CAN CHEMICALS BE LOVED - A PROBLEM FOR 2000

Public perception of the value of chemicals in daily life depends on a n 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 t o ensure a proper evaluation of the place of chemicals in our lives th en we will have to persuade opinion formers of the need for rational d ebate, inform the scientifically literate part of the population about hazard, risk? the difficult concept of safety and the dangers of mist aking association for causation. Changes in science in the field of to xicology give us a more reasonable ground for this debate than has exi sted in the past and the way in Which these can be exploited will be d iscussed.