Sustainability and Social Justice
Document Type
Article
Abstract
The dispersion of persistent, bioaccumulative toxic chemicals poses risks to human health and the integrity of the ecosystem on a continental scale. Mexico, the United States, and Canada sought to add two pollutants to an existing list of four subject to North American Regional Action Plans (chlordane, DDT, mercury, PCBs). Mexican negotiators used results from an internal selection process, applying 14 criteria in five categories - physicochemical, health-endpoint, data quality/quantity, exposure potential, and control feasibility - to a baseline group of over 4,700 substances. Using policy analysis by the multi-attribute maximum-utility method; progressive application of criteria and weighting algorithms acted like successive filters to identify priority lists of 15 and 7 substances/substance groups for Mexico. The 15 are: 1) benzo-a-pyrene (+ other PAHs); 2) cadmium; 3) heptachlor; 4) hexachlorobenzene; 5) lead; 6) lindane (+ other HCH isomers); 7) 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (+ other PCDDs); 8) aldrin; 9) arsenic; 10) chromium; 11) carbon tetrachloride; 12) 3-3'-dichlorobenzidine; 13) dieldrin; 14) nickel; and 15) toxaphene. The first seven are the priority list of seven.
Publication Title
International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health
Publication Date
1-1-2000
Volume
6
Issue
3
First Page
220
Last Page
237
ISSN
1077-3525
DOI
10.1179/oeh.2000.6.3.220
Keywords
chemical risk, Mexico, NAFTA, policy analysis, trinational
Repository Citation
Downs, Timothy and Santos-Burgoa, Carlos, "Selecting High-Priority Hazardous Chemicals for Tri-National Control: A Maximum-Utility Method Applied to Mexico" (2000). Sustainability and Social Justice. 142.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_idce/142
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License
Copyright Conditions
This journal began publishing in open access in 2011. Published source must be acknowledged with citation: Downs, Timothy J., and Carlos Santos-Burgoa. "Selecting high-priority hazardous chemicals for tri-national control: A maximum-utility method applied to Mexico." International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health 6.3 (2000): 220-237
