I think we should start by reminding ourselves why we are at a meeting of this sort. It is not because we are radicals trying to attack the capitalist system with its dangerous chemical companies, nor it it because we are trying to provide the chemical companies with ammunition to defend themselves against the radicals. We are here because we want to play our part in reducing the risk to life, in improving the expectation of life, and, more importantly, in improving the quality of life by making sure that the environment is safe.

I would like to make two points that were not made today. First, the major improvement in life expectancy over the past 100 years has resulted from the almost complete elimination of infectious diseases as a cause of death. This constitutes a significant change in one of the risks facing us. We used to cope with infectious diseases by means of a zero-risk approach. We have eliminated the last bacterium of smallpox. This means that there is almost zero risk of infection by smallpox. This was not very expensive, compared with most risk reduction measures.