Suchergebnisse

A total of 12 federal agencies, plus their state counterparts, contribute to the regulatory snarl that governs the safety of the American food supply. With so much federal oversight, one might expect U.S. foods to be virtually risk-free. But this is hardly the case; contaminated food is responsible for 75 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths in the United States each year. Recent reports from the General Accounting Office and the National Research Council claim that creation of a single agency with centralized authority is the best solution to U.S. food safety problems. Some experts agree that regulatory gaps in food safety highlight the need for centralized leadership, and that more money is necessary to fund the number of inspectors needed to adequately inspect the food supply before it reaches consumers. The single-agency concept has garnered congressional, industry, and scientific support, but the idea isn't without its skeptics, who believe that consolidating food safety under a single agency eliminates checks and balances offered by the current system and, more importantly, runs the risk of politicizing the agency.

For some neurotoxic chemicals, neurobehavioral effects are now considered to be among the most sensitive end points yet detected, particularly if exposures occur during critical windows of vulnerability. Chemically induced problems with perception and cognitive ability in children can be hard to identify; teasing them out of a host of genetic and sociocultural influences is a difficult task. Today, most data on environmentally relevant neurobehavioral effects in children are concentrated in three chemicals: lead, methylmercury, and polychlorinated biphenyls. But mounting evidence of the neurobehavioral effects of chemicals along with growing public concern over pediatric mental health problems such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder dictates that scientists and legislators improve test methods, explore mechanisms, and develop appropriate strategies for risk assessment and policy making.

Environmentalists worry that hazardous wastes produced in industrialized nations are being dumped in cash-starved developing countries--the countries with the least political or economic clout to resist and the fewest resources for managing these toxic imports. Imported waste can pose a serious threat to the health of human populations and ecosystems if not managed appropriately. In 1989, the international community initiated efforts to reduce the flow of hazardous wastes from industrialized countries to developing countries by drafting a treaty known as the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Wastes and their Disposal. The convention's mission is to strictly regulate the international transfer of hazardous wastes and to ensure that wastes are managed and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner. Although the United States supports the convention in theory, it remains the only industrialized country within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development yet to ratify it. However, legislation drafted by the Clinton administration that is soon to go before the 106th Congress could make the United States a party to the convention.