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Recent decades have seen a huge rise in human exposure to microwave radiation due to the widespread use of mobile and wireless services that enable smartphones and watches, tablets, laptops and digital devices in the home and workplace. The health and safety standards to protect humans from exposure to harmful levels of microwave radiation can be traced to the 1950s. However, research now demonstrates the existence of many adverse health effects, including cancers and neurological disorders, at levels of everyday use by children and adults. We argue that it is long past the time for governments to apply the Precautionary Principle to protect children and adults, especially pregnant women, and to ensure safer levels of exposure for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the possibility that the precautionary principle may be scrapped from the European Union's (EU) free trade agreements. Topics covered included the legal and regulatory approaches to environmental policymaking which helped the formation of the precautionary principle as a guideline in environmental decision making and the reasons the Innovation Principle is much favored in the U.S. and why it is under intense scrutiny in the EU.

The article discusses the role of evidence in the regulation of technology. Topics covered include an analysis of the European legislation on synthetic chemicals, particularly the legislation on industrial chemicals and how a key component of that legislation, the risk assessment of chemicals is carried out and an examination of the philosophical underpinnings of the assumption that a new technology should be allowed unless it can be shown that it causes harm.

The article explores the future role of the precautionary principle by investigating how legal and ethical considerations intertwine. Topics covered include an examination of how financial markets are adjusting to the emerging economic and social realities of climate change, the challenges to the precautionary principle and the pathways through which businesses could face the impacts of climate change as outlined by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The article explores the precautionary principle to reposition the international climate regime specifically for the singular mission of urgently preventing catastrophic climate change. Topics covered include the three domains of debate and action as potential places for a scientifically congruent reframing with the objective of fast-tracking deep emission cuts and the precautionary principle in international climate law and in customary international law.

This article discusses the application of the Precautionary Principle as defined by the UNESCO World commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology Report. The author discusses the components of the definition and their philosophical, ethical, and moral underpinnings. He reviews the legal precedents and relevance. He discusses appropriate ways to balance risks and rewards and argues that the benefits are increased when the principle is applied early in a project to improve rather than prevent the initiative. He cites several examples where the Precautionary Principle has been applied effectively.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including how the precautionary principle has been invoked in legal affairs, the economic actors who embrace the low-carbon shift and new genetic engineering techniques.