Contents

Attachments

Yuri Bruinen de Bruin Birgitte Lindeman

Norway

updated Nov 25, 2010 by Karin Melsom

Please help improve the WLT by reporting broken links and suggesting additional content and features by contacting the Country Correspondent or the WLT at Contact@wlt.org.

Country Correspondents
Birgitte Lindeman Karin Melsom


















Overview

ViewNorwayin a larger mapLegend:= Government Agency,= NGO,= University,= Professional Society,= Poison Control Center,= Toxic Site.

Norway is a Scandinavian country and has approximately 4.6 million inhabitants and an extensive coast line along the North Atlantic Ocean. Norway's outlying possessions are Svalbard and Jan Mayen in the Arctic Ocean and Bouvet and Peter I islands in the South Atlantic. Norway also has claims in Antartica. For geographic and historic reasons Norway gives high priority to the management of natural resources and the environment in the polar areas. Furthermore, due to a high dependence both on petroleum and gas production as well as fishing and aquaculture, extensive programs for environmental monitoring of pollution along the Norwegian coast and on the Norwegian continental shelf have been established.

The increasing awareness of environmental pollution issues during the last part of the 20th century led to the establishment of the Ministry of the Environment in 1972 and shortly thereafter of the Pollution Control Authority. The Ministry of the Environment is generally responsible for most aspects of environmental protection covering water, air, noise, and waste, as well as nature reserves. It is responsible also for the coordination of local planning under the Building and Planning Act of 1965. Planning is regarded as a local responsibility under this act, with guidance from the Ministry. Six subordinate institutions currently (2007) report to the Ministry of the Environment (Directorate for Cultural Heritage, Directorate for Nature Management, Norwegian Pollution Control Authority, Norwegian Mapping Authority, Norwegian Polar Institute, The Norwegian Product Register).

The Norwegian Pollution Control Authority (SFT) is responsible for providing the relevant documentation for the Ministry of the Environment in connection with pollution issues. It also sets emission standards and controls industrial activities. Chemical safety is an important activity covered by SFT. Due to the EFTA/EU Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA Agreement), Norway regulates the use of chemicals largely in the same way as the EU countries; decisions in the EU system are of direct relevance as to how Norway develops its legislation concerning chemicals.

Along with the increasing interest for toxicology in the 70s, toxicology as a distinct field of science entered a period of expansion and consolidation. In response to the need for competence in toxicological sciences, the Norwegian research council initiated a 3-year research and educational program in toxicology in 1979, involving 18 students with background in medicine, dental medicine, veterinary medicine, biology, biochemistry, biophysics and agricultural sciences. At the same time, there was a great increase in education and research activities at universities and at institutions working within environmental health and occupational health. Currently, teaching in toxicology at MSc level takes place at several universities and university colleges. The University in Oslo has recently established a lecture course in Regulatory Toxicology to meet the national need for toxicological risk assessment competence. As there are only few pharmaceutical companies with research departments in Norway, most toxicological scientists are employed in research institutions and universities.

The Norwegian Society of Pharmacology and Toxicology (NSFT) is the national professional society for both toxicologists as well as pharmacologists. By 2007 NSFT has approximately 300 members in the Section of toxicology. Presently (2007) there are approximately 60 (by year 2007) Norwegian toxicologists registered in The European Register of Toxicologists.

A version of this article was published in Information Resources in Toxicology, 4th Edition, Copyright Elsevier (2009).


Government Agencies


Non-Government Organizations


Universities


Professional Societies


Poison Control Centers

  • Oslo
    Poisons Information
    Directorate of Health and Social Affairs
    P.O. Box 7000
    St. Olavs Plass
    0130 Oslo
    Director: Erik Andrew
    Telephone: +47 22 591300
    Emergency telephone: +47 22 591300
    Fax: +47 22 608575
    E-mail:postmottak.giftinfo@shdir.no
    Web site:http://www.giftinfo.no


Miscellaneous Resources


Key Publications


Legal Links

* Note: Also Consider --- EUR-Lex (Access to EU law) and N-Lex (A common gateway to EU national law sites)


About Norway


Multilateral Organization Contacts


Literature References from TOXLINE (Norway)

Labels:

Enter labels to add to this page:
Wait Image 
Looking for a label? Just start typing.

Toxipedia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

Powered by Atlassian Confluence and Zen Foundation