Introduction

Since the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident and the Sandoz fire in Switzerland that same year, Europeans have become acutely aware that risks to their health and environment cross political borders. In many recent cases this awareness has turned to outrage as the public has attributed the risks from genetically modified (GM) crops or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) to the influence of multinational companies and possible negligence on the part of the controlling authorities. The recent disastrous cyanide spill that has polluted the Tisza and Danube Rivers in Central Europe illustrates the risks from industrial and economic globalization. In this case, the cyanide was released from a waste storage facility of a (partly) Australian-owned gold mine in Romania. The costs of this disaster will undoubtedly be borne mainly by fishermen and other victims in Hungary and other downstream countries, with few social or economic ramifications for the Romanian and Australian mine owners or their governments. Transboundary risks can also be global in their consequences, and problems of ozone depletion and climate change have featured prominently on European negotiating agendas.