Regulation should be part of any human activity as it creates a safe boundary for operation.
Regulation is part of life as is evident in living things including human beings that have inbuilt regulatory mechanisms that prevent their systems from collapsing under extreme conditions. When the temperature is high, the sweat glands release sweat and as it evaporates it takes the heat away from the body. When it is very cold, the veins constrict and the rate of metabolism increases in order to generate heat.
The same applies to other aspects of science, where you find thermostats in heaters, speed limits installed in vehicles, circuit breakers in electric circuits. These are safety measures that should be in place and the law comes in to ensure those responsible to have them in place are held accountable, if those measures are not there. They are not meant to stop operations but regulate it.
All these science can be abused, if there is no regulatory framework in place. Using the same principle, we find irresponsible individuals who add paracetamol commonly known as Panadol to elevate the boiling point of water, putting narcotics in foods, to using baking powder in milk.
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Coming back to modern biotechnology, scientists in Uganda are carrying out several researches using the biotech approach to address various serious crop diseases and nutrients deficiencies that we have in the country.
They have been responsible and have shown that by their progressive research products that have been in use and yet that is not enough to make them operate without a legally binding safety framework.
Read the full, original article: Unregulated science is subject to abuse
