Climate Change Influences on Environmental and Human Health Chemical Standards

Regulatory agencies use many chemical standards to help protect human health and the environment. Some of these standards could potentially be adversely influenced by climate change, so it is important to scope the likelihood of such changes, and develop a plan for addressing them. A review of the literature showed that many complex interactions could occur between climate change factors, chemicals, and receptors. However, the way in which chemical standards are currently set is already likely to take into account predicted climate changes in temperate regions, at least implicitly. In contrast, compliance monitoring to ensure that chemical standards are not breached may be compromised if climate change leads to more variability in measured parameters, with a consequent reduction in the statistical power of monitoring programs.