Environmental concepts, trends

Taking into account the trends in environmental concepts enables chemists and toxicologists to make problem-oriented efforts to control environmental pollution (see Table III). 

Environmental limits vary according to country, and in the future pressure will be applied to those countries where limits are considered too high. Indeed, there is a general trend for discharge limits to be reduced, with the concept of zero industrial discharge for certain metals being the ultimate aim for the future. 

The selection of variables is of central importance for the outcome of a system comparison on environmental and resource use impacts. The ideal variable or set of variables respectively provides information and describes the state of environmental phenomena with certain significance. Thus, applying a set of variables should make it possible to monitor and assess the state of the environment, to identify changes and trends, to transmit scientific data to become relevant for policy, and to evaluate already implemented policy measures. The concept of environmental indicators is broadly accepted as an adequate tool. Accordingly, an indicator is defined as a parameter or a value derived from parameters, which indicates the state of the environment with significance extending beyond that which is directly associated with a parameter value. A parameter s definition in this context is a property that is measured or observed (OECD 1994). Fieri et al. (1996) states that the purposes of indicators are as follows ... 

In the previous chapters, various issues of PTS contamination such as magnitude of pollution, environmental transport and fate, features of bioaccumulation in organisms as well as trends of contamination have been discussed with in-depth examples of case studies conducted in particular countries in the Asia-Pacific region. These chapters have provided both general and concrete concept of the ultimate fate of PTS in local perspectives and addressed a number of issues of PTS contamination that specifically exist in each country/area. 

Fig. 12.5 The Multi-Markered BioincJication Concept (MMBC) with its functional and integrated windows of prophylactic health care (from Markert et al. 2003a). Explanations in the text. DAT (for data), ECO (for ecology), ESB (for environmental specimen banking), TRE (for trend), MED (for medicine) and HSB (for human specimen banking) designate individual toolboxes and their test sets.

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