Benefits and Costs of Regulating and Restricting Chemicals: The European Union’s REACH System and Its Effects on the Austrian Economy

The European Union’s regulation for chemical safety (REACH) addresses the registration, evaluation, assessment, and consequent authorization (or restriction) of chemicals which are potentially harmful for both public health and the environment. The current study aims at ascertaining the costs and benefits of the REACH framework for the Austrian economy under major uncertainties, and draws on a wide range of databases on public and workplace health, chemical accidents in households, and the potential environmental impacts of harmful chemicals.The uncertainties in the REACH system assessments of the effects of chemicals on health lie not only in the insufficiency of scientific evidence but also in the economic evaluation of effects on health, especially in regard to the value of statistical life (VSL), and the economic value of diseases attributed to chemicals.This benefit-cost analysis (BCA) of the REACH system in Austria therefore takes into account these manifold uncertainties by designing a conservative baseline scenario and by varying all determinants in comprehensive sensitivity analyses. Projected over a period of about 30 years, this paper provides evidence that the REACH system most probably leads to net benefits for the Austrian economy (benefit-cost ratio of about 10.6) even though many benefits are still highly uncertain or unknown.

Monumental-Filme

Count Kolowrat was inspired to produce Sodom undGomorrha after viewing D. W. Griffith’s Intolerance.Doraine was cast as the lead, but after a series of arguments, she left Kertész and the picture before production wrapped. The extras numbered 80,000, and huge, ornate sets were built for the most expensive film of the period. Filming went on for two years,as the mammoth temple sets were destroyed and had to be rebuilt.A detailed account of the film’s production is bolstered by the recollections of the actor Walter Slezak, who made his screen debut after being discovered by Kertész in a Viennese café. Although severely cut before general release, the film was profitable and boosted Kertész’s reputation. He endured a messy divorce from Doraine and would sire two more children with two different women. He went on to make The Young Medardus, a Napoleonic love story based on a play by Arthur Schnitzler. It was another acclaimed spectacle, but post–WWI hyperinflation afflicted the Austrian economy, casting doubt on Kertész’s future as a European filmmaker.