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Most of us work around chemical products everyday and experience few if any symptoms, but there seems to be a growing number of individuals who are developing sensitivities to chemicals in their environments. In a recent study conducted, 15-30% of the general population reported some sensitivity to chemicals and 4-6% reported that chemical intolerance has a major impact on the quality of their lives. At present very little is known about how these sensitivities develop, but evidence is pointing towards chemicals they encounter in their environment. The following is a list of the factors which contribute to developing chemical sensitivities;
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At present there are more than 650K hazardous chemicals in the workplace and hundreds more are being introduced every year.
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Each individual’s immune system may respond differently to a chemical exposure incident, so one needs to keep this in mind when comparing one’s physical response to that of a co-worker.
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Most of the research being conducted on the effects of chemical products on the human body, focus on the effects over an 8 hour working day - 40 hour working week (also known as the Time Weighted Average). Few if any studies have been conducted to ascertain the effects of chemicals over a longer period of time (for example 20 years of exposure) at lower exposure levels or the long term health effects of an overexposure incident to a large amount of a toxic material.
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