Ineffective self-regulation in the chemicals manufacturing industries

Incidence

The continuing production of thousands of tons of PCBs each year – decades after the intentional manufacture of PCBs was outlawed – shows the failure of chemical-by-chemical regulation.

Claim

Chemical-by-chemical regulation assumes each chemical is innocent until proven guilty. This places the burden of proof on the public to prove that each chemical is harmful. The result is a vast, poorly documented programme of chemical experimentation on the public, in which the ecosystem and our bodies are contaminated by novel chemicals, the effects of which are not well known, but are likely to be harmful. People have a right not to be experimented on without informed consent.