Book Reviews

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9388.00223
• Date: 01 November 1999
• Published date: 01 November 1999

Volume 8 Issue 3 1999 Book Reviews

Regulation for Chemical

Safety in Europe: Analysis,

Comment and Criticism,D.

Michael Pugh and Jose V. Tara-

zone (eds.), published by

Kluwer, Environment & Policy

Series, 1998, 200pp, £67.00,

hardback.

Risk Assessment in Environ-

mental Management,D. Kofi

Asante-Duah, published by

John Wiley & Sons, 1998,

536pp, £75.00, hardback.

It is, by now, a well-established fact

that the development of environmen-

tal regulation draws on a broad var-

iety of disciplines. Inputs from law,

politics, social sciences, economics,

biology, chemistry, toxicology and

engineering, to name but a few, all

play a role in identifying and defining

environmental threats, and in cre-

ating public policy strategies to con-

trol such threats. The interdisciplin-

ary character of environmental

regulation has only become more

pronounced with the growing popu-

larity of risk assessment as the prin-

cipal basis for health and environ-

mental decision-making. During risk

assessment, information about the

hazardous properties of environ-

mental contaminants is evaluated in

light of available data on anticipated

exposure of man, or the environ-

ment, to these contaminants, in

order to arrive at a ‘characterization

of potential adverse consequences

or impacts to human and ecological

receptors that are potentially at risk

from exposure to environmental con-

taminants’ (Kofi Asante-Duah, 1998).

In addition to the previously men-

tioned disciplines, risk assessors

should be versed in modelling, stat-

istics, and probability calculations.

Not surprisingly, the interdisciplin-

ary character of environmental

decision-making fuels a demand for

publications that have an eye for the

scientific and technical, as well as

the regulatory, social and economic

Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

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aspects of the process. Regulation for

Chemical Safety in Europe: Analysis,

Comment and Criticism, edited by

Michael Pugh and Jose Tarazona

(1998), and Risk Assessment in

Environmental Management,byKofi

Asante-Duah (1998), respond to this

demand. In different ways, these

works illustrate both the promises

and pitfalls of transcending disciplin-

ary boundaries.

Regulation for Chemical Safety in Eur-

ope: Analysis, Comment and Criticism

contains a collection of nine papers

that were presented during the 1996

EUROTOX in Alicante. The various

contributions cover some of the

most complicated and fascinating

problems of environmental regu-

lation, such as the utility of biologi-

cal models to estimate exposure to

chemicals in the environment (Frank

Koormann, Michael Matthies and

Stefan Trapp), the establishment of

maximum environmental contami-

nation levels on the basis of partial

scientific information (Jose

Tarazona), the differential treatment

of environmental risks and health

risks in regulatory toxicology (Finn

Bro-Rasmussen), the controversial

position of pesticides in sustainable

agriculture (Monika Herrchen and

Werner Klein, and Nazim Punja), and

the selection of appropriate instru-

ments – liability, command and con-

trol regulation, economic instru-

ments – to contain and manage

chemical risks (Robin Mason). Yet,

while separately interesting, the col-

lection of papers does not succeed

in conveying a comprehensive, inte-

grated portrait of regulation for

chemical safety. The absence of

crossover points, of references and,

ultimately, of communication

between the different selections

makes for a book that is visibly frag-

mented that merits the label ‘multi-

disciplinary’ rather than ‘interdisci-

plinary’.

The fragmentation is regrettable

since one gets the distinct

impression that it might have been

avoided by careful editing. The pap-

ers touch upon a number of recur-

rent themes, most notably the lim-

ited availability of scientific and

empirical data (which raises

important questions about both our

ability to draw large-scale inferences

from a handful of samples and tests,

and the legitimacy of calling such

inferences ‘scientific’ or ‘science-

based’), and the meaning of con-

cepts such as precaution and sus-

tainability for chemical safety issues.

Some thorough and concerted

efforts to analyze and compare how

the representatives of different disci-

plines, who range from toxicologists,

policy analysts and civil servants to

business managers, tackle these

problems, would have raised the

profile of this publication consider-

ably, and would have done more jus-

tice to the quality of the individual

contributions. As it is, the one genu-

ine attempt at synthesis is made in

a brief conclusion at the end of the

book, which is, in the words of the

editors, ‘a well-earned (%) valedic-

tory attempt to conclude on (the

editors’) efforts and (the reader’s)

perseverance’. However, such syn-

thesizing attempts to span the vari-

ous disciplines involved in environ-

mental regulation should not be

construed as an afterthought;

instead they should constitute the

heart and focal point of interdisci-

plinary studies.

Furthermore, careful editing might

have enabled the authors to correct

some of the more conspicuous spell-

ing and grammatical errors, and to

clear up instances of factual con-

fusion. For example, it transpires

from the opening and concluding

chapters that the editors are under

the impression that legislative auth-

ority within the European Com-

munity resides with the Commission.

The confusion is understandable,

since the Commission has adopted a

great number of implementing and

‘technical adaptation’ measures in

this field. However, there should be

no doubt that the real core of Euro-

pean legislation, in the field of chemi-

cal safety as in others, is adopted by