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Not Entirely Reliable: Private Scientific Organizations and Risk Regulation – The Case of Electromagnetic Fields
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017
Abstract
Private scientific organizations exert a great deal of influence in the regulation of some technological risks. The high level of expertise of their members is arguably a good reason for them to participate in making and monitoring risk regulations, in order to adjust these to scientific progress. Nevertheless, there are also sound reasons why governments shouldn’t uncritically follow the views expressed by such organizations. Taking the role played by the International Commission on Non–Ionizing Radiation Protection in the regulation of electromagnetic fields as an illustrative example, this paper shows that private scientific organizations such as these are structurally less well suited than democratic authorities when it comes to managing those risks.
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References
1 See, e.g., Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the Effects of high–voltage electricity transmission networks, OJ 1999 C 293/16, at p. 18.
2 Ibid., at p. 18.
3 See, for example, Gabriel Doménech, “La contaminación electromagnética en el Derecho alemán”, 220 Revista de Derecho Urbanístico y Medio Ambiente (2005), pp. 131 et seq.; Antonio E. Embid, Precaución y Derecho. El caso de los campos electromagnéticos (Madrid: Iustel, 2010), at pp. 333 et seq.
4 See, for the sake of illustration, Verwaltungsgericht Koblenz decision of 14 October 1986 (NVwZ 1987, pp. 149–150), Verwaltungsgerichtshof Kassel decisions of 13 March 1990 (2 R 3757/89) and 22 March 1993 (NVwZ 1994, pp. 391–395), Oberverwaltungsgericht Lüneburg decision of 21 April 1992 (NVwZ 1992, pp. 993–994), Verwaltungsgericht Ansbach decision of 29 September 1992 (CR 1994, 48–50), and Verwaltungsgerichthof München decisions of 15 September 1992 (14 CS 92.3208) and 25 October 1994 (NVwZ 1995, pp. 919–921).
5 See, for example, Bundesverwaltungsgericht decisions of 2 August 1994 (NVwZ 1994, pp. 1000–1002) and 9 February 1996 (DVBl 1996, pp. 682–684), Verwaltungsgericht München decisions of 27 January 1993 (NVwZ 1993, pp. 1121–1123), Oberverwaltungsgericht Schleswig–Holstein decisions of 22 February 1995 (4 M 113/94) and 29 August 1995 (BImSchG–Rsps. 22, 104), and Verwaltungsgerichthof Manheim decisions of 14 may 1996 (DÖV 1996, pp. 1005– 1007), 2 January 1997 (NVwZ 1997, pp. 704–705) and 15 April 1997 (NVwZ 1998, pp. 416–418). The ICNIRP Guidelines had also been endorsed by the German Commission on Radiological Protection (Strahlenschutzkommission), whose recommendations in that regard were taken into account by those judicial decisions.
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7 See Implementation report on the Council Recommendation limiting the public exposure to electromagnetic fields (0 Hz to 300 GHz), 2002. Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Malta, Romania, Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Republic of Lithuania, Poland and United Kingdom set down the same limits proposed by ICNIRP. In Belgium the exposure limits were set at one half of those recommended by ICNIRP. In Austria, the limits for the frequency range for GSM–Networks were slightly higher than those contained in the abovementioned guidelines. Switzerland applied these guidelines under normal conditions, but with stricter levels at “sensitive locations” and for mobile phone masts, only allowing 1 % of the levels of emission recommended by ICNIRP. Luxembourg also applied stricter limits for mobile phone base stations. Greece applied stricter limits for mobile phone masts, setting 80 % of those set down by ICNIRP. Slovenia established lower thresholds for almost all the frequencies. The aforementioned report did not provide detailed information on the limits laid down in the Netherlands and Italy.
8 Ibid., at p. 51.
9 See the Charter of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), approved by the General Assembly of the International Radiation Protection Association in Montreal, 20 May 1992, available on the Internet at <http://www.icnirp.de/documents/charter.pdf> (last accessed on 04 January 2013).
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20 § 6.2 of ICNIRP Statutes, supra note 10.
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