We Interact with 100,000+ Chemicals, and the Dangers Are Barely Understood

By Monona Rossol, AlterNet
Posted on October 7, 2009, Printed on October 7, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/143130/

Last month, the Chemical Abstract Service, an agency that registers every new chemical as it is invented or discovered, assigned a registry number to the 50 millionth chemical. It's a landmark to be sure, but not one we're likely to look back on fondly.

The Chemical Abstract Service began to register chemicals in 1956, and it took 33 years to register the first 10 million new chemicals.

They identified these chemicals primarily from research papers accumulated from worldwide sources. But the last 10 million chemicals were registered in nine months at the rate of 25 per minute!