Christian Streffer Livres

Radioactive waste (above all highly radioactive wastes from nuclear installations) caused by research, medicine and technology must be disposed of safely. However both the strategies disputed for the disposal of radioactive waste as well as concrete proposals for choosing a location for final waste disposal are highly debatable. An appropriate disposal must conform to both complex, technical requirements and fulfill the radio-biological conditions to appropriately protect man and nature. Ethical, legal and social conditions must also be considered. An interdisciplinary team from various, relevant fields compiled the current status-quo and developed criteria and strategies, which on the one hand meet the requirements of optimal warning and prevention of risk for present and future generations, and additionally on the other hand meet the needs of what current society agrees what is expected to be allowed. This study can be understood as an advanced and continuing contribution to the corresponding scientific specialized debates, due to its interdisciplinary treatment. At the same time it serves as a fundamentally informing contribution to public and political debates, offering an easily comprehensible executive summary and precise content recommendations.

This yearbook aims to provide an academic forum to promote interdisciplinary discussion of the ethical questions arising from modern developments in science and technology. Each volume contains papers, reports and documents.

The increasing release of harmful agents from human activities has led to significant pollution in various regions. To safeguard human health and the environment, it is crucial to establish environmental standards that limit the release and concentration of these toxic agents. These standards must be informed by solid scientific data regarding the effects and mechanisms of these agents, alongside ethical, social, and economic considerations. Understanding the dose-response curve is essential for risk evaluation, particularly when considering dose responses without a threshold, which are critical for mutagenic and carcinogenic effects. In the low dose range, risk estimation relies on extrapolation from higher doses with measurable effects, a process fraught with uncertainties that complicate risk evaluation and communication. To facilitate rational, efficient, and equitable decisions, dialogue among disciplines, affected individuals, and the public is necessary. This book addresses the full spectrum of relevant aspects of risk evaluation and standard setting, beginning with ethical foundations and incorporating recent scientific findings, cognitive theory, psychosocial sciences, and jurisprudence. The authors conclude with recommendations for addressing current challenges in standard setting for environmentally relevant low doses, targeting scientists, legislators, administrators, and the interested public.

The rapid growth of the world population - nearly six-fold over the last hundred years - combined with the rising number of technical installations especially in the industrialized countries has lead to ever tighter and more strained living spaces on our planet. Because ofthe inevitable processes oflife, man was at first an exploiter rather than a careful preserver of the environment. Environmental awareness with the intention to conserve the environment has grown only in the last few decades. Environmental standards have been defined and limit values have been set largely guided, however, by scientific and medical data on single exposures, while public opinion, on the other hand, now increasingly calls for astronger consideration of the more complex situations following combined exposures. Furthermore, it turned out that environmental standards, while necessarily based on scientific data, must also take into account ethical, legal, economic, and sociological aspects. A task of such complexity can only be dealt with appropriately in the framework of an inter disciplinary group.

Die menschliche Entwicklung ist seit jeher von einer gesicherten Energieversorgung abhängig, die heute aus Gründen der Machbarkeit und der Umweltbelastungen global betrachtet werden muss. Angesichts eines weltweit steigenden Energiebedarfs kommt der sicheren und preiswerten Bereitstellung von Energie daher eine Schlüsselrolle in der menschlichen Entwicklung zu. Auf der Basis der heutigen und zukünftig möglichen Energietechnologien sowie der Kenntnisse der zur Verfügung stehenden Ressourcen erarbeitet die Studie Beurteilungen der weltweiten Energieversorgung unter Einbeziehung wirtschaftlicher und umweltverträglicher Kriterien. Es werden ferner Aspekte der Langfristigkeit, der Sozialverträglichkeit und der Verteilungsgerechtigkeit in den Diskurs einbezogen.

Im Rahmen dieser Studie werden aus naturwissenschaftlich-medizinischer, soziologischer, Akonomischer, juristischer und philosophischer Perspektive Notwendigkeit, Realisierbarkeit und Konsequenzen von Umweltstandards fA1/4r kombinierte Expositionen untersucht. Auf Expositionen des Menschen - dabei besonders deren karzinogene sowie genotoxische Wirkungen - sowie Expositionen einer Auswahl von Pflanzen, anhand derer die pragmatisch dringlichsten Fragen beantwortet werden, ist das Hauptaugenmerk der Studie gerichtet. Auf der Grundlage einer auf Wirkungsmechanismen basierenden Kategorisierung kombinierter Expositionen werden Kriterien erarbeitet, die trotz der KomplexitAt der einzelnen WirkungszusammenhAnge eine Grenzwertsetzung zur Erhaltung bzw. Erreichung konkreter UmweltqualtitAtsziele ermAglicht.