Article
from
Chemical Engineering and News
Abstract
Until recently it was the practice to accept new technologies or products if they could survive in the market place and if there were no convincing demonstration that they were harmful to individuals or to the public welfare. Technology was considered innocent until proved guilty. But now the burden of proof is shifting to the innovator, who is expected to show with ever higher standards of proof that his innovation will not have harmful side effects. Even those in the older technologies—automobiles, pesticides, detergents—are having to prove their products are not harmful.