Over 82,000 chemicals are on the market today. Research increasingly points to health risks from exposure to chemicals through the products we use, the foods we eat, and the jobs we do. Exposure to toxic chemicals is associated with many diseases, including asthma, cancer, diabetes and heart disease, and to birth defects and developmental delays in children.

Health Research for Action is working to promote changes that protect communities, workers, and the environment from exposure to harmful chemicals. Lead has been known to be toxic for millennia, yet is still being used. Although its use has been reduced significantly since the early 1970s, new research shows that long-term exposure to even low levels of lead poses serious health risks. Needed policy changes and other actions are outlined in a recent Perspectives issue.

More than a thousand new chemicals are introduced in the US each year, before their safety is demonstrated. Policy changes are needed that promote research into safer alternatives, that require the adoption of safer alternatives when available, and that ensure the integration of occupational health concerns into environmental regulations. These changes will be discussed in a forthcoming issue of Perspectives.