Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The present priorities for assessment under REACH are persistent bioaccumulative toxic
substances (which include POPs), substances that widely disperse during use (which cap-
tures long-range environmental transport) and substances used in large quantities. How it
is all intended to work is described in a document of more than 800 pages, but a key ele-
ment is that the onus is placed on industry to show that products are safe. Therefore, the
costs of REACH are largely carried by industry and ultimately by consumers. There are
also a number of voluntary arrangements - the most comprehensive being the relatively
new Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM). This is a glob-
al policy framework administered by UNEP that takes a “cradle to grave” approach to the
management ofchemicals and includes, forexample, risk assessments ofchemicals and the
disposal of obsolete and stockpiled products. The SAICM is certainly a worthy activity, but
it was not intended to be a legal global proxy for REACH.
The slow progress (except perhaps in the EU) of regulatory authorities to fully grasp
the lessons from POPs and mercury in terms of controlling chemicals before they become
an environmental and health problem is disappointing. This concern also extends to the en-
vironmentalfateofhigh-usesubstances,suchaspharmaceuticals, whichhaveonlyrecently
been thought of as pollutants. Here are just two examples of why we should be worried:
Where do endocrine-disrupting substances, such as ethynyl estradiol (the active ingredient
in contraceptive pills), end up? The answer is in our sewers and eventually in fish, causing
feminization and reduced sperm counts. One of the best-known examples of an environ-
mental impact resulting from pharmaceuticals concerns is the familiar and popular nonster-
oid anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac. A veterinary version of the drug was widely used to
treat cattle in Asia and was found to be responsible for a dramatic collapse of vulture popu-
lations in the Indian subcontinent that was reversed once such use was banned. Diclofenac
is now common in freshwaters around the world and has been associated with detrimental
liver, kidney and gills effects in fish where the alteration of liver gene expression has also
been reported. But despite this type of evidence, an EU attempt to deal with the environ-
mental disposal of pharmaceuticals is running (at the time of writing) into very determined
opposition.
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