Booklet 1st

Links and the booklet: Chemicals Hazardous to Health, Environment and Safety

When you see this symbol @ in the text it meens that you can find more information about this subject here.

The booklet can be downloaded free. Many languages. Go to download

The disaster in Minamata Bay was the first chemical disaster to wake public anger. The chemical was mercury. In 1956 villagers in Japan around Minamata Bay noticed cats acting strangely. What happened?

Love Canal became synonymous with toxic nightmare and the world was watching.

Even a young senator from Tennessee who would later win a Nobel Peace Prize, and Academy Award for environmental activism by the name of Al Gore would come to see this ecological disaster for himself.

And later, in 1980 President Jimmy Carter would sign the landmark legislation establishing the federal superfund to clean up toxic waste sites across the U.S

The Bhopal disaster was an industrial catastrophe that took place at a pesticide plant owned and operated by Union Carbide (UCIL) in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India on December 3, 1984.

The Seveso disaster was an industrial accident that occurred around 12:37 pm July 10, 1976, in a small chemical manufacturing plant approximately 15 km north of Milan in the Lombardy region in Italy. The EU industrial safety regulations are known as the Seveso II Directive.

Rachel Carson has been called the founder of the U.S. environmental movement.

Dr Theo Colborn is the director of the World Wildlife Fund's Global Toxics Initiative. She is also one of the authors of a recent book, Our Stolen Future, which is about endocrine disruptors.

The endocrine system is the exquisitely balanced system of glands and hormones that regulates such vital functions as body growth, response to stress, sexual development and behavior, production and utilization of insulin, rate of metabolism, intelligence and behavior, and the ability to reproduce.

Exposure of foetus or very young infants might induce irreversible damages with altered growth and development and sequelae later in life. Such an occurrence could be due to EDCs that pregnant/lactating women might absorb.

DDT was the first synthetic pesticide of the modern age. It promised much, but ultimately created widespread concern as an environmental hazard.

Swiss chemist who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1948 for discovering the potent toxic effects on insects of DDT

Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals exploited commercially for their desirable physical properties. Since January 1, 2005 the European Union has banned all types.

Asbestos became increasingly popular among manufacturers and builders in the late 19th century because of its sound absorption, tensile strength, and its resistance to heat and electrical and chemical damage.