This article summarizes a University of California chemicals policy report commissioned by the California Legislature. The report makes the case that long-standing weaknesses in the Toxic Substances Control Act have produced a flawed chemicals market in the U.S. that "undervalues" the hazardous properties of chemicals relative to their function, price, and performance. These market conditions h...

With an estimated 800,000 shipments of hazardous materials [1] transported throughout the U.S. each day, the threat of an accidental or intentional release of a toxic industrial compound is viewed as a serious one. Chemical plants, pipelines, storage facilities, railroads, and trucks are all possible sources from which toxic industrial compounds could be released. Should such an incident occur,...

In the case of chemical accidents, terrorist attacks, or war, hazardous compounds may be released into the atmosphere. Remote sensing by Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry allows identification and quantification of these hazardous clouds. The output of current standoff detection systems is a yes/no decision by an automatic identification algorithm that analyses the measured spectrum. The ...

There has been increased public awareness of the potential danger from exposure to hazardous dust in various occupations. This study aims to validate the qualitative analysis of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of lung samples by 1) correlation of induced sputum (IS) findings to clinical findings, 2) comparing hazardous particles in IS to those in biopsied lung specimens, and 3) assessing whe...