THE REVELATION THAT environmental auditors could take six years to make a return visit to a company underscores the dangerous chasm separating the level of industrial activity that is being seen from the responsible treatment and disposal of toxic wastes that are being produced.

The problem highlighted by the Kuala Lumpur-based NGO Global Environment Centre shows up the limitations of policing and the need for an efficient solution to the environmental time bomb that is being created. In such a situation, the only safeguard that exists for all intents and purposes is the strength of the waste generator's conscience.

This is because if and when the authorities catch up with a polluter, the harm that he would have done would most probably be irreversible. It is urgent therefore that ethical standards be vastly improved from their current state.

There is no escaping the fact that the chain of accountability must be strengthened vastly. The socio-economic costs of our current negligence are very high indeed and will be paid for by untold generations in terms of illnesses and healthcare costs. There can be no excuse for the present state of affairs anymore.