Essays
De Minimis, or "Sheer Nonsense"
The origin of the threshold below which a chemical in food need not be tested
Ekaterina Khramtsova
Ekaterina Khramtsova is an Affiliate Research Scientist at the Blue Marble Space. She holds a PhD in Molecular Pathogenesis and Molecular Medicine, with research interests spanning genomics, drug discovery and development, and bioethics.
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AI’s x-ray vision into Texas’ air limits
Texas sets its own limits for hundreds of industrial chemicals. Where they can be compared with EPA's and ATSDR's, 36 of 41 come out the same or weaker. The reasoning is buried in thousands of pages of assessment.
Essays
One in a Million: How we choose what risk is acceptable
What is an acceptable risk? We, as individuals, can adopt different operational heuristics for handling risk in our daily lives, when it comes to personal, financial or health choices. But environmental and pollution issues affect whole communities, or even the whole planet, so we have to arrive at some common
Essays
Of Mice and Men and Round Numbers
What does it mean for a chemical to be safe? The chemical industry as we know it is largely a child of the Second World War. The capacities built for the war effort — synthetic organic chemistry at industrial scale, nerve-agent research having common origin with pesticide research, polymer and