Toward universal ecology disturbance measures. Basis and outline of a universal measure.

In the past, environmental risk assessments of materials were primarily based upon known or suspected toxic and/or ecotoxic effects. When considering the restructuring of economies to function within ecological boundary conditions, the accumulated knowledge about hazardous materials is not sufficient because science can never predict, simulate, and quantify all possible environmental consequences in terms of nature, intensity, time, and space for releasing a multitude of different material streams. The comparison of the environmental impact intensities of different materials on the basis of toxicological hazard considerations is therefore quite limited. Moreover, since our knowledge about toxic effects is continuously expanding, economic restructuring decisions of today may turn out to be shortsighted tomorrow. This paper introduces the material intensity per unit service--the MIPS--as a universal measure for the initial estimation and comparison of the environmental impact intensities of infrastructures, goods, and services. This paper further argues that Western infrastructures, goods, and services must be dematerialized by an average factor of 10 or more in order to begin restabilizing the ecosphere. With the concept of MIPS, and a goal for long-range economic planning, robust and consistent ecological policies could be developed and internationally harmonized, and actual progress toward sustainability could be monitored.

Comparing regulatory regimens for pesticide control in 22 countries: toward a new generation of pesticide regulation.

Some historical developments of chemical control legislation are being traced, from specialized laws, such as pesticide acts, to the 1970/1980 generation of generalized legal instruments involving all commercial chemicals. It is then argued that from an environmental protection point of view, a "cradle-to-grave" assessment will henceforth be necessary. Ecological guidelines and indicators for the assessment of the life-cyclewide environmental impact intensity of economic outputs are presented. The international implications of the worldwide trade in pesticides are being considered. As the use of pesticides has invariably transfrontier effects and since unilateral import restrictions due to environmental quality requirements constitute nontariff barriers to trade, a high degree of international harmonization is desirable. This point is also of some importance with a view to the GATT negotiations and the chances for exporting chemicals from developing and postsocialist countries into industrialized hard currency areas in the future. The results of a comprehensive review in 1990/1991 of the regulatory pesticide management regime in 22 countries are presented, comprising countries from Central and Eastern Europe as well as the industrialized Western countries. The review is based upon the returns to a questionnaire which had been designed jointly by the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the Regional Office of the WHO in Copenhagen. The information received was subsequently validated by the competent authorities. Taking all observations into consideration, the framework of an advanced prototype legislative framework for pesticides management is proposed.

The chemical industry: challenges and opportunities through the year 2000.

Three major areas are discussed regarding future challenges and opportunities for the chemical industry: (1) product qualities, (2) the waste situation, and (3) monitoring needs in industry and the environment. It is stressed that there remains much to be done with respect to improving safety testing and assessment of chemicals and that our knowledge of the environmental behavior of existing chemicals is dismal. The currently rather unsatisfactory information transfer situation is highlighted. Regarding waste production, in principle, the chemical industry must develop and operate closed systems to the extent that is technically feasible. In the area of monitoring, a new generation of "key indicators" must be developed. These indicators will be symptom oriented and capable of reacting to and indicating the presence of biologically active agents of unknown nature or variety. They can thus detect unexpected changes in the environment and allow assessment of the biological relevance of emissions and effluents of unknown chemical compositions. Regarding exposure changes, a new analytical approach is suggested in the form of "Exposure-Trend-Analysis Systems" (ETAS), which optimize the detection of unexpected concentration trends in environmental matrices without focusing on preselected chemicals. It is suggested that the chemical industry can meet all reasonable demands for improving its performance in protecting the environment, provided that governments and the industry itself cooperate on an international level--beyond the European Common Market.

A concept for detecting unexpected changes in the environment early.

A project was established under the auspices of the German Federal Ministry of Research and Technology with the task of developing a concept for the early recognition of signals for unexpected deleterious changes in the environment. Predictive assessments of products (e.g., chemicals) and technologies as regards their potential environmental impacts contain numerous sources of error and uncertainties. Therefore, appropriate observation systems are needed in order to detect unexpected developments in the environment and in human health. Long-term storage of samples (environmental specimen banking) is the third basic activity that must be undertaken within an early warning system. When monitoring the environment for unwanted changes, it is not sufficient to trace some individual agents, preselected for their well-known capacity to inflict harm. The following avenues of identifying symptoms of change in the environment were identified: development and deployment of "key indicators"; acquisition and correlative treatment of conventional monitoring data from different sources; and execution of concise studies in environmental problem areas. Key indicators are defined as scientific measurement and observation methods which respond to early stages of anthropogenically induced environmental changes and are capable of responding to a multitude of simultaneously present agents. A series of examples is discussed. Approaches concerning how the statistical evaluation of available sets of environment-related data could reveal unexpected developments are presented.

Research aspects in connection with the German Chemicals Act.

The German Chemicals Act of 1980 which came into force on January 1, 1982 aims to protect man and the environment from the unwanted effects of chemicals. As is true for all quality control legislation for chemical products, the scientific goal is to simulate under controlled conditions agent-target interactions as are likely to occur and to estimate the probability of agents reaching the target: the hazard of a chemical is a function of exposure and effect considerations. Beyond attempting to control chemical products, it may soon become necessary to consider the totality of all substances entering the environment as a consequence of technological activities: raw material extraction, production, transport, storage, and waste disposal. The paper aims at identifying important areas of research where it is felt that more systematic knowledge could help to render administrative decision-making processes more transparent, more cost effective, and bring them better in line with the legal mandate of protecting the environment from dangerous chemicals. While the paper focuses on problems surrounding the multitude of "existing chemicals," many an item discussed is significant also for the preventive protection from dangerous "new chemicals."

The environmental specimen banking project of the Federal Republic of Germany : Pilot phase.

Thousands of chemicals are on the market, but only in a few exceptional cases is it known where these chemicals remain in the environment and what effects they are able toexert in correlation to their environmental concentration. In addition to monitoring the actual concentrations of chemicals in the environment, it is necessary to establish an environmental specimen banking program which will, in the future, make possible the retrospective monitoring of chemicals. The feasibility of such a program is being studied in a joint U.S.-German pilot project. The German project is described here, including its organizational structure, technical and scientific considerations, and methods of specimen selection.

A simple gas chromatographic technique to determine trace impurities in gases.

A new method is described which allows the determination of trace impurities in flowing gases without removing a sample. The technique is based upon gas fractionation by a sudden change of flow through a small orifice or capillary.