ABSTRACT
There are more than 100,000 commercially relevant chemicals on the market worldwide with some 40,000 of signižcant production volumes (JRC, 2009; US EPA, 2009). These chemicals can largely be grouped into pharmaceuticals, pesticides for agricultural and nonagricultural uses, and industrial chemicals. In addition, there are unintentionally generated chemicals such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDDs), and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs). They are not intentionally manufactured for any reason other than laboratory purposes but are unintentionally formed in industrial-chemical processes, such as chemical manufacture, and thermal processes, such as waste incineration (Neilson, 1998; Fiedler, 2003; United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 2007). Pharmaceuticals and pesticides have to undergo a detailed investigation of
Impacts of Anthropogenic Chemicals on Human and Environmental Health: A Need for Improved Communication between Scientists and Policymakers ...... 359 A Selection of Existing Institutions and Approaches in the Field of International Chemicals Assessment ...................................................................... 361
The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme ........................................ 362 The European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme .................................... 362 The International Programme on Chemical Safety ........................................... 362 Scientižc Societies ............................................................................................ 363 The Role of IPCP in Relation to Existing Organizations ..................................364
The IPCP Initiative .................................................................................................364 Motivation .........................................................................................................364 Organization of the IPCP .................................................................................. 365 Work Approach of the IPCP ..............................................................................366
Outlook: Toward a New UN Panel on Chemicals? ................................................ 368 References .............................................................................................................. 369
their properties, the effects that they can cause in organisms and, on this basis, a risk assessment before they are admitted to the market. These groups comprise several hundred active ingredients or active substances, which is only a small fraction of the entire set of chemicals on the market. Industrial chemicals constitute, by far, the largest segment of the chemicals market. They include a wide variety of chemicals used for a multitude of purposes, for example, solvents, plastic monomers, plastic additives (e.g., §ame retardants, antioxidants, and plasticizers), process chemicals, surface coatings, fragrances, surfactants, dyes, and many more. These chemicals do not have to undergo a testing procedure as detailed as for pharmaceuticals and pesticides/biocides, and for many of them, their physicochemical properties and toxicity are poorly known; often, no information is available at all (EEA, 1998; Allanou et al., 1999). To improve this situation is one of the main goals of the new chemicals legislation of the EU, the regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) (REACH, 2007).
