Principio de precaución

health. Although understanding of environmental and health risks has advanced greatly, so has the complexity of the factors that can affect health. Thus, great uncertainty remains about the health effects of many activities. Of particular concern are the health and environmental effects of technologies that can affect future generations and their ability to achieve sustainable development. A key question is how people can continue to obtain the great societal benefits of development while promoting a clean and healthy environment into the future. Reconciling the need to innovate and develop with the need to protect human health from environmental risks is therefore essential.

The debate around the precautionary principle is important and challenging, as it involves fundamental dimensions of human life, such as the right to health and to a clean environment and the aspiration for better standards of living. When such elements are potentially in conflict, such as when precautionary action might disrupt the free flow of trade, policy development often becomes controversia

The quality and relevance of available scientific information is central to the debate. Currently available methods for evaluating the risks to human health and ecosystems, mostly designed to deal with direct associations between exposure and disease, are often not sufficient for effectively characterizing complex environmental risks. Limitations in scientific tools and in the ability to identify or to quantify causal relationships are occasionally misinterpreted as evidence of safety. Thus, when proposed or ongoing technologies or activities entail potential long-term, unknown adverse health effects, the need for more accurate scientific information has often been used as a reason for inaction.Further, government agencies frequently have to wait until sufficient evidence of harm is established beyond a reasonable doubt before they can act to prevent harm.

The ultimate goals of public health and precaution are to prevent disease, degradation and threats to human health and ecosystems in addition to restoring conditions that foster health. Although human activities cannot be risk-free, precaution can stimulate more health-protective decision making under uncertainty and complexity. Debates over risks are intrinsically complex, and precaution is not necessarily a recipe for easy solutions. Further, environment and health decisions are inevitably political in nature, value-laden and affect economic interests, and tensions will always exist between economic interests and other values. Precaution can help to more systematically and broadly clarify risks, uncertainty and alternatives. Although the concept of precaution brings this to the forefront, decisions should always be informed by the best available science, common sense and community values.

2. Dealing with uncertainty – how can theprecautionary principle help protect the futureof our children?Working document (EUR/04/5046267/11, 28 April 2004)prepared by WHO Secretariat for the Fourth Ministerial Conference onEnvironment and Health, Budapest, June 2004

The precautionary principle is a tool for policy- and decision-making designed to ensure that people or entities bear political responsibility for taking action to prevent damage to health and ecosystems in the face of uncertain scientific information about health and ecosystem risks. A common definition of the principle is to be found in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development of 1992: “Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientificcertainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing costeffectivemeasures to prevent environmental degradation”

There are many well established environmental risks, such as unsafe drinking-water, indoor and outdoor air pollution and inadequate sanitation, which are at present arguably among the most serious risks to public health. It is important thatpublic health interventions are strengthened to prevent them.However, there are other, often highly uncertain and complexrisks associated with industrialization, which affect society atlarge and children in particular, such as exposure to dangerouschemicals, radiation, hazardous waste and industrial pollutantsthrough food, water, air and direct exposure from everydayproducts.

By applying precautionary approaches to children and future generations, we are also contributing to decisions which ensure that all the population is more effectively protected. An approach designed to stimulate more precautionary decisions, with the aim of protecting the health of children and future generations and achieving sustainable development, is particularly important given the growing interdependence of global economies and long-term global threats, such as climate change, caused by industrial and human activities.

strengthening the ability of public health professionals to identify early warnings of risks and understand the effectiveness of interventions through the integrated establishment of surveillance programmes;

Precautionary actions ultimately aim at continuously reducing and if possible removing exposures to potentially harmful substances, activities and other conditions. If progress is to be made in this direction the following goals should be pursued: 1) encourage the substitution of dangerous substances and activities by less dangerous substances or technologies where suitable alternatives are

available; 2) improve production processes, products and human activities so as to minimize significant adverse effects to health and the environment, for example through the use of integrated pest management strategies, land use planning, and life-cycle analysis; 3) establish public health goals for protecting and restoring human and ecosystem health; 4) provide information and education to citizens to promote empowerment and accountability;5) integrate precautionary considerations in the research agenda to make possible rapid interventions to prevent damage to health; and 6) minimize, so far as possible, unintended adverse consequences that may be caused by precautionary actions.

Implementing precautionary actions that are costeffective(i.e. least costly to achieve a particular goal) and thathave synergistic impacts (addressing several risks at once) canoften result in a “win-win” situation for the policy-maker and thepublic at large. This requires incentives and support forresearch, development and innovation in safer and cleanertechnologies and human activities that can help avoid risks inthe first place and restore health and ecosystems. A proactiveapproach to precaution, directed towards creating the conditionsfor sustainability and health rather than simply responding toproblems after they have occurred, is invaluable as we strive fora world that protects children and future generations, as well asadults and the ecosystems on which we depend, withoutcompromising science, economic development or innovation.

3. The precautionary principle: a legal andpolicy history

Andrew Jordan & Timothy O’RiordanIn particular, the precautionary principle and sustainabledevelopment are closely connected