THE TOXIC ICEBERG
•The “toxic iceberg” illustrates the limits of the current regulatory system.
•Current regulation addresses those few chemicals where there is rigorous proof of harm, but such harm is likely to be the tip of the iceberg – very small number, e.g. lead, PCB’s, DDT and most pesticides
•Next level are those exposures where emerging harm can be identified but is not fully proven, despite clear warnings, e.g. plastics - PVC
•Below this, there are damages that occur with long latency periods, where harmful exposure has occurred, but the manifestation of the damage has yet to occur e.g. solvents such as PERC
•The largest group are those exposures that are doing harm, but will never be recognized due to the difficulties of detection
•As chemical exposures increase at a faster rate than the detection of toxic effects, the true magnitude of the toxic threat will always be underestimated by “currently available knowledge.”
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