PubMed · 15464624
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Heidi Foth. 2004-12-15. Editorial.. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tox.2004.06.048
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The use of glycol ethers has changed significantly over the past 30 years. Low molecular weight E-series have been phased-out and progressively replaced by low molecular weight P-series whenever possible. There is a trend to shift from E-series to P-series and an obvious willingness to substitute where alternative solutions exist or as a consequence of strengthening regulation and voluntary measures to reduce exposure in the workplace.
Reactive hazards remain a significant safety challenge in the chemical industry despite continual attention devoted to this problem. The application of various criteria, which are recommended by the guidelines for assessment of reactive hazards, often causes unsafe results to be obtained. The main origins of such failures are as follows: (a) reactivity of a compound is considered as an inherent property of a compound; (b) some appropriate criteria are determined by using too simple methods that cannot reveal potential hazards properly. Four well-known hazard indicators--time to certain conversion limit, TCL; adiabatic time to maximum rate, TMR; adiabatic temperature rise; and NFPA reactivity rating number, Nr--are analyzed in the paper. It was ascertained that they could be safely used for preliminary assessment of reactive hazards provided that: (a) the selected indicator is appropriate for the specific conditions of a process; (b) the indicators have been determined by using the pertinent methods. The applicability limits for every indicator were determined and the advanced kinetics-based simulation approach, which allows reliable determination of the indicators, is proposed. The technique of applying this approach is illustrated by two practical examples.
The growing importance of technical regulation affecting the use and sale of chemical products is a topic of interest not only for the chemical industry, but also for governments, nongovernmental organizations, consumers, and interested communities. The results of such regulation on behalf of the environment, health and safety of individuals, as well as its economic effects on industrial activity, are well understood in the United States and recently in the European Union. In less developed countries, however, the general level of public understanding of these issues is still minimal. It is common knowledge that the so-called "regulatory asymmetry" between countries at different levels of development contributes to the establishment of technical barriers to trade. Such asymmetries, however, also have other impacts: the displacement of polluting industrial sectors to countries which have less demanding regulations, the concentration of unsafe and harmful environmental conditions in certain parts of the globe, and the competitive disadvantage for industries located in countries where control is more rigid. This study analyses information on a wide range of technical regulations issued by World Trade Organization (WTO) members, and focuses on those regulations that affect the chemical industry. This information is available through the WTO Enquiry Points, organizations created in each country to administrate the Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement (TBT). This article consists of an analysis of 4,301 notifications of technical regulations by WTO member states in the 7-year period following the establishment of the WTO in 1995. Starting from this mass of information, 585 notifications that affect the circulation or use of chemical products were isolated. Of this group, 71% refer to only 15 countries. This group of notifications was further classified according to their motivation (the environment, health, safety), by the type of product affected (medications, fuels, hazardous products, etc.), by the type of country where it was established (developed, emerging or developing) and the existing conformity assessment mechanism (prohibition, licenses, certification, labeling, etc.). Beyond identifying tendencies in specific industrial sectors, the notifications studied here reach more than 100 chemical products, substances, preparations and other materials, which are subject to various levels of restrictions in different parts of the globe because of their composition or adverse reactions during their life cycles.