Selecting high-priority hazardous chemicals for tri-national control: a maximum-utility method applied to Mexico

Area of Science:

• Environmental Chemistry
• Toxicology
• Environmental Policy

Background:

• Persistent, bioaccumulative toxic chemicals threaten human health and ecosystems continent-wide.
• North American countries collaborate on Regional Action Plans to manage hazardous pollutants.
• Existing action plans cover chlordane, DDT, mercury, and PCBs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify priority persistent, bioaccumulative toxic chemicals for inclusion in North American Regional Action Plans.
• To develop a systematic and defensible method for chemical prioritization.
• To inform Mexican negotiators with a data-driven list of substances.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive screening of over 4,700 substances against 14 criteria across five categories.
• Application of the multiattribute maximum-utility method for policy analysis.
• Utilizing weighting algorithms and successive filtering to derive priority lists.

Main Results:

• A preliminary list of 15 priority substances/substance groups was identified.
• A final, highest-priority list of seven substances/substance groups was determined.
• The identified priority chemicals include benzo-a-pyrene, cadmium, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, lead, lindane, and dioxins.

Conclusions:

• The systematic approach effectively filtered a large chemical baseline to identify key toxic substances.
• The identified priority chemicals require focused management under regional action plans.
• This methodology provides a robust framework for future chemical prioritization efforts.