10,000 toxic chemicals need to be re... 
Dquixote1217
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As reported in the NewsTarget RSS feed at The Best Years in Life Health News
10,000 toxic chemicals need to be retested for human safety, warn scientists
(NewsTarget) Approximately 10,000 chemicals currently on the market need to be retested for possible toxicity, according to a study published in the journal Science.
The study authors warn that approximately one-third of carbon-based chemicals currently in commercial use may need to be retested, based on limitations of the tests previously used to determine toxicity.
The danger rests on a class of chemicals referred to as "bio-accumulative," or "persistent organic pollutants," which concentrate in the bodies of animals. The concentrations of these pollutants tend to increase higher up in the food chain, as animals absorb the toxins stored in the body of their prey. Because of the health and ecological danger posed by persistent organic pollutants, 12 varieties have been globally banned under the Stockholm Convention, including DDT, dioxins and PCBs.
In the current study, researchers warn that many chemicals currently classified as safe may actually be persistent organic pollutants.
The accumulation test most often used, KOW, measures how soluble a chemical is in fat as compared with water. Chemicals with a high fat-to-water ratio are presumed to be bio-accumulative. Another test, KOA, measures how efficiently a chemical can cross lung membranes. The researchers hypothesized that KOA will be a better measure of accumulation in air-breathing animals and that KOW will be a better measure for gill-breathers.
The scientists also tested the accumulation of two different chemicals -- PCB-153 and beta-HCH -- in three different food chains: plankton to fish; lichen to caribou to wolves; and plankton to fish to marine mammals. They found that PCB-153, with a high KOW, accumulated in all three food chains. Beta-HCH, which has a low KOW and high KOA, accumulated only along the two air-breathing food chains and not among fish.
Due to their results, the researchers warned that many chemicals should be re-tested.
"They won't all be bio-accumulative, but they all have the potential," said Frank Gobas of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. 10/29/2007 11:00 AM
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- Re: 10,000 toxic chemicals need to b... grzbear
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MoreThis is a reply to # 1,032,681Let us hope they follow through with the testing and get rid of these...
Unfortunately, I doubt they will test any of these for synergistic effects with one or more (should be all on the current market) of their chemicals.- Exactly! And here is another vital ... Dquixote1217
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MoreThis is a reply to # 1,032,802
Grzbear, you make an excellent point. And what we should realize here on CZ is that the same point is also valid when it comes to testing drugs. Drugs are typically tested versus a single placebo (and that is bad enough when you have a situation where MSG was chosen as the placebo for the testing of Aspartame), but they are usually NOT tested for side effects in combination with other drugs and OTC medications. Since almost everyone who takes a prescribed medication also takes other prescribed and OTC medications, we are essentially operating in the dark for ALL drugs when it comes to side effects.
DQ
- Re: Exactly! And here is another vi... Antic_Rhino
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This is a reply to # 1,032,956Age of the 15 billion universe in seconds : 4.7 X10^17
Number of Tests needed to check for all 10000 interacions : 2.8 X 10^35600
You guys don't know what you are asking for.- Re: Exactly! And here is another vi... #68716
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This is a reply to # 1,033,270I think they do know that its impossible to test all the interactions, Since this is such a high number, but that points out the crazyness of using chemicals as a quick fix to solve every problem for profit.
Imagine how much that number would be reduced, if we eliminated all of the needless drugs that are quickfixes for problems that can be solved with common sense, diet, excercise, herbs etc, leaving only the drugs that actually save lifes in emergency medicine, where benfeits outweigh the risks.
The number of interactions to test for would be more feasible!
It highlights the need for longer clinical trials instead of getting the drugs on the market as soon as possible and using the general public as the test subjects.
- Re: Exactly! And here is another vi... Antic_Rhino
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This is a reply to # 1,033,834The number of interactions to test for would be more feasible!
I take it you slept through the "Combinations and Permutations" lessons in class?
The number is a sum series of C(n,r)=(n!)/(r!)(n-r)!, for r= 1,2,3...n)
So lets reduce the number of chemicals by 100 fold, for a modest number of 100
Sigma [C(n,r)]= is a smaller number: This one
875392129773757711729413532523853339130657009459068887362265881604301254\
130802010397378335420876735321812070775662187818117978080440498885382238782580\
536607758690725919018472635837531818047025348909517672138895950462748092857155\
996629858226538417256490130953708245316437969830740314396080072321813681754979\
17074701
= 8.7 X 10^254- Re: Exactly! And here is another vi... #68716
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This is a reply to # 1,033,871ok, so its impossible to test all combinations, i get it.
Doesnt change the amount of damage being caused by the endless combinations, and it doesnt justify them making it worse by creating new drugs each time a patent runs out.
The way it is at the moment, ppl get prescribed 1 drug for a problem. The drug fixes that problem but creates 3 more, which the doctor then prescribes 3 more medications for which each creates more problems and so on.
This is the reason for the sad state of 'health care' in developed countries, and is why nutritional and natural solutions must be found and used in the first place. - Re: Exactly! And here is another vi... Antic_Rhino
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This is a reply to # 1,033,871Whoever it was that disagreed should find the courage to provide their own calculations.
- Re: Exactly! And here is another vi... #68716
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- Re: Exactly! And here is another vi... Antic_Rhino
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- Re: Exactly! And here is another vi... #68716
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- Re: Exactly! And here is another vi... Antic_Rhino
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This is a reply to # 1,032,956Mister "I am an expert on math", is not enough of an expert to realize the huge quantity of combinations possible as to make this suggestion ludicrous.
Another math illiterate bites the dust.- Re: Exactly! And here is another vi... Dquixote1217
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This is a reply to # 1,034,080
Did you have fun playing with your calculator while I was out of town?
While you were amusing yourself and trying to demonstrate your superiority, it appears that you missed the major points of this thread beginning with the initial one - experts have warned that fully 10,000 chemicals need to be tested for safety. The article did not suggest that every possible combination be tested, nor did subsequent posts suggest that it was feasible to do so, only that we are basically operating in the dark because of the effects of such combinations not being known.
But again, the point was that the 10,000 chemicals according to the original post DO need to be tested, and I would add that it certainly it would be feasible to test at least the most common combinations of industrial chemicals as well as the most common combinations of prescribed and over the counter medications, and well worth the considerable time and effort for the sake of humanity. Of course it is quite unlikely to ever happen because of the ever so simple equation of profits versus humanity - an equation whose outcome has ever held true in industry and in medicine.
The other posts, including your own amazing demonstrations in inanity, combine to make the second, and most important point of all (perhaps you missed it while gloating or while seeing how far you could calculate "pi"), is just how far man has gone in poisoning ourselves and our planet.
Far beyond the point of no return it would appear.
DQ
- Re: Exactly! And here is another vi... Dquixote1217
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- Re: Exactly! And here is another vi... Antic_Rhino
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- Exactly! And here is another vital ... Dquixote1217
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- Re: 10,000 toxic chemicals need to b... trapper/kcmo
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This is a reply to # 1,032,681its too late for that. neither is anyone willing to simply stop all the chemicals. a worldwide catastrophe is our only hope.
- Re: 10,000 toxic chemicals need to b... grzbear
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