Can chemicals be loved?--A problem for 2000.

Abstract

Public perception of the value of chemicals in daily life depends on an often irrational set of conclusions reached on partial or defective information often derived from single issue pressure groups. Benefits are consistently undervalued, clean water and uncontaminated food are taken for granted and changes in the pattern of disease are assumed to have occurred as a result of other kinds of intervention. If we are to ensure a proper evaluation of the place of chemicals in our lives then we will have to persuade opinion formers of the need for rational debate, inform the scientifically literate part of the population about hazard, risk, the difficult concept of safety and the dangers of mistaking association for causation. Changes in science in the field of toxicology give us a more reasonable ground for this debate than has existed in the past and the way in which these can be exploited will be discussed.