As total production grows, the amount that escapes must grow too. Chemicals that do not break down rapidly in nature will build up in living things, contaminating food webs. But preventing major local damage does not prevent the slow accumulation of global damage, which is the cumulative result of millions of technological decisions. The local focus of the risk-based system is intrinsically at odds with the problem of global accumulation. The inability to trace causality to individual actors means that victims cannot be compensated or individual perpetrators held legally responsible.
Current institutions become paralyzed by their own unrealistic standards of proof.