Dispatch: America s Unfortunate Import

Investor’s Business Daily’s Investors.com features an article by Professor Jaap Hanekamp of Utrecht University's Roosevelt Academy in the Netherlands warning that the European Union’s restrictive policy for chemicals sets a dangerous example for the rest of the world:

The nonsensical pursuit of zero risk cripples innovation and economic growth. … The EU likes to see itself as a world leader in growth and innovation. But the precautionary principle in its laws thwarts any such potential. Precaution trivializes scientific knowledge and opens the way for the politics of fear and protectionism.

“This is a really pithy op-ed that illustrates the EU’s precautionary approach to all threats, real and imagined,” says Dr. Ross. “The same spirit – that everything is dangerous and we need to ban it until it is proven otherwise – has effectively come to America.”

Dr. Whelan agrees: “The President’s Cancer Panel’s report made it very clear that they are following the precautionary principle when it said that we should be taking action against suspected environmental carcinogens, even though