Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution

Thank you for your letter of 19th October. This is a short response as I have only two concerns, on which I hope I can be re-assured quite easily.

While the commission did valuable work in 1998 on the application of science and its integration with people's values, this is not a reason for neglecting these issues in the forthcoming study. Over the last two years, there have been considerable developments in the understanding and communication of scientific risk, and the application of these ideas to chemicals in the environment should not be overlooked.

Similarly, I appreciate the need to maintain focus, but complete exclusion of occupational and consumer exposure (other than food chains) may distort the study, by missing out some of the most important examples of long term effects.

While chemicals and biological agents are understandably the subject of separate studies, connections between the two should not be overlooked.

Finally, on a slightly more technical point, "tensions between free trade and environmental protection" are not inevitable if property rights can be properly established. The concept of property rights should be specifically explained.

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