Why Regulate Chemicals

Chemicals produced by humans form the strands of a complex societal web. The network begins with the production of a single chemical that branches out into hundreds of uses. Several hundred chemicals can be used or created in the process of producing one final product. Practically every part of the built environment and industrial activity involves chemical products. While generating wealth and employment, chemical production provides countless valuable services to society from the manufacture of construction materials to the synthesis of life-saving pharmaceuticals. 

1 Firmly established under Article 2 of the European Community (EC) Treaty, legislators should serve to preserve, protect and improve the quality of the environment and to protect human health. Most chemicals legislation aimed to protect human health and the environment has been introduced under the EC Treaty. It is therefore referred to EC rather than EU legislation. 

3 The book uses the term customer when referring to traders, retailers and consumers influencing market demand for chemical products. 

Risk tolerability reflects politically acceptable levels of risk. Tolerability seeks to balance stakeholder and public views of acceptability as individuals and societal groups4. One interpretation of tolerability is that it refers to levels of risk that are not expected to cause public outrage. At the other extreme, an interpretation is that tolerability seeks to minimise overall risks while increasing overall benefits proportionately to those that are subjected to the risk. 

4 Societal groups include stakeholder groups and other organised sub-sets of the general public. 

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