Ebook: Frames in the Toxicity Controversy: Risk Assessment and Policy Analysis Related to the Dutch Chlorine Debate and the Swedish PVC Debate

Preface When you write a book like this after ten years' working as an environmental specialist, you end up with something that reflects your career. Of course, when I started working at the Ministry of the Environment in the Netherlands, I could not foresee that I would now be at TNO, nor that I would have performed research into chlorine, PVC, waste, etc. , that would come to form the basis for this book. But step by step, with some coincidence and with the support of several people - who were probably unaware of the crucial role that, with hindsight, they played - I arrived at a position where I could start to consider this enterprise. At this point I shall try something dangerous - thanking a few of those people who gave that support. At the same time, it is obvious that I cannot mention them all. I hope that those whom I do not mention will forgive me. A first, crucial moment in this sequence of events came quite soon after I joined TNO in 1990. Just a few weeks later, all the senior staff in my section decided to leave in order to set up their own company. I decided to stay at TNO. As a consequence, I had to manage it on my own.

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There is a great deal of controversy about how to deal with man-made chemicals. Environmentalists and industrialists throughout the world clash on such subjects as chlorine, PVC, endocrine disrupters and the precautionary principle. In this book Tukker untangles the controversy. Three chapters relate to long-term evaluations into two hot-spots in the toxicity controversy - the debates on chlorine in the Netherlands and PVC in Sweden. The book adopts a political-philosophical view, presenting a thorough theoretical analysis of the potential of scientific research to solve controversies, and evaluating the history of the chlorine and PVC controversies.
The book combines the quantitative analytical approaches of environmental science with qualitative approaches of policy sciences and the philosophy of science (frame analysis, cultural theory, discourse theory, etc.). It is an accessible analysis of the toxicity debate that will enable scientists, policy makers and others to place their roles in a much wider context within the decision-making process.