Abstract
Pollution of the environment by man-made chemicals is a growing and widespread concern. Synthetic chemicals are an essential part of modern industry; and so worldwide sales of these products have doubled every 7–8 years, exceeding US$750bn in 1990 (see Macauley et al. (1992)). Major industrial accidents have highlighted, however, the potential for disaster posed by the large volumes and variety of chemicals used in industrial processes. Every environmental compartment is at risk — water (due to contamination by agricultural chemicals, for example), the atmosphere (by e.g. chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs), and the organic chain (by e.g. heavy metals such as cadmium and lead).
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Mason, R. (1998). Options for the Regulation of the Long-Term Environmental Impact of Chemicals in the European Union. In: Pugh, D.M., Tarazona, J.V. (eds) Regulation for Chemical Safety in Europe: Analysis, Comment and Criticism. Environment & Policy, vol 15. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5316-4_9
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