Regulation of chemicals

Why Do We Need to Know This Material The dynamic equilibrium toward which every chemical reaction tends is such an important aspect of the study of chemistry that four chapters of this book deal with it. We need to know the composition of a reaction mixture at equilibrium because it tells us how much product we can expect. To control the yield of a reaction, we need to understand the thermodynamic basis of equilibrium and how the position of equilibrium is affected by conditions such as temperature and pressure. The response of equilibria to changes in conditions has considerable economic and biological significance the regulation of chemical equilibrium affects the yields of products in industrial processes, and living cells struggle to avoid sinking into equilibrium. 

Chemicals play a vital role in modem industrial society, and it is likely there are around 100,000 chemical substances in commerce, formulated into many times more preparations. Hence control and regulation of chemicals to make sure they are used safely is of the utmost importance. 

Bums, J. (1982). Overview of safety regulations governing food, drug and cosmetics. In The United States in Safety and Evaluation and Regulation of Chemicals 3 Interface between Law and Science (Homberger F., Ed.) Karger, New York. 

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) was established in 1970. The US-EPA is responsible for regulation of chemicals in air, water, and soil (US-EPA 2006a). 

In the following I make suggestions for how we should assess this capacity to cause harm. I then discuss three other features of synthetic chemicals — novelty, persistence and mobility - that have a bearing on how reliable we should consider our knowledge about a chemical to be and the degree of reliability that we should seek. In Chapter 10 1 discuss how assessments of riskiness could function in regimes for regulation of chemicals. 

Risk, Responsibility and the Regulation of Chemicals Anne Chapman... 

Democratizing technology risk, responsibility, and the regulation of chemicals / Anne Chapman. 

---