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Biomonitoring must include assessment
Biomonitoring is one of a number of instruments for determining the level of exposure to a substance. However, the mere detection of a substance in the organism does not reveal anything about a person’s state of health. Instead, the analytical results that are obtained must be assessed from a medical and toxicological point of view. Without such an assessment, detection of a substance makes the public uneasy and is constantly used as proof of the assertion that the chemical industry harms the environment and health.
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The concentration is critical
Chemistry itself does not pose a risk to human health. The whole world surrounding us including all forms of life is composed of chemical elements. The ability acquired by humans of producing chemical substances is the basis of a modern society (for example health, nutrition and mobility). Neither its complicated name nor its presence actually makes a chemical dangerous. As Paracelsus perceived: It is the concentration alone that is critical. It makes a poison out of a substance. This applies equally to natural and synthetic substances and products. As far as health is concerned, therefore, it is immaterial whether a substance is of natural or synthetic origin. Table salt is an essential nutriment which humans could not do without. However, for a newborn baby the lethal dose of table salt can be as low as one gram. On the other hand, medicine even uses nerve toxins in an appropriately low concentration for therapeutic purposes. For example botulinus toxin A. As little as 0.0001 mg of this bacterial toxin causes fatal poisoning in humans. Botulinus toxin A is formed naturally, for example by storing or preserving meat and vegetables incorrectly. This example shows how important the correct handling of products is.
The concentration of specific chemicals in the environment is monitored and controlled at national and international levels by various health and environmental institutions. Here, the chemical industry works closely together with the authorities. Thanks to great progress that has been made in analytical detection, an increasing number of substances in increasingly smaller concentrations are being discovered in humans and the environment. Measurements today can be made beyond the part per trillion detection limit which corresponds to 1 second in 320 centuries. In spite of the increasing number of detectable chemicals in the environment associated with this, the background exposure of many synthetic substances is declining. This is shown by long-term measurements in various west European countries. For Germany, the Environment Survey of the Federal Environmental Agency is evidence of this trend. (Environment Survey 1998)
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Far-reaching product stewardship
The chemical industry investigates the effects of its products on the environment very rigorously. Through its Long-Range Research Initiative (LRI) the chemical industry supports research on for example the effects and pathways of chemicals in the environment. It has committed itself to far-reaching product stewardship in its worldwide Responsible Care® initiative, which it observes independently of any responsibilities laid down by law. Product safety has top priority for the chemical industry. Today, the chemical industry is focusing increasingly on integrated environmental protection. This commences as early as the development of new products and includes production, processing, use in the various fields of application as well as disposal or recycling.
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Environmental protection begins with product development
Companies in the chemical industry are in constant competition to find the most innovative and best solution. There is a continuous exchange of “old” products for new ones with improved properties. The question of whether a new product offers economic and ecological advantages over an established substance will determine investment in the development of the new product. This is why the chemical industry is already using specific screening processes at the product development stage in order to determine the possible fate of the product and its effect in the environment. Geared to the various applications for which a product is developed, it is subjected to numerous tests. These tests provide information as to what the level of exposure can be for humans and the environment.
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Risk management along the value-adding chain
On this basis, the product is assessed toxicologically and risk management is drawn up. This risk management covers precautions for the safe handling of the product from its birth through to its disposal. If it should turn out that a substance, in spite of broadly designed tests and toxicological expertises, has effects on humans or the environment that go beyond the known effects, the industry immediately initiates expanded risk management. This covers precautions tailored to specific cases and can lead to a restriction of the range of applications or even to the withdrawal of the product in question. In its risk management, the industry works very closely with official institutions for health and environmental protection. The basis of risk management is weighing up risk and benefit: How are the effects of the use of the substance or the abandonment of its use along the value-adding chain to be assessed? The market, in other words ultimately the consumer, determines the benefit of a product, for example as an indispensable building block in an essential drug. Thus the market also sets the framework for a risk potential acceptable to the public.
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Safe handling through information to customers
Knowledge of the effect of chemicals is the condition for safety concepts that are developed for every product. To guarantee that the customer will handle the product properly, the chemical industry provides detailed information on the physicochemical properties of its products as well as safety data on transport, storage and use in the fields of application. Apart from comprehensive information on product safety, the chemical industry regularly offers its customers instruction on the handling of its products.
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