Canada to prune chlorine use.

EPA isn't the only agency looking to cut industrial use of chlorine (SN: 2/12/94, p.111). On Oct. 25, Canadian Environment Minister Sheila Copps announced that her government would start "taking aggressive action in dealing with chlorinated substances that pose a threat to [health] and the environment." She said the new chlorine initiative would begin by "eliminating the most harmful chlorinated substances."

The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry recently called for restricting or banning chlorinated chemicals that are highly toxic, persistent, and bioaccumulative, Copps noted. Dioxins, some pesticides, and polychlorinated biphenyls fit that description.

But editors of a new review of the adverse effects of chlorinated compounds - funded by the chlorine industry and just issued as a 1,050-page supplement to the August Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology - seek to polish chlorine's tarnished image. Studies in the review "clearly indicate that the alarms about chlorine-containing compounds are unwarranted," they say. Indeed, they argue, this report demonstrates that "the mere presence of chlorine in a molecule does not necessarily confer unique toxic properties or bioaccumulative potential."