Why is it So Difficult to Choose Safer Alternatives for Hazardous Chemicals?

摘要

The discovery of persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic flame-retardant chemicals everywhere from animals north of the Arctic Circle1 to the breast milk of California women2 has bee]n a cause for considerable concern. Alternative flame retardants were introduced to replace these chemicals,3 but investigators had not even produced the first empirical data on the substitutes’ metabolic fate and toxicity before emerging evidence indicated they, like their predecessors, were accumulating rapidly in the environ ment. As the postmarket research continues, one wonders: Who, exactly, decides on the replacements for toxic chemicals, and on the basis of what criteria? And why does finding truly safer alternatives seem so difficult.