We are living in a chemical soup! Every person alive today carries approximately 250 chemicals within her or his body, chemicals that did not exist prior to 1945.  This is referred to as the "body burden", and is our common legacy from the process of development and industrialization.  About 100,000 chemicals have entered into the market since 1945, and it is estimated that 75,000 of them remain in commercial use today.  A startling fact about these chemicals is that most remain untested for their safety in humans and other species.  Only about 1.5% to 3% (about 1,200 to 500 chemicals) have been tested for carcinogenicity.  Moreover, chemical testing tends to study one chemical at a time, whereas real-life exposure is, in fact, coming from a broad spectrum of chemicals that may interact or have additive effects. 
     Most chemical testing is based on the idea that, while damage will occur after a certain level of exposure has been reached, exposure below these levels will cause no harm.  These studies often start at elevated levels close to the point where cancer or DNA damage is expected, and the measurements are done on adult laboratory animals.  Yet the most recent scientific evidence indicates that fetal contamination can occur at very low levels below those levels which affect adults, and that the timing of exposure may also play a critical role in the possible effects. 
  
     International Negotiations to Phase out POP's. During 1996 and 1997, intergovernmental organizations, including the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) agreed to create an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to establish terms and a global, legally binding convention that seeks to protect health and the environment from harm caused by POPs.  The committee's first meeting was June 29, 1998 in Montreal, Canada.  Negotiators were asked to mandate action on twelve POPs.  In addition they were asked to develop criteria and a procedure to identify additional POPs as candidates for future global action.