Regulating Chemical Risks

This volume presents research on current trends in chemical regulations – a fa- growing, complex, and increasingly internationalized field. The book grew out from a multidisciplinary research project entitled ‘Regulating Chemical Risks in the Baltic Sea Area: Science, Politics, and the Media’, led by Michael Gilek at Södertörn University, Sweden. This research project involved scholars and experts from natural as well as social sciences, based at Södertörn University, Swedish Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Karolinska Institutet, and Umeå University. The project group organized a multidisciplinary research conference on chemical risk regulations, held in Stockholm, August 15–17, 2007. Most of the contributions published in this book were, in draft form, first presented at this conference. The conference, like the ensuing edited volume, expanded the geographical focus beyond the Baltic Sea area to include wider European, and to some extent also global trends. Many thanks to all project colleagues and conference participants! We are very grateful for the generous financial support received from The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies (Östersjöstiftelsen), The Swedish Research Council Formas, and from Södertörn University. Without this support the present book would not have been possible. Special thanks to all of our fellow contributors, all of whom have submitted to- cal papers based on high-quality research. Many thanks also to Tobias Evers, who assisted us with technical editing. Finally, we are grateful for the professionalism shown by our editors at Springer.

This important contribution to the scientific understanding of chemical risk regulation offers a coherent, comprehensive and updated multidisciplinary analysis, written by leading experts in toxicology, ecotoxicology, risk analysis, media and communication, law, and political science.   The text focuses in particular on the new European REACH regime and its nature, causes and consequences. It examines the regime in the context of the interplay between science and policy, the role of the media, human health, and the environment. Other regulatory systems at both domestic and international levels are also studied, including the UN’s Globally Harmonised System (GHS) for chemical labelling, as well as developments in the U.S. In addition, readers will find analyses of a number of new and still largely uncharted regulatory systems, along with in-depth assessments of their complexity and transnational nature.