Environmental ethics.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held the first meeting on environmental ethics sponsored by the Scientific Advisory Panel and Board on 10-11 December 1998 in Arlington, Virginia (1). The report from the meeting will more completely inform scientists and the community of current issues. This editorial should serve as an initial brief of this meeting [which was held on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights (adopted by the United Nations on 10 December 1948)].