Basic framework for risk assessment for transgenic plants

The OECD publication “Recombinant DNA safety considerations” (OECD, 1986), better known as the “OECD Blue Book”, has the reputation of being the first publication that endeavored to present comprehensive considerations on the environmental safety of recombinant DNA technology. Indeed, the book coined some of the key concepts in the discussion, e.g. the “case-by-case” and “stepby-step” approaches. But it also is a “snapshot in time”, that illustrates the state-of-the-art of the biosafety discussion at that moment. As such, it has worked in an excellent way as a discussion starter that has sparked off a number of publications on the safety of the environmental use of transgenic plants and micro-organisms. The Blue Book was initiated within OECD in 1983 as a follow-up to the OECD report “Biotechnology: International Trends and Perspectives” (Bull et al., 1983). The drafting of the Blue Book was entrusted to an ad hoc Committee of experts from academia, industry, and from governmental bodies. The impetus for OECD to look into matters of biosafety was the consideration that “recombinant DNA techniques have opened up new and promising possibilities in a wide range of applications and can be expected to bring considerable benefits to mankind” and that “a common understanding of the safety issues raised by recombinant DNA techniques will provide the basis for taking initial steps toward international consensus, the protection of health and the environment, the promotion of international commerce and the reduction of national barriers to trade in the field of biotechnology” (OECD, 1986). So the Blue Book was to approach these biosafety issues in a positive spirit, based on an underlying belief that