ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the way in which science is a part of environmental regulation. That is essentially the regulation of industry in the environmental field. Industry complains that advances in analytical science and technology have moved the standards and norms of substances permitted in emissions to a level which is not necessarily detrimental to health but is merely that which technology can produce instrumentation to measure, matching the advances in analytical science. A good example of this challenge for science is brought into sharp relief on consideration of the Draft Statutory Guidance on Contaminated Land. In October 1996 the Landfill Tax came into force and this has served to concentrate the minds of industry on achieving a waste-free route to certain processes. Although the Conservative government decided not to implement a tradeable permit scheme for sulphur dioxide after much research, the programme in Southern California under the Clean Air Act Amendments 1990 does highlight a challenge for industry.
