Nanoparticles, human health hazard and regulation

Nanoparticles, human health hazard and regulation.

New developments in technology usually entail some hazard as well as advantage to a society. Hazard of a material translates into risk by exposure of humans and/or their environment to the agent in question, and risk is reduced by control of exposure, usually guided by regulation based on understanding of the mechanisms of harm. We illustrate risks relating to the causation of diseases associat...

EDCs Mixtures: A Stealthy Hazard for Human Health?

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are exogenous chemicals that may occur naturally (e.g., phytoestrogens), while others are industrial substances and plasticizers commonly utilized worldwide to which human exposure, particularly at low-doses, is omnipresent, persistent and occurs in complex mixtures. EDCs can interfere with/or mimic estrogenic hormones and, consequently, can simultaneously ...

Mercury as a health hazard.

Pink disease has virtually disappeared since teething powders were withdrawn. We describe a case in a boy who was exposed to metallic mercury vapour. We discuss the potential health hazard of spilled elemental mercury in the house and the difficulties of removing it from the environment.

Radon: sources, health risks, and hazard mapping.

When the hazard is human: irrationality, inequity, and unintended consequences in federal regulation of contagion.

The resurgence of infectious disease 1 during the past two decades has been one of the most unexpected, influential, and defining challenges of our time. 2 Notwithstanding the medical profession's mid-century declaration of victory over contagion, 3 recent outbreaks of infectious diseases in the United States, 4 especially Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (“AIDS”), 5 have *1368 taken hundred...