It is now a commonplace of political discourse that technological advances have had a profound effect on our democratic institutions. Mass communications is the familiar example. But I would like to draw your attention to another way in which technology may impinge upon a democratic society, one that is perhaps as serious, if more subtle; one that commands a huge proportion of my own attention. It refer to the chemical products and byproducts of modern technology and the potential social disruption associated with the processes we have created to control them.

When I began my current, and second, tenure as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), my first goal was the restoration of public confidence in the Agency, and it was impressed upon me that straightening out the way we handled health risk was central to achieving it. Needless to say, EPA's primary mission is the reduction of risk, whether to public health or the environment. Some in America were afraid. They were afraid that toxic chemicals in the environment were affecting their health, and more important, they suspected that the facts about the risks from such chemicals were not being accurately reported to them, that policy considerations were being inappropriately used in such reports, so as to make the risks seem less than they were and excuse the Agency from taking action. Even worse, some people thought that the processes we had established to protect public health were being abused for crass political gain.