The new technology will also speed regulatory decision-making based on test results of a chemical's toxicity or carcinogenicity, says Dr. Olden. Discussion will focus on limitations on manufacture and use of POPs, national action plans, funding, technical assistance, exemptions for DDT, which is used to combat malaria, and stockpiles of obsolete or unwanted pesticides. Negotiators hope to establish criteria identifying other POPs for elimination. The precautionary principle states that action should be taken against a chemical when there is sufficient evidence to prove that it threatens human and animal health, even in the absence of conclusive evidence. Gas and solar hot water heaters are an accepted part of our homes.
Air pollution is wasteful, damages the environment, and jeopardizes human health.
A market-based small emissions reduction program requires, however, a means of measuring and influencing small sources of emissions. In an orchard in western Canada, genetically enhanced fruit trees kill insects on contact, without pesticide sprays. Soon the trees will bear apples whose crispy, white flesh will not turn brown even hours after being cut open. These dream trees and others with equally attractive traits are growing on scores of test plots around the world, part of a little-noted biotech revolution in forestry that experts predict will hit its commercial stride in the next five years. Building on a decade of practice in crops such as soybeans and cotton, researchers at universities and at a few biotechnology companies have been perfecting the art of injecting novel genes into the cells of trees.