Chemicals in the Environment: Assessing and Managing Risk

Front Cover
Ronald E. Hester, R. M. Harrison, Roy M. Harrison
Royal Society of Chemistry, 2006 - 158 pages
Rising concern in recent years over the possible adverse environmental consequences of the use of chemicals has led to a steady increase in national activity towards greater regulation, in addition to voluntary agreements with manufacturers for risk management of certain products. This book begins by reviewing the current framework of legislation for the regulation of chemicals in the UK and then reports expert views on both the current situation and possible future developments. Subsequent chapters consider some of the scientific and technical issues, including the evaluation of the risks which chemicals can pose to human life and the environment, and the problems relating to evaluating the risks associated with metals in the environment. Finally, the predictive methods used to model the behaviour of organic chemicals within the environment are described.Highly topical, and with authoritative contributions from international experts, this book covers both the scientific underpinning and the legislative and practical issues of this emotive subject. The detailed coverage of a topic that affects many sectors of industry and society will make it popular with a wide audience of individuals from government organisations, industry or academic research - particularly those in environmental chemistry sectors.

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Contents

The Current Regulation of Environmental Chemicals
1
Protection of the Water Environment
2
Classification and Labelling of Chemicals
6
The Notification of New Substances Regulations
7
Existing Substances Regulations
8
New European Chemicals Policy REACH
10
Other European and UK Regulations on Chemicals
11
International Activities on Chemicals
13
REACH
40
Conclusions
42
References
43
Future Perspectives in Risk Assessment of Chemicals
45
Difficulties in Risk Assessment
49
Current Developments
54
Future Perspectives
59
Conclusions
61

Voluntary Approaches to Control of Chemicals in the Environment
15
References
18
Chemicals Risk Assessment and Management
21
Types of Risk
24
Risks and Hazards
26
The Evidence for Harm Caused by Industrial Chemicals
29
CostBenefit
34
Perception of Chemical Risks and The Roles of the Advocates
36
The Problems in Controlling Risks from Chemicals
38
Industry Initiatives
39
The Changing Face of Chemical Regulation in Europe
77
References
99
Problems with the Application of Traditional
107
Conclusions
123
Partitioning Persistence and LongRange
132
Contents xi
134
Persistence
142
LongRange Transport
148
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About the author (2006)

Ron Hester is an emeritus professor of chemistry at the University of York. In addition to his research work on a wide range of applications of vibrational spectroscopy, he has been actively involved in environmental chemistry and was a founder member of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Environment Group. His current activities are mainly as an editor and as an external examiner and assessor on courses, individual promotions, and departmental/subject area evaluations both in the UK and abroad. Roy Harrison OBE is Queen Elizabeth II Birmingham Centenary Professor of Environmental Health at the University of Birmingham. In 2004 he was appointed OBE for services to environmental science. Professor Harrison's research interests lie in the field of environment and human health. His main specialism is in air pollution, from emissions through atmospheric chemical and physical transformations to exposure and effects on human health. Much of this work is designed to inform the development of policy.

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