Harmful effects of industrial chemicals has come from the workplace

Source: 1998. World Resources 1998-99: Environmental change and human health. A joint publication by the World Resources Institute, the United Nationas Environment Programme, the United Nations Development Programme, and The World Bank.

Not surprisingly, much evidence of the harmful effects of industrial chemicals has come from the workplace, where exposures tend to be high and sustained relative to those in the ambient environment. For instance, studies of British textile workers alerted researchers to the link between asbestos and lung cancer (131). The reproductive toxicity of the pesticide DBCP (1, 2-dibromo-3-chloropropane) became startlingly clear in the late 1970s and early 1980s when male farm workers in the banana-growing region of Costa Rica were found to be sterile. By the mid-1990s, some 1,500 male workers had been medically diagnosed with sterility from exposure to DBCP (132). While these examples illuminate the risks of high-level exposures, they do not indicate the extent of risk posed by lower levels of exposures that are typically encountered in the environment.

One difficulty in determining the exact magnitude of the potential health risk is that epidemiologic studies, which look at differences between exposed and nonexposed groups, generally show a statistical association between an environmental exposure and adverse effects. They do not attempt to demonstrate cause and effect. In many cases, studies cannot reveal links between an exposure and an adverse effect unless the particular risk is quite high or the effect is unusual (133), as was the case with vinyl chloride and angiosarcoma, a relatively rare form of liver cancer (134). Given these difficulties, some studies will find an association, others will refute it. Thus, proof of a causal relationship often takes years to amass -- as with smoking and lung cancer -- if it is ever established.

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