The Precautionary Principle in the 20th Century Late Lessons from Early Warnings

About this book

Looks back over the last century to examine the role that the principle played, or could have played, in a range of major and avoidable public disasters including asbestos and asbestosis, BSE, CFCs and the depletion of stratospheric ozone, the pollution of the Great Lakes in America, the collapse of Atlantic fish stocks and PCBs.

Contents

Fisheries - taking stock; radiation - late warnings, early effects; benzene - occupational settings; asbestos - from magic to malign; PCBs and the precautionary principle; halocarbons, the ozone layer and the PP; the DES story - consequences of prenatal exposure; antimicrobials as growth promoters - common sense?; sulphur dioxide - lungs and lakes; MTBE in petrol; great lakes contamination - early warnings; TBT antifoulants - ships, snails and imposex; hormones as growth promoters - precaution or politics?; "mad cow disease" - complacency and catastrophe; twelve late lessons.

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Biography

The editors include David Gee (EEA), Brian Wynne (University of Lancaster), Andy Stirling (University of Stirling) and Malcom MacGarvin. Tim O'Riordan is Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of East Anglia.