653 



this broad problem. Some critics attack technology itself as the villain. 

 Others charge society with using technology improperly. However, 

 there appears to be a consensus that beneficial technological innova- 

 tions tend to have unexpected, unplanned, and adverse secondary con- 

 sequences. 



In some cases, a defective innovation is questioned at the outset, but 

 eagerness for its adoption is so great that it is rushed into wide use 

 without adequate testing or assessment. (Such was the case with 

 enzymes for stain removal.^^) In other cases, a teclmologj^ meets con- 

 ventional tests and is later found to be defective in ways that conven- 

 tional testing had not disclosed. (This was the case with the drug. 

 Thalidomide.^^) Still other technologies reveal flaws when the mass 

 effect of their wide public use magnifies their imperfections. (Examples 

 are the automobile and DDT.) Technological shortcomings also result 

 from many kinds of interactions, of one technology with another, or 

 of some technology with an "eco-system," or a subtle effect that in- 

 novative technology is needed to detect, and so on. 



Since the only justification for the adoption of a technology is its 

 benefits to man, it is appropriate for society to be assured that the 

 benefits oA-erweigh the costs. Assessment will also be concerned with 

 seeking out alternative ways of increasing the benefits or reducing the 

 costs. 



The need for an assessment institution is intensified in cases where 

 different persons or groups receive the benefits of a technology from 

 those who bear the costs of the adverse secondary consequences of the 

 technology. Problems arise, for example, when a plant dumps pollut- 

 ing waste into a stream that impairs the value of the water for down- 

 stream users, or when a smoke plume dirties clothes and houses down- 

 wind. This circumstance can be international as, for example, when 

 plants at Niagara Falls send smoke into Canadian communities. 



Sometimes it is unclear as to whether a consequence is adverse or 

 not : for instance, there is no agreement as to whether the waste heat 

 from a power plant dumped into a lake or bay is thermal pollution or 

 thermal ennchment. The adverse consequences can appear as a tenu- 

 ous chain of circumstances : as an example, the DDT spread on a bean 

 field may destroy a nearby hive of honeybees, and thereby prevent pol- 

 lination of a fruit orchard a half-mile away, raising the price of fruit 

 in a city 50 miles away. The wide dissemination of lead in gasoline and 

 paints, the general use of asbestos in brake linings and household in- 

 sulation, and the use of toxic chemicals as plastic additives are all 

 viewed as general hazards to mankind. 



Proposals to institutionalize the assessment of beneficial and adverse 

 impacts of technology have included establishment of assessment units 

 in various technologically-oriented departments and agencies, estab- 

 lishment of an independent agency or board in the form of a regula- 

 tory agency, the creation of an advisory body to the Congress, and 



«' ". . . A clothes-washing compound featuring an enzyme for protein stain removal could 

 be and was developed, manufactured, advertised, distributed, and sold — and then pumped 

 into sewage treatment plants all over the country in a matter of weeks — with no formal 

 consideration of the possible consequences of a new ingredient." U.S. (President Nixon's) 

 National Goals Research Staff. "Toward Balanced Growth : Quantity with Quality." Report 

 of the National Goals Research Staff. July 4, 1970. (Washington, U.S. Government Printing 

 Office, 1970) , page 126. 



*- See Chapter Fourteen. "Thalidomide : The Complex Problem of Drug Control In a 

 Free Market." In House. Committee on Science and Astronautics. "Technical Information 

 for Congress," Op. cit., pages 375-85. 



