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Chemical industry threatened by the Biomedical Revolution

05 Jun 2000

CHEMICAL FIRMS IN GENE WARNING
The Day of Judgement is at Hand!

The Human Genome Project and other advances in genetic science mean that chemical companies - and those who use chemicals in their products - face a bleak future of lawsuits over allergies and toxicity, Friends of the Earth warned today.

“Crisis in Chemicals” by FOE chemical expert Dr Michael Warhurst, shows that:

• genetic science is leading to a revolution in our understanding of how the body works this improved understanding makes it easier to measure the effects of chemicals,for example on the body's immune system
• individuals vary in their ability to break down chemicals, and in how much they respond to the toxicity of chemicals. Much of this variation is genetically determined,but as yet we know few details. It is likely that susceptibilities to individual chemicals will be identified and that people will be able to get screened easily and cheaply to discover if they are in a susceptible group.
• This will result in industries being hit by legal actions from people who have been exposed to particular chemicals in their workplace, in the products they use, from factory pollution and from pesticides in their food. People taking legal action are likely to include workers in the chemical industry, people living near polluting factories, and those people who are most susceptible to chemicals in products, for example pregnant women and young children.
  
  Health impacts associated with chemicals may include asthma, cancers such as testicular and breast cancer, reduction in sperm counts, damage to brain development and harm to the immune system.
  

Friends of the Earth want consumers to press retailers to reveal what chemicals are in the products they sell and to get rid of the chemicals of greatest concern. Because of the endemic secrecy of the chemical industry, in cases such as perfumes and can linings, wholesalers and retailers may never have been told what chemicals are in the products they are selling.

Investors face heavy losses, because companies which do not take a precautionary approach to the use of chemicals could have their long term future destroyed by liabilities. The insurance industry will also be vulnerable to losses from liability actions,and losses from other forms of insurance, for example reputational insurance.

Friends of the Earth will be pressing the Government to overhaul chemical regulation and replace it with laws based on openness and the precautionary principle. The current regulatory system - which is based on secrecy and ignorance - is failing to protect public health. Regulators do not, in general, know the specific chemicals present in any product. and Only 14% of 'high volume' chemicals have a minimum set of basic safety data. More than one fifth of high volume chemicals have no safety data at all. Chemical safety standards in the workplace are set for the “average” person and are often based on little more than guesswork.

Friends of the Earth is calling for:

1. A full right to know, including what chemicals are present in products.
2. A deadline by which all chemicals on the market must have had their safety independently assessed. All use of chemicals must be shown to be safe beyond reasonable doubt.
3. A phase out of chemicals which are persistent or build-up in the environment.
4. A requirement to substitute less safe chemicals with safer alternatives
5. A commitment to stop all releases to the environment of hazardous substances by 2020.

Dr Michael Warhurst said

    “At the moment it is virtually impossible to link people's illnesses with exposure to a particular chemical or product. This is about to change. Advances in genetic science mean that the day of judgement for the chemical companies is just around the corner.

    “Companies that fail to clean up their act will face a heavy bill. So will their insurers and investors. The biomedical revolution is now underway. Industry,governments and the financial sector can't ignore it. They must take action now.”

Summary briefing and review copy of full report available Crisis in Chemicals summary briefing (4pp)

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