Environment and public opinion

By considering the opinions of the civil society and tackling the questions concerning chemical production it raises, the governments can achieve a relevant positive result the merging of the consensus of the academic world and industry with that of youth and public opinion, which are increasingly focusing their attention on the environment and human health protection. 

Public opinion is quite favorable and promises to become more so as public and policymaker concern for the environment increases. Unfortunately, a lot of people do not know that. 

Risk management combines the risk assessment with economic, political, public opinion, and other considerations to determine a course of action. These judgments seldom satisfy everyone. The principles of toxicology form the foundation for the risk assessment and ultimately for the risk management decisions. Individual and community involvement in the decision-making process is a critical part of developing sound policies to minimize risks to people and the environment. 

Over a long period of history, commercial transactions were primarily a two-party affair, between the seller and the buyer. In the last few decades, a third party has forcefully entered into the transaction, based on concerns about safety and the environment, and on public opinion and government regulations. This is shown in figure 10.1. The third party consists of ... 

The first-generation biofuels can be identified as ethanol, which was produced via the alcoholic fermentation of cereals, and hio-oil or biodiesel, which was extracted from seeds such as sunflower, rapeseed, or palm. The use of cereals and sunflowers was rejected by public opinion and some scientific environments, because their use for energy production conflicted with their use as foodstuffs. In fact, the diversion of cereals to the production of ethanol for transport has led to a rise in the price of flour and derived goods, especially in Mexico. The same situation has arisen for some bio-oils, such that the source was shifted to palm-oil which, essentially, is produced in Asian countries such as Malaysia. 

These and similar general postulates direct, to some extent, public opinion toward regulating human-environment relationships with the view of getting a reasonable... 

Attitudes towards the chemical industry then emerge on the surface of these foundations, and general opinions crystallize out. At times, these react very sensitively to developments within the industry and our industry s public presence, but also to events and changes in mood in the general economic and socio-political environment. 

In the last part of the book some examples are reported on the importance of the contribution of chemical studies to fields that are of increasing concern for the public opinion such as health, food, and the environment. One of these describes investigation of the protein-tannin interaction in order to better understand organoleptic properties of foodstuffs, and in particular those of red wine. 

The roundtables were followed by a quantitative survey of 7500 members of the public in 10 countries, 1300 opinion formers in 25 countries, and 600 Shell employees. The results made salutary reading. They showed that a significant minority had serious concerns over what they perceived as Shell s lack of regard for the environment and human rights. As Managing Director Mark Moody-Stuart said at the time we looked in the mirror and neither liked nor recognised what we saw. ... 

When President Nixon and his staff walked into the White House on January 20, 1969, we were totally unprepared for the tidal wave of public opinion in favor of cleaning up the environment that was about to engulf us. 

The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, as amended, establishes a policy for determining the acceptability of a pesticide use, or the continuation of that use, according to a risk/benefit assessment. This policy, administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), recognizes that pesticides are intentionally placed in the environment for purposes of pest control. Contrary to some public opinion, the risk/benefit assessment does not determine that the use is totally "safe" nor... 

An important factor which influences both the legislators and corporate management is public opinion. Today, the perception of how well legislation protects the environment, whilst enabling a competitive and responsible business climate, varies widely across Europe. 

But the problems about which public opinion has been most sensitive have turned out to be concerns about the environment and more particularly atmospheric pollution, owing to their consequences on human health genetic mutations and cancers, decrease in the effectiveness of the immune system, diseases of the respiratory system, the eyes, the skin. 

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