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Late lessons from early warnings: science, precaution, innovation

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Publication Created 23 Feb 2012 Published 22 Jan 2013
3 min read
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The 2013 Late lessons from early warnings report is the second of its type produced by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in collaboration with a broad range of external authors and peer reviewers. The case studies across both volumes of Late lessons from early warnings cover a diverse range of chemical and technological innovations, and highlight a number of systemic problems. The 'Late Lessons Project' illustrates how damaging and costly the misuse or neglect of the precautionary principle can be, using case studies and a synthesis of the lessons to be learned and applied to maximising innovations whilst minimising harms.
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Publication Created 23 Feb 2012 Published 22 Jan 2013
3 min read
EEA Report No 1/2013
The 2013 Late lessons from early warnings report is the second of its type produced by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in collaboration with a broad range of external authors and peer reviewers. The case studies across both volumes of Late lessons from early warnings cover a diverse range of chemical and technological innovations, and highlight a number of systemic problems. The 'Late Lessons Project' illustrates how damaging and costly the misuse or neglect of the precautionary principle can be, using case studies and a synthesis of the lessons to be learned and applied to maximising innovations whilst minimising harms.

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: 978-92-9213-349-8
: TH-AL-13-001-EN-C

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Living healthily in a chemical world We can categorise pollution by where we find it — in soil, water or air — or we can look at different pollution types, such as chemicals. Synthetic chemicals are all around us. Some of them, however, can also be very harmful to our health and the environment. How can we limit the negative effects of chemicals that have become a part of our current way of life?
The cost of ignoring the warning signs - EEA publishes ‘Late Lessons from Early Warnings, volume II’ New technologies have sometimes had very harmful effects, but in many cases the early warning signs have been suppressed or ignored. The second volume of Late Lessons from Early Warnings investigates specific cases where danger signals have gone unheeded, in some cases leading to deaths, illness and environmental destruction.

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Late lessons from early warnings: the precautionary principle 1896-2000 Late lessons from early warnings is about the gathering of information on the hazards of human economic activities and its use in taking action to better protect both the environment and the health of the species and ecosystems that are dependent on it, and then living with the consequences. The report is based on case studies. The authors of the case studies, all experts in their particular field of environmental, occupational and consumer hazards, were asked to identify the dates of early warnings, to analyse how this information was used, or not used, in reducing hazards, and to describe the resulting costs, benefits and lessons for the future.

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Part A - Lessons from health hazards Part A commences with an analysis of 'false positives' showing that these are few and far between as compared to false negatives and that carefully designed precautionary actions can stimulate innovation, even if the risk turns out not to be real or as serious as initially feared.
Part E - Implications for science and governance Part E considers the governance implications for science, public policy and public engagement, and how current practices could be improved to enable society to maximise the benefits of innovations while minimising harms on the basis of the cases in Parts A-D.
Part D - Costs, justice and innovation The chapters in part D analyse the reasons behind prevailing practice and then go on to offer insights, for example, on how cost calculation methods can be improved; on how insurance schemes could be used to compensate future victims of harm; and on the reasons why businesses frequently ignore early warnings.
Part C - Emerging issues Part C analyses some newly emerging and large‑scale products, technologies and trends, which potentially offer many benefits but also potentially much harm to people and ecosystems and thereby ultimately economic development.
Part B - Emerging lessons from ecosystems Part B focuses on emerging lessons from the degradation of natural systems and their wider implications for society - booster biocides, the pill and the feminisation of fish, climate change, floods, insecticides and honeybees as well as ecosystem resilience more broadly.

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For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/late-lessons-2 or scan the QR code.

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