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Previous by Date: Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Publications on recent advances in university EH&S departments Date: Thursday, February 13, 2020 at 12:09:15 PM Author: Alan Hall <oldeddoc**At_Symbol_Here**GMAIL.COM> |
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Monona alluded to this, but this is important to me because it demonstrates how much we don't about the toxicity of the chemicals that we are regularly exposed to.
As of 2016, IARC listed 900 chemicals that have been tested for carcinogenicity.
I understand that the registry of toxic effects of chemical substances (RTECS) lists all the toxicity data publicly available. (Right?) As of 2016, it listed toxicity data for under 200,000 chemicals. Most of that data is acute lethal dose data. Relatively few chemicals have been thoroughly studied for neurotoxicity, nephrotoxity, hepatotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, etc.
I am not a chemophobe, but I do find it alarming that we know nearly nothing (or very little) about the possible toxic effects from chronic exposure to chemicals that we are exposed to every day--and that this is a relatively low public concern.
Pete Reinhardt, Yale EHS
-----Original Message-----
From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU] On Behalf Of DCHAS Membership Chair
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2020 8:13 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] C&EN: Number of chemicals in commerce has been vastly underestimated
Last week, I posted information about work being conducted to develop a MINCHI standard to identify chemical mixtures reproducibly and unambiguously. There is an article in C&EN today that demonstrates the challenge of relying on less systematic approaches, such as CAS numbers. The researchers used in the CAS numbers as the identifier in this study and found that only about half of the chemicals and mixtures of chemicals registered for commercial production and use had CAS numbers that identified them.
Number of chemicals in commerce has been vastly underestimated
Scientists assemble a first-ever global inventory listing triple the number of chemicals on the market as previous lists
For the first time, scientists have created a global inventory that lists more than 350,000 chemicals and mixtures of chemicals registered for commercial production and use, up to three times as many as is commonly estimated (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2020, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b06379).
BY THE NUMBERS
- 157,000: Individual chemicals identified by CAS numbers, according to the most comprehensive global inventory to date
- 75,000: Mixtures, polymers, and substances of unknown or variable composition identified by CAS numbers
- 120,000: Substances that could not be conclusively identified
Source: Environ. Sci. Technol. 2020, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b06379
Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Membership chair
American Chemical Society
Division of Chemical Health and Safety
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