Public Control of Environmental Health Hazards, E. Cuyler Hammond & Irving J. Selikoff, (New York: The New York Academy of Sciences, 1979), 405pp.
Understanding environmental problems; making effective use of technical information; justifying aspirations; public education; of general applicability to environmental problems; written for the first party participant.
Public Control of Environmental Health Hazards is an examination of the consequences of environmental hazards to human health and approaches to public control of these hazards. This work also addresses the constraints on this control and the media's responsibilities toward mitigation of these constraints.
Public Control of Environmental Health Hazards will be of interest to those who wish to understand attempts at social control of environmental health hazards. This work is divided into ten parts, each comprised of the work of multiple authors addressing a particular overarching topic. The first part is an examination of the consequences of environmental hazards to human health. Separate authors examine: the relationship between environmental hazards and birth defects, environmentally caused cancer and the response of the liver to environmental agents. Further, the first part contains discussions of: the environmental aspects of cardiovascular disease, environmental lung disease in the young and the neurotoxic effects of workers exposed to chemical hazards.
Part two focuses upon the scientific basis for estimating risk. Specifically, the chapter addresses carcinogens and the tests used to determine the relative danger of the carcinogen. In this context, multiple authors examine: the validity of extrapolation of results of animal studies to humans, the ability of short-term tests to predict chronic toxicologic effects, and the limitations and advantages of epidemiological investigations in environmental carcinogenesis. Part three presents a panel discussion of public involvement in risk assessment and standard setting. Following the panel discussion is the presentation of a case study. Decision-making in the US, Sweden and Europe regarding the regulation of vinyl chloride is examined accompanied by a comparison of differences in decision-making on environmental controls.
Part four addresses approaches to public control of environmental health hazards. The legal, regulatory and scientific complexities of federal constraints of toxic substances is examined. This is followed by four essays addressing risk-benefit analysis. Part five addresses the control measures, regulatory actions and standards aimed at aflatoxin, asbestos and coke oven emissions respectively. Part six addresses the constraint imposed on the social response to environmental hazards by the problem of ill-utilized data. In this context are discussions of: constraints on decision-making, faulty experimental design and the legal implications of publication of information for consumers.
Part seven examines the priorities of the media and their responsibilities. The first essay in this section examines the ethics of medical news reporting. This part also examines press coverage of: shipyard hazards, bischloromethyl, estrogen use during pregnancy and menopause and low-level radiation. Additionally, an overview of science journalism in the American press is offered. Part eight is comprised of an essay which addresses the relationship of the rule of reason and the resolution of controversy. Part nine presents a panel discussion of the prospects for the control of environmental diseases. The final part contains two debates. Debates over resolutions that: there should be no preventable exposure to a confirmed occupational human carcinogen and, the government shall provide compensation for all occupational and environmental diseases, are offered.
Public Control of Environmental Health Hazards is a careful examination of the basis for, and attempts at social control of environmental hazards. The informed reader will find the work both informative and useful.
T. A. O'Lonergan
G1HAMM
G6HAMM
G9HAMM
G16HAMM