Risk assessment and management of new and existing chemicals.

An evaluation was made of the recently developed risk assessment methodologies for new and existing chemicals in the European Communities. The evaluation also included the methodologies to prioritize chemicals and procedures for risk management, i.e.

Contamination by persistent chemicals in food chain and human health.

Persistent polluting chemicals are, by definition, substances which have long half-lives or disappearance rates in the environment, mainly due to their chemical stability, but often also caused by unfavourable conditions for environmental/biological mineralisation processes to take place. DDT, lindane, dieldrin, HCB, and PCB are well known examples of chemicals which can be found in various parts/compartments of the environment, and in living organisms including man. The early findings in 1950s and 1960s of the persistent chlorinated pesticides in birds and fish populations in North America and Europe were obviously the results of deliberate and extensive use of these chemicals in agriculture and industry.

Environmental cadmium in Europe.

The present article reviews information from the latest 10 years concerning fate and exposure of cadmium in the environment, on ecotoxicological effects, and on critical pathways leading to human and environmental exposure. It emphasizes the situation within the Community of European Countries by referring to limit values used in the EEC and some of its member states for emissions to water, air and soil. Estimates have been made on total emission balances for the Netherlands, Denmark, and for the EEC as a whole.