European Environment Agency. Editorial team chaired by Poul Harromoës. Environmental Issue Report No. 22. (Pp 212; free of charge) 2001. ISBN 92 9167 323 4. Catalogue no. TH-39-01-821-EN-C.

• early warning
• environment

This book, which is available free of charge, is a collection of well written accounts of cases where early warnings of impending or possible disaster were ignored. The purpose is, I think, to encourage regulators to apply the Precautionary Principle and by so doing prevent further disasters. The cases considered range from overfishing and the destruction of the Californian sardine industry (see Cannery Row by John Steinbeck) and the asbestos-mesothelioma disaster to MTBE as a substitute for lead in petrol and “mad cow disease”. In each case the lack of attention paid to early signals is stressed. A few rather more controversial cases are included: hormones as growth promoters, PCBs, and benzene in gasoline as an environmental hazard. A great deal of useful, in some cases invaluable, information is provided.

In some of the cases it is clear that greater notice should have been taken of early warnings. In others the picture is a little less clear. For example, Professor Jim …