A majority of the SOT members participating in the survey rate most government agencies as providing mainly accurate portrayals of chemical risk.  Increasingly large majorities see accurate risk portrayals coming from such agencies as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and National Science Foundation (NSF) whose presentation of chemical risk is rated as accurate by 85 percent of toxicologists.  One glaring exception is EPA which was rated as overstating risk by 41 percent, accurately stating risk by 40 percent, and understating risk by 19 percent.

Fewer than 25 percent believe that regulation should be guided by the precautionary principle, which mandates that a substance suspected of harm should be banned in the absence of scientific consensus.  When asked about specific chemical risks, only 3 percent of the nearly 1,000 toxicologists from academia and private industry see Teflon and genetically modified organisms as presenting a high degree of risk and only 12 percent see high fructose corn syrup, used in soft drinks, as high risk.  In contrast, 26 percent rate sunlight as a high health risk as do 29 percent for aflatoxin, a naturally occurring fungus in peanut butter.

The survey results can be viewed at the SOT web site (http://www.toxicology.org/pr/press.asp).

A report recently issued by an expert panel appointed by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) concludes that scientific evidence is not available to link health problems among people who lived or worked at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and exposure to perchloroethylene and trichloroethylene through contaminated drinking water. The report, conducted in response to a request from the U.S. Navy, examines what is known about contamination of the water supplies and whether the contamination can be linked to any adverse health outcomes.

In the mid 1980s, two water-supply systems on the base were shut down after they were found to be contaminated with the two solvents and other chemicals.  Evidence exists that people living or working at Camp Lejeune dating back to the 1950s were exposed to the contaminants, which has generated considerable public controversy over potential health consequences.

The NAS panel finds that, even with today’s scientific advances, the complex nature of the Camp Lejeune contamination and the limited data on the concentrations in water supplies allowed for only crude estimates of exposure. The panel also concludes that further research cannot provide definitive information.

While the NAS experts could not rule the possibility that health effects have been produced by the contaminant exposures, they conclude that "several lines of scientific reasoning suggest such effects are unlikely to have occurred," including –

• a substantial body of research on the toxicology of trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene that indicates that the exposures required to cause adverse effects in laboratory animals were much larger than the highest measurements available on the Camp Lejeune water supplies,
   

• evidence that humans have lower sensitivity to the solvents than rodents,
   

• epidemiologic data largely from occupational settings with higher, longer-term exposures to the two solvents that has not generated compelling evidence of adverse health effects; and
   

• the relatively short-term, intermittent nature of the exposures incurred at Camp Lejeune.

While the panel members differed in their view of whether adverse heath effects could have occurred as a result of the contamination, there was agreement that scientific research is unable to provide more definitive answers to that question. The panel recommends, nevertheless, that ongoing government studies be completed.  A summary of the report is available from NAS.