Precautionary Principle

PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE

The Precautionary Principle is referred to in the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development; the declaration includes the principle, "Nations shall use the precautionary approach to protect the environment. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, scientific uncertainty shall not be used to postpone cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation." This idea is being increasingly invoked as a rationale for environmental health policy, including its formal appearance in international treaties. The Precautionary Principle, along with terms such as "sustainable development," expresses a broad approach for which there is general support and agreement. However, as with sustainable development, it is a term that is often difficult to crisply define, and its implications to specific issues are not easily agreed upon.

Three elements appear to be central to the Precautionary Principle. First, there must be some factual basis that raises a legitimate reason for concern; second, there is no certainty as to whether the concern will turn out to be justified—or whether the proposed remedy will be effective; and third, the remedy has a reasonably substantial economic or societal cost. There is some debate as to whether the Precautionary Principle is an alternative to risk assessment or whether the two approaches are mutually complementary. In retrospect, there have been many past governmental actions that clearly rank as precautionary, without the term "Precautionary Principle" being invoked. Examples include the use of maximal available control technology for hazardous air pollutants, or ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) for radiation protection.

BERNARD D. GOLDSTEIN

(SEE ALSO: Environmental Determinants of Health; Environmental Justice; Environmental Movement; Environmental Protection Agency; Risk Assessment, Risk Management)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Goldstein, B. D. (1999). "The Precautionary Principle and Scientific Research Are Not Antithetical." Environmental Health Perspectives 107:594–595.

O'Riordan, T., and Cameron, J., eds. (1994). Interpreting the Precautionary Principle. London: Earthscan Publications.