure refers to the dose that the target tissue may receive after contact. Exposure may depend on various predisposing factors, such as age and developmental stage, gender, heredity, nutrition, and comorbidities. She said: "There are many individual problems that can lead to differences in chemical reactions." "Of course, this means that the availability of scientific information is critical to our ability to understand risks, and to our ability to manage risks. "

To understand the challenges facing this country, we must first understand how many chemicals are produced and used in society. To provide some historical background, Goldman quoted Paracelsus. Bala Celsus was a Swiss-born German doctor, botanist, and alchemist in the 16th century, and is considered the founder of toxicology. Bala Celsus listed the chemicals that existed commercially nearly 500 years ago. He wrote:

So, what should we say about the income of alchemy and the diversity of its vessels and tools? These are furnaces, glass, jars, water, oil, lime, sulfur, salt, salt stone, alum, sulfuric acid, Scarab, patina, decoration, gold paint, glass, copper, red clay, earth wax, honey locust, broken glass, patina, soot, Martian saffron, soap, crystal, arsenic, antimony, trace, elixir, lazarium, gold Leaves, nitrate, ammonium chloride, calamine, magnesium, Armenian pills, and many other things. In addition, books on alchemy preparation, corruption, digestion, inspection, solution, cementation, filtration, reverberation, calcination, graduation, distillation, merging, purification, etc., these alchemy books are filled. Then, about herbs, roots, seeds, trees, stones, animals, worms, bone meal, snail shells, other shells, and asphalt. (Paracelsus, 1531)

"This is a fairly short list of chemicals," Goldman Sachs pointed out. "In the world they live in, most of the material needs of human beings are met by the natural world through wood, metal and other resources extracted from the natural environment. Today, we live in a very different world. Everything comes from industrial chemicals to some extent."

She pointed out that in the 20th century, the number of commercial chemicals increased substantially. In the 25 years from 1970 to 1995 alone, the production of synthetic organic chemicals tripled, from about 50 million tons to about 150 million tons (Goldman, 2002). She pointed out that the situation today is much more serious.