The reality of precaution : comparing risk regulation in the United States and Europe / edited by Jonathan B. Wiener ... [and others].

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The rhetoric of precaution / Jonathan B. Wiener -- Genetically modified foods and crops / Mark Cantley, Maurice Lex -- Beef, hormones, and mad cows / George Gray, Michael D. Rogers, Jonathan B. Wiener -- Tobacco / D. Douglas Blanke -- Nuclear power / John F. Ahearne, Adolf Birkhofer -- Automobile emissions / Michael P. Walsh -- Stratospheric ozone depletion and global climate change / James K. Hammitt -- The marine environment / David Freestone -- Biodiversity conservation / Kathryn A. Saterson -- Chemicals / Ortwin Renn, E. Donald Elliott -- Medical errors, new drug approval, and patient safety / Frances H. Miller -- Terrorism and weapons of mass destruction / Jessica Stern, Jonathan B. Wiener -- Information disclosure / Peter H. Sand -- Frameworks for risk asscessment, uncertainty, and precaution / Gail Charnley, Michael D. Rogers -- A quantitative comparison of relative precaution in the United States and Europe, 1970-2004 / Brendon Swedlow, Denise Kall, Zheng Zhou, James K. Hammitt, Jonathan B. Wiener -- Political institutions and the principle of precaution / Giandomenico Majone -- Legal and administrative systems : implications for precautionary regulation / Lucas Bergkamp, Turner T. Smith -- Risk perceptions and risk attitudes in the United States and Europe / Elke U. Weber, Jessica S. Ancker -- Precautions against what? Perceptions, heuristics, and culture / Cass R. Sunstein -- The real pattern of precaution / Jonathan B. Wiener.

The 'Precautionary Principle' has sparked the central controversy over European and U.S. risk regulation. The Reality of Precaution is the most comprehensive study to go beyond precaution as an abstract principle and test its reality in practice. This groundbreaking resource combines detailed case studies of a wide array of risks to health, safety, environment and security; a broad quantitative analysis; and cross-cutting chapters on politics, law, and perceptions. The authors rebut the rhetoric of conflicting European and American approaches to risk, and show that the reality has been the selective application of precaution to particular risks on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as a constructive exchange of policy ideas toward 'better regulation.' The book offers a new view of precaution, regulatory reform, comparative analysis, and transatlantic relations.