Includes index. European Environment Agency (2013). Late lessons from early warnings : Science, precaution, innovation. Copenhagen, Denmark : Author.

Introduction -- Part A Lessons from health hazards -- The precautionary principle and false alarms - lessons learned -- Lead in petrol 'makes the mind give way' -- Too much to swallow: PCE contamination of mains water -- Minamata disease: a challenge for democracy and justice -- Beryllium's 'public relations problem' -- Tobacco industry manipulation of research -- Vinyl chloride: a saga of secrecy -- The pesticide DBCP and male infertility -- Bisphenol A: contested science, divergent safety evaluations -- DDT: fifty years since Silent Spring -- Part B Emerging lessons from ecosystems -- Booster biocide antifoulants: is history repeating itself? -- Ethinyl oestradiol in the aquatic environment -- Climate change: science and the precautionary principle -- Floods: lessons about early warning systems -- Seed-dressing systemic insecticides and honeybees -- Ecosystems and managing the dynamics of change -- Part C Emerging issues -- Late lessons from Chernobyl, early warning from Fukushima -- Hungry for innovation: from GM crops to agroecology -- Invasive alien species: a growing but neglected threat? -- Mobile phones and brain tumour risk: early warnings, early actions? -- Nanotechnology - early lessons from early warnings -- Part D Costs, justice and innovation -- Understanding and accounting for the costs of inaction -- Protecting early warners and late victims -- Why did business not react with precaution to early warnings? -- Part E Implications for science and governance -- Science for precautionary decision-making -- More or less precaution? -- In conclusion