European Union contemporary

The three analysed risk assessments are contemporary and have all been performed by die same European Union member stales (the UK and France except for the risk assessment for Penta that the UK was the sole rapporteur for). They furthermore cover three substances that are chemically closely related, representing three brominated diphenyl ethers, used as flame retardants, with different degrees of bromination. 

They emphasized that environmental issues are mainly about justice, fairness, ethical choices, and acceptable behavior, not just acceptable risk. The earlier narrow focus on science and engineering was expanded to give explicit recognition to the importance of ethics and values in decisions. In 2001, the European Union expressed the contemporary view of the proper role of science in environmental protection when it said, science should be on tap, not on top. ... 

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