Dr. Stopford’s most important non-clinical
activity is a unique and highly effective prevention program. He
provides pre-marketing toxicologic
evaluation of commercial (consumer) product formulas for safety
considerations.
The Duke Toxicology Program now has its own website, describing their resources, policies and even providing forms for submissions of product formulas for evaluation.
He and and his staff of toxicologists
collaborate to ascertain the potential for consumer harm from use
(and even abuse) of many product lines,
most commonly materials for writing, arts creation and craft work.
These pre-marketing evaluations are
an incredibly effective form of prevention, in that the potential
hazards never reach the potential
victims.
After consulting with the Duke toxicologists’
assessment regarding exposures from each products’
ingredients, manufacturers can often
adjust constituents to create safer products, or can affix suitable
labels for appropriate use of necessary
safeguards. The benefits to consumers, to the affected industry
and the fact that this avoids the
imposition of regulatory delays and disputes are obviously a
“Win-Win-Win” arrangement.
The largest group of client firms
participating in this endeavor is the
Art & Creative Materials Institute (ACMI), a huge trade association of manufacturers and distributors of hundreds of kinds of arts and crafts products. These companies and their approved products are available on the WWW at the Institute’s own web-site. |
Consumers (and school systems and professional artists) have learned to count on the protective information implied by these seals:
Other firms protecting their customers
through the use of Duke Toxicology Services’ evaluations include
the members of the Writing Instrument
Manufacturers’ Association and the Pencil Makers’ Association.
Revised: 4/23/00
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