It also throws the burden of proof on the victim. Another problem with the current laissez faire approach to environmental health is that safer alternatives to risked industrial and technological projects go unexplored and research into alternatives is unfunded. Agenda 21 stresses sensitivity for the value judgements which underlie standard setting including universal applicability and the validity of standards set in the developed world for use in the developing world. Other problems with standard setting include the lack of interdisciplinary research on the combined health effects of exposure to multiple environmental hazards. Implementation of environmental health goals Agenda 21 stresses the need to teach environmental health in secondary schools and universities to train professionals in this field.
Education needs to follow identification of hazards and needs to reinforce standards.
The high level advisory body called for in Agenda 21 is the key to the overall success of the program. This should be an International Environment Agency, with stature equal to the World Trade Organization and constituted as a permanent group of highly qualified persons in diverse but relevant fields. The agency would be responsible for determining acceptable standards to protect human health and the global environment. It must be independent of vested interests and members should take an oath to work for the common good, that is they should belong to a global public sector. Recommendations Dissociate the UN from the nuclear industry sponsored ICRP Reduce the role of the International Atomic Energy Agency, now mandated to promote nuclear energy as well as to curb horizontal nuclear weapons proliferation.