While government enforcement of laws and regulations to control the production of chloroflurocarbons in 1987 has been hailed as exemplifying the precautionary principle, for almost two decades US companies failed to take precautionary measures to prevent chemical emissions, despite the probable risk of stratospheric ozone loss. As a result, human harms in the form of skin cancer have reached epidemic proportions globally and in the United States where, today, one person dies every hour from skin cancer. This book reviews U.S. laws, regulations, and policies, as well as case law regarding similar toxic tort cases to consider whether companies can and should be held legally liable under tort common law theories and related tort justice theories for having contributed to increased risks of skin cancer.

The mountain of information coming out of the respective regimes on climate change, ozone depletion and air pollution is monumental

The first edition of Professor Yoshida’s monograph, The International Legal Régime for the Protection of the Stratosphere Ozone Layer, provided a renowned and comprehensive contemporary study of the international ozone régime. In the second revised edition, the author analyses important developments in the ozone treaty régime.

A balanced assessment based on currently available scientific knowledge of the effects that climate change may have on the environment in Europe and the health of its populations. Written in non-technical language the book responds to growing public and political concern about the consequences of such widely publicized phenomena as global warming and stratospheric ozone depletion. The book also responds to evidence that recent warming trends in Europe have already affected health. The book opens with a brief explanation of the causes of climate change and stratospheric ozone depletion followed by an overview of recent European and global initiatives aimed at monitoring trends and assessing their impact on health. The first main chapter on climate change in Europe summarizes currently documented trends and provides a scenario of possible changes throughout the rest of this century. The second and most extensive chapter reviews scientific evidence on specific health consequences. These include effects related to increased episodes of thermal stress and air pollution; changes in foodborne water-related vector-borne and rodent-borne diseases; mortality from floods and other weather extremes; and changes in the production of aeroallergens associated with respiratory disorders including asthma. Chapter three considers health effects linked to stratospheric ozone depletion giving particular attention to adverse effects on the eye and immune system and skin cancer. The remaining chapters discuss health effects expected in the next decade and outline actions urgently needed in the areas of policy monitoring and surveillance and research.

The first edition of Professor Yoshida's monograph, The International Legal Régime for the Protection of the Stratosphere Ozone Layer, has been the most comprehensive contemporary study of the international ozone régime. In the second revised edition, he analyses important developments of the ozone treaty régime.