Re: profits first...

...we'll deal with the consequences when we know what they are.

From "Trespass Against Us~ Dow Chemical and the Toxic century", by Jack Doyle":

"Very few people had been trained in toxicology at that time," explained Dow scientist Dr. Ted Torkelson, describing the early '50's when he first came to Dow as a 22 year old biochemist. "Fact is, when I was hired, I didn't know what toxicology was." But Dow did undertake testing- some dating to the 1930s when it first set up its own laboratories. Still, in the 1950s, once some cursory lab tests of a chemical had been finished, companies often put chemical products on the market while continuing to investigate their effects. This happened with the herbicides 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D, and with the fungicide DBCP, made by Dow and others- and many other products and their derivatives. At times, in fact, it seemed that the preferred way to "test" chemicals was to begin marketing them, wait and see what problems emerged, and then deal with the consequences. Today, world regulators are still playing "toxicological catch-up" with many thousands of chemicals that remain inadequately tested."...

..."Today, a new chemical substance is discovered approximately EVERY NINE SECONDS. Granted, many new chemicals don't go much beyond the curiosity stage. Still, new compounds are introduced to global markets at an average rate of three per day. That's about 90 per month, or more than 1,000 new chemicals every year. Global chemical production is about 400 million tons annually. In the U.S alone, annual production of carbon-based synthetic chemicals is roughly 1,600 lbs. per capita. While much of this inventiveness and productivity is welcomed for generating jobs, economic value, and generally improving things, environmental and public health analysis of these same chemicals has typically come as an afterthought.

"As a result, detailed toxicological and health-effects knowledge of many chemicals has lagged well behind their commercial use. Even today, only about 700 of the existing 100,000 chemicals used in global commerce have completed toxicological profiles. Many have not been studied in-depth for potential ecological problems or reproductive effects. Of the 2,500 "high-production volume" chemicals- those used most heavily and regularly in world commerce- roughly half have been profiled from a hazards standpoint. Science and society continue to play a game of "catch-up"..."